The declining fortunes of marketing and brand team

The inspiration for this piece came from an article in the Harvard Business Review (July-august) 2020. Sighting a report by Standard and Poor, the editor wondered if the CMO’S (Chief Marketing Officer) fortunes are declining ? He wondered if marketing as a function is losing its relevance, attraction & luster? The editors looked at the five biggest highest paid executives of each of the S & P 1500 firm from 1999 to 2017 and their findings were amazing.

The report shows how that fortune of the brands and marketing team especially at the leadership level is fast diminishing . The editors attributed this to the proliferation of tech companies which tend to invest less in traditional marketing , a decline in retailers and manufacturers’ (which a more reliant on it) and changes to marketing itself as customers increasingly get information online rather than from ads. The traditional adman by implication would soon be an endangered species in a few years’ time except he reinvents himself oe herself for relevance in this new normal. Customers are withdrawing into their private space in home instead of spending valuable hours in front of the tube.

The uniqueness associated with getting insightful information from consumers in focus groups and from direct quantitative marketing research is gone forever. Any member of the management team can seat at their desk and with high-capacity internet connection can access and assess different type of marketing data and draw quick marketing conclusions and take decision. The marketing researchers’ exclusive access to the consumer is fast eroding.

According to Ugo Geri-robert , Managing Director of The Insight Place ( TIP) and a fellow of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN), a good number of emerging executives at the CMO position come from the marketing communication industry and have equated pushing of sales to heavy advertising … this may not be totally correct marketing is beyond integrated marketing communication . According to Geri-robert brands must be built from the ground up . Brands must have legs to stand them … where this is not known, done and developed; the brand would come crashing down at some point.

One is also of the opinion that COVID has eroded the thirst for anything sophisticated . All consumers want today is to survive now and brands seem of low interest in the current mix … people just want the basics to survive and move on in life before thing stabilize later.

In view of the above the basic message for the hitherto star boys of the corporate world the so-called money spinners and cash cow . Reinvent or die .

Michael Umogun is the Deputy Registrar Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN)