How our marketing model is future fit

What were you doing in 1991? In 1991 we were in the middle of the recession, John Major was PM, the Gulf war began, Helen Sharman was the first British person in Space, John McCarthy was freed, Freddie mercury died and Ed Sheeran was born.

And most importantly I was writing my Masters dissertation. ‘Addressing the Female Market in Financial Services’…At Kingston Business school, my personal tutor was Dr Robert East and I was using the work from, amongst others, two lecturers Professor Ehrenberg on Buyer Behaviour and Philip Kotler with his 7 marketing principles. My thesis was about how to address the female market in Financial Services. This insight from my thesis made me smile, the CMO at Scottish Equitable suggested ‘you don’t need to target women for products, but women should be aware that some of their needs are different from men’. How depressing is it that years later it was announced this week by Michael Johnson, research fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies, that men currently have "more than double" the pension pot of the average female saver. Telegraph article

A few years ago I was talking to the global CEO, Kimberley Clarke, and we got talking about Business School’s he said to me. So when did you go? I told him 1991, his response was; ‘ Oh, so, like me what you learnt is now useless.’ I sort of get the point… The business world is fundamentally different now, the models whilst still fundamentally sound don’t fully reflect the world we and our customers now live and operate in.

So you can imagine how delighted I have been to not only meet, but work alongside Ashley Friedlein, the founder of Econsultancy who has led the development of the new M3 model – created for modern marketing. As an industry thought leader he has evolved with the help of the team at Econsultancy and Oystercatchers and a group of clients and industry leaders, a framework as a reference for what marketing has become – a blend of traditional and digital.

The Econsultancy framework M3 is divided into 4 competencies; strategy, analysis, planning and execution and 10 elements within those competencies.

Alongside this need for a new framework, there are new requirements around expertise such as skills, data and analytics, customer experience, content, multi-channel and personalisation, which I see only too often are neither properly understood nor being met. Meanwhile, many continue to use models which, while still fundamentally sound, don’t fully reflect the world we and our customers live in. Our M3 model is a framework for what marketing has become. As with all models, some of it is not rocket science, much of this is acknowledged in the marketing industry but not reflected in any definitive model.

We have tested this model over the past year with several clients including the Post Office. We started the programme on 3rd Jan 2016. A year later the Post Office have bought digital and marketing together into one function, it now has a clear role and remit within the organisation. Their agencies have been working alongside Louise Fowler, Chief Marketing Director and her team on this transformation journey. This is now one of our blue prints for the M3 model.

It is because of our work with clients like the Post Office that this week we were acknowledged as one of the UK’s leading management consultancies and were awarded by the Financial Times 4* out of six stars in the marketing, brand and pricing category alongside AT Kearney, Capgemini and LEK Consulting.

Louise Fowler commented: “We’ve enjoyed working with Oystercatchers on our marketing and digital transformation over the past year. They bring a great external view of best practice but take care to adapt to the organisation itself and fit in. They’re collaborative and supportive rather than preachy, which really helps what they recommend land internally.”

This week, in the first of our 2018 Oystercatchers Club evenings, I used this model to ask my illustrious panel are we future fit?

I invited four outstanding business leaders to share how they have been merging marketing and digital across their businesses; John Smith, NED Superdry, Former COO, Burberry & CEO, BBC Worldwide, John Rudaizky, Partner, Global Brand and Marketing Leader, EY; Frank Arthofer, Global Head of Digital and New Business, Formula 1 and and Lindsay Pattison, Chief Transformation Officer, WPP, GroupM & Worldwide CEO, Maxus Global.

 Here are some key themes that came out of our conversation.

1. The current marketing model needs to change for an always connected world. M3 reflects the challenge to go broader and deeper with end to end activation for customers. Good price architecture is essential – savvy Chinese shoppers will shop via a uk.com domain as prices can be cheaper.

 2. Mission critical: marketers must be digitally obsessed and creatively literate. Burberry, for one, is on a constant journey of change. It recognised that it needed to behave like a media or digital company, not simply a fashion house.

 3. The role of the CMO has become the “chief dot connector”, “chief digital officer”, “chief data officer” – as we look for the optimum ways to connect with the customer at the right moment. Transformation company EasyJet has recently replaced the role of Chief Marketing Officer with Chief Data Officer. Watch out for more to come.

4. Everything is a creative endeavour. Drama is as important as an app. “Bringing creativity and algorithm is the challenge”, John Rudaizky, EY.

5. Omnichannel with digital at the heart is not “great to have” but “need to have”stated John Smith, “All channels are relevant and unless you totally understand digital, you miss an important customer segment”.

Its clear that is is more important than ever before to have a structure for marketing and digital that is fully integrated. Oystercatchers, using the M3 model has a way of bringing together the individual business silos and creating an environment for accelerated marketing performance driving value and ROI that is future fit for today's changing business world.

• Over 200 senior leaders who are members of The Oystercatchers Club, gathered at London’s May Fair Hotel, on Wednesday 24th January. We had a full house and a great vibe as our Club members caught up after the Christmas Holiday. If you are interested in finding out about membership contact [email protected]
• For more information about how Oystercatchers can accelerate marketing performance come and see us www.theoystercatchers,com @oystweet
• Suki Thompson is the CEO Oystercatchers and EXCO Centaur Media. @sukithompson [email protected]
• Our next Oystercatchers Club is on Tuesday March 13th, where we will discuss marketing and agency models
• Oystercatchers is part of the Centaur Media Group: Connect; Advise; Inform