Making board-worthy marketers

The seat that awaits! 

Ruchi Gunewardene, Managing Director of Brand Finance Lanka, sets out what marketing professionals need to do to get a seat on the board

• Low board representation due to the professions’ own shortcomings 
• Process-driven strategic planning and financial accountability is the need of the hour

Over the decades I have watched with great dismay at the lack of marketers on boards of companies. A scan across publicly quoted companies in Sri Lanka will establish the woeful shortage of senior marketing specialists in the boardroom. 

Across many companies, the title of marketing manager is being bestowed on those recruited for the purpose of taking charge of the key strategic decisions related to driving revenue through consumer understanding and engagement. The reality is that most heads of marketing are solely focused on communications and/or activations, significantly diminishing their role in the business. 

The fault lies with the marketing profession itself, due to an inability to impart a new set of skills to the aspiring marketer relevant for these modern times, resulting in those vacant seats in the boardroom. 

This challenge in the marketing profession is similar to what it faced 50 years ago, where at that time it needed to redefine and separate itself from “sales” which is what most people thought marketing was about. This led to the formation of the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) in 1970 by a band of enterprising marketers. They achieved their mission and sat on many boards across industries a few decades later. 

The challenge today is somewhat similar with a need to redefine the role of marketing where the modern marketing manager is required to compete with other professions who have much greater acceptance in the boardroom. 

Issues faced

Several reasons can be attributed for marketing not to be represented at the highest decision making level:

• n Abdication of responsibility: Marketing managers have relinquished responsibility on two fronts. To the finance managers who have come out of the backrooms of accounting offices and who are much more adapt and skilful at strategic decision making, especially in relation to business development and growth. Second, to the advertising agencies who have taken over custody of brand development because of undue emphasis placed on communications.    
• n Lack of financial literacy: The board’s primary responsibility is to its shareholders and marketers do not use financial analysis and justifications to support their strategic recommendations. As a result, they find themselves at the periphery of decision making as they do not speak the language of the board.  

Strategic marketing

Branding is a tool of marketing and is not solely a communications and advertising function which is what most people believe it is. A brand is simply a promise delivered, linking the business to the end consumer. The starting point is a fact based definition and positioning, using an array of tools including research to be able to differentiate the offering. It is the point of intersection between hard data and strategy.   

Defining the brand does not lie in an advertising slogan or a tag line. Instead, it also encompasses the purpose and values on which the business operates. To develop, deep insights are required not just around customers but understanding of the broader business vision. It’s therefore much more multifaceted than what conventional text book marketing allows you to believe. A well-positioned brand which has a strong platform however does make developing communications much easier.

Companies should therefore have a more structured process that develops and manages the brand over the long term, of at least 5 to 10 years.

Bridging the gap between marketing and finance

In addition to taking back responsibility and being in charge of the brand with this holistic view of the business, there must also be financial accountability. This involves tracking how specific actions not only result in changing consumer attitudes (i.e. perceptions of quality, emotional/functional attributes), but also impact on availability, price sensitivity, revenue. Identifying the levers for the most cost effective way of delivering profitable brands is what a skilful marketing manager does. 

Instead of budgets being handed over to marketing by the finance department or being calculated on incremental increases over previous years, budget allocation should consider historical data and establish the rate of decay of brand equity overtime of past investments, thereby justifying what is required across relevant initiatives. Such information provide clues on where investments should best be made and how to maximise it based on availability of funds.   

These tools become the bedrock on which marketing accountability is established with revenue generation and return on investments at the forefront.

Getting back into business

By taking over responsibility and being more accountable, the marketing manager is no longer dependent on the advertising agency to come up with a campaign on which he has pinned all his hopes of ensuring “awareness”. At business strategy sessions it is the marketing manager who has the data available justifying how revenue growth will be delivered, along with where marketing investments are to be made.  

This approach is what will pave the way for marketing to get back into business and into the 

boardroom!