Marketing At a Crossroads

Now that I'm nearly two months into my role as President of the Cincinnati Chapter of the AMA, I'm beginning to see that the marketing profession is due for some self analysis. This is never more evident with a recent report from the University of Texas about the impact of CMOs or Chief Marketing Officers. Read below....


BOARDROOM MARKETERS' NIL IMPACT ON FISCAL PERFORMANCE: REPORTAUSTIN, Texas: In what some see as a setback to the ANA's campaign to elevate the marketing function to the top of the corporate hierarchy, a new report from the University of Texas infers that the impact of chief marketing officers on their employer's financial results is ... zip, zero, nil or nix! The January 2008 issue of the American Marketing Association's quarterly Journal of Marketing is due to carry a controversial new report, Chief Marketing Officers: A Study of their Presence in Firms' Top Management Teams.It posits that the presence of a CMO in a company's senior management cadre has no effect on that firm's financial performance The review was conducted over a five year period with 167 top companies (among them Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, IBM, Intel and Apple), all with minimum annual revenues of $250 million (€183.47m; £124.26m). It disinters the longstanding debate on how best to measure marketing performance. Should CMOs be evaluated on tangible or intangible metrics?By unassailable statistics such as sales? Or on more nebulous concepts like brand equity or consumer awareness? Even the report's authors are hesitant to draw conclusions and concede that their study is limited because it concentrates on financial metrics like sales growth and profitability, whilst ignoring key factors such as brand equity. Vijay Mahajan, a professor in the department of marketing at the University of Texas and co-author of the report, agrees that the financial metrics used to measure the performance of CFOs and CEOs have less relevance to CMO role. "Those [weightings] are very short-term," says Mahajan. "You cannot use short-term metrics to measure the performance of someone who is supposed to have a long-term impact." But despite that qualifier, the report's findings will do little to enhance the status or influence of marketers, especially in medium-to-smaller companies where Byzantine concepts like brand equity are rarely bandied in boardrooms. Less than half the companies studied (40%) had a CMO in its top-management team - versus 92% with a CFO aboard. The actual title CMO is uncommon, used only by circa 20% of companies. And it will be of scant comfort to marketers that the report concludes that CMOs do no harm: "It is important to note that CMOs do not have a negative impact on performance," it opined. Data sourced from AdAge.com; additional content by WARC staff, 10 July 2007
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While it's too early to sound the alarm, I think that marketers in general need to take these opinions seriously. I sat in on an webinar yesterday entitled Marketing ROI: 10 Strategies for Winning Over Your CFO and other Marketing Skeptics. I had to slip out early but the general sense conveyed was that other C-level executives in our organizations outside of marketing are looking for return on investment for everything done. No big suprise there. As a result, credibility needs to be established early in the process with such factors as alignment, a comprehensive measurement system, objectivity (marketers tend to be overly optimistic) and accountability being central. Much of this begins as companies reflect on the role of marketing and decide on its purpose for their particular situation.

On September 21, the Cincinnati AMA will launch its 2007-2008 season with a luncheon at the riverfront Radisson Hotel in Covington on the challenges faced by CMOs (www.cincinnatiama.org). Many of these issues will be discussed and debated. Hope you can attend.

New numbers on the Creation Museum

I just heard yesterday from the Mark, Looy, Vice President of Outreach for the Creation Museum. He said they are up to 70,000 visitors based upon the opening Memorial Day weekend and the special guests that passed through the Museum in the week prior to the public opening.

Creation Museum Commercial Adds to Facility's Intrigue

The popularity of the Creation Museum by Answers in Genesis continues to astound people, even its founders, Answers in Genesis. The state-of-the-art attraction drew more than 40,000 guests less than 30 days after its opening on Memorial Day, 2007. No doubt many of those visitors came from outside the Greater Cincinnati area where the Museum has been advertising in feeder markets such as Louisville, Lexington, Columbus and Indianapolis. The Museum's intriguing 30 second tv commercial follows.

NKY Attraction in Limbo

Belated apologies for not writing for so long. It was a matter of too many out of town work trips, college visits for my graduating high school senior and the subsequent graduation of said senior. In fact, some much time has passed, I need to change the focus surrounding the picture to the left. I visited New York City in mid-May as part of a hospitality after-hours party for national media, hosted by the Kentucky Department of Tourism and several of the state Convention and Visitors Bureaus and leading attractions. The purpose of the party was to educate writers on some of our leading tourist sites in the state---Northern Kentucky included. With only 24 hours to spend in NYC, I had little time to do sightseeing but wanted to take in a nearby Big Apple attraction, Top of the Rock (that's me pictured left standing atop Rockefeller Center--with the Empire State Building in the backdrop). Top of the Rock shared a distinction with the now-suspended Purple People Bridge Climb attraction. Both were named earlier this year to Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel Magazine's Top Ten Thrills. The Thrill is gone in Newport for now since the Climb's operator shut the attraction down because of financial difficulties. I have been questioned often since as to whether the PPBC will ever reopen. Not much is known at this point. However the non-profit board that regulates the Bridge has decided not to tear down the climbing steps and railing on the Bridge right now. So there is always hope that the attraction can be revived at a later date.

Southbank Sighting

During the next several weeks, you'll be seeing several articles in the print media about a group that I support extensively, Southbank Partners (www.southbankpartners.com). Southbank is an economic development agency that helps organize and orchestrate development along the the southern shores of the Ohio River in the communities of Covington, Newport and Bellevue. In the past Southbank has been instrumental in the development of such projects as Newport on the Levee (named top mall/shopping attraction for US families by Zagat, 2004) and Hofbrauhaus Newport (the first authentic Hofbrauhaus outside Munich). Southbank has renovated its web site. Some of the features to look for are a video on the front page of the site that outlines some of the new projects along the river. Some of you may be aware that more than $1 billion in real estate investment is underway along the NKY riverfront, highlighted by the Ascent at Roebling luxury condominium project designed by World Trade Center Memorial architect Daniel Libeskind, which should be completed by Thanksgiving. The web site will also feature a monthly enewsletter that will briefly touch upon interesting behind the scenes stories about the communities that should interest media and the public in general. Southbank is currently lobbying for funding for a $50 million walking trail that will also feature signage outlining different historical aspects of the river and riverfront. The paved path would be four miles long and would stretch from Covington to Bellevue.

Marketers Unite

While most of you were out enjoying the beautiful weather this past weekend, I was basking in the warm glow of companionship and creativity at the annual American Marketing Association'sLeadership Summit in Chicago. It's a chance for AMA Chapter leaders to begin planning their program year. Since I will be President of the 450 member Cincinnati Chapter starting this fall (officially July), much of the initiative in that planning falls upon me. The conference takes on a different feel every year. This year's theme centered on espioniage and was entitled Mission Possible. One of the highlights was a presentation by the International Spy Museum's Chief Operating Officer Paul Bosch who talked about the facility and its more than 9,000 artifacts. While the Museum has its creative roots in Cleveland, the Museum was placed in Washington DC for obvious reasons (spying and politics do go hand in hand, you know). I'm not sure how you coorelate spying and marketing, but it got me to thinking that there is an element of cloak and dagger in securing and maintaining customers. Both spying and marketing require a great deal of background work (research). Secret agents and CMOs also need to remember who their customers are. And each must develop a level of consistency and meeting current expectations while anticipating future needs.

Am just back from the new interactive Penguin exhibit at the Newport Aquarium. It was a neat experience. I was taken with how adaptive the birds are to humans. Keepers told us during the stay that the penguins view humans just like being around other penguins as they were born in captivity and hand-fed. Below is a story in the Kty Enquirer about it. Costs vary as this is an additional charge to the normal entry admission. You can check out the Aquarium website (www.newportaquarium.com) for pricing details but the great part is part of the proceeds benefit penguin research. I think this attraction has a lot of potential for some of our meeting groups coming to NKY.

Waddle over to Penguin House
BY RYAN CLARK RCLARK@NKY.COME-mail Print digg us! del.icio.us!
You've already fed the lorikeets and petted the sharks.
Now you can get up close and personal with the penguins at Newport Aquarium.
Penguin Encounters is a new 20-minute experience that allows guests to touch the penguins and observe their behavior face to beak.

A new Penguin House has been built to provide a permanent residence for three blackfooted penguins. Aquarium biologists will educate visitors and provide insight into the penguin world. The exhibit will open April 23.
Jill Isaacs, spokeswoman for the Aquarium, said that on a typical visit, patrons could touch the penguins, and watch as the animals waddle, swim, preen, shake their tails and jump into their pool.
And no coats are needed.
"The three blackfooted penguins are from South Africa and live in a temperate environment, so guests don't need to bring coats to the Penguin Encounters," Isaacs said.
Guests will learn about penguin feathers, habitat and diet.
"We hope that by seeing these animals and having the chance to interact with them, people will be able to better understand them and will also help us in our efforts to protect them in the wild," Ric Urban, Newport Aquarium's Rainforest Curator, said in a written statement.
The penguins have been named Paula, Randy and Simon (yes, after the "American Idol" celebrity judges). They are scheduled to appear on the Fox 19 Morning Show Wednesdays through May 23. Each week they will use their penguin intuition to determine which contestant will be eliminated, Isaacs said.
The blackfooted penguins are the third species of penguins at the aquarium. There are also 11 king and 15 gentoo Penguins in the 34-degree Kingdom of Penguins exhibit.