Operationalize

I used to say that I don’t know anything about Marketing.

Then I started spending a lot of time with marketers.? They’re an interesting bunch, and considering that, as I like to say, Marketing and CX share two sides of the same coin—that being the Brand Promise—I’ve had many conversations as our work compliments each other.

But what of that interaction; the interaction between Marketing and Customer Experience (functionally, I mean)?

The way I see it (and here’s your chance to validate that, perhaps, I still don’t know anything about it!), Marketing is all about building a Brand; at least in theory.? I don’t mean that’s my theory.? I mean that the brand that Marketing builds is, well, still on paper, so to speak.

I’m fascinated by all that goes into Marketing.? Especially as an analyst, I’m thrilled to see the degree of number-crunching and deep thinking that goes into building a brand.? Marketing teams are always hard at work determining where their brand should play and how, basically, to go to market.? That’s far more than picking fonts and color schemes; much more than advertising and shooting commercials.? Frankly, if I go any further with this, I’ll definitely start demonstrating my lack of knowledge of what it takes.

But suffice it to say, it’s a field of study that I’m learning more about and find very interesting.

Here’s the thing, though:? it’s not necessarily operationalized, at least within the entire enterprise of your company.? Marketing’s responsibility—or more to the point, its capability to influence and make things happen—within the organization more or less ends when it’s built that brand ethereally.? It doesn’t always have the wherewithal to make it happen in the real world.

Sure, if you have a very dynamic and impactful, diplomatic and engaging Chief Marketing Officer, he or she may be able to influence and persuade people in Operations to live up to the Brand Promise the Marketing team has so diligently developed and designed.? But unless the CMO is also the COO (not to mention, CFO, CHRO, CIO/CTO, etc.), he or she won’t have direct oversight of those operations.

That’s what I mean when I say that you have to operationalize your Brand Promise.? And that’s just what CX is called to do as a function.? We take the Brand Promise that your Marketing team has developed, and then look internally, into the operations of our organization (yes, the whole company) to identify ways in which that promise isn’t being fulfilled and realized from your Customers’ perspective.

It’s awesome for your Marketing team to knock your Brand Promise out of the park; to built just the right messaging and positioning for the goods and/or services you sell to the public.? To differentiate your brand (and its promise) from that of your competitors so as to set yourself in the perfect place to stand apart and excel.

But that’s all just planning.? You also need to, well, do that stuff where the rubber meets the road.

I have a great friend (a marketer, of course) who broke the code for me on this a while back.? She said, “Z, I, in Marketing, build the Brand and the Brand Promise.? My team and I spend the time necessary to investigate where we should be in the market and we do the Brand Design...the Brand Development.? You, in Customer Experience, do the Brand Delivery.”

That’s exactly it.? If you’re wondering what CX really is, leave it to a marketer of course to put it succinctly and easily:? CX is all about operationalizing your Brand Promise.