Online Newsletter
JULY / AUGUST 2001

In "Marketing and The Bottom Line", Tim Ambler, a senior fellow at the London Business School and a former corporate executive, makes the case for Boards and management to place a greater focus on wealth creation - with wealth creation being dependant on the health of the organisation's marketing.

Ambler argues the onus is on marketing professionals to elevate marketing to a strategic board-level function and to make it more accountable by identifying,tracking and packaging a clear set of marketing metrics in the language of the Boardroom and executive management.

Ambler's book is based on extensive research into best practice in marketing performance measurement amongst large UK and European corporations.

The research identifies what marketing metrics are measured, which ones reach the Board and their relative importance for marketing performance.

(A similar study of Australian corporations was completed in March 2001, by Dr Chris Styles of the University of New South Wales: see May 2001 edition of AFR BOSS magazine).

While a number of Ambler's recommendations are contentious (e.g. that the CFO should routinely be the executive to present marketing metrics to the Board) and some of the thinking perhaps not sufficiently cognisant of CRM and one-to-one marketing, the book is nonetheless thought-provoking and a must for all marketers wanting to demonstrate greater accountability for marketing performance.

* Marketing and The Bottom Line is available from Dymocks bookstores.

A recent US-based study by consultancy, Forrester Research, shows consumers are yet to be fully convinced of the benefits of account aggregation.

Forrester forecasts that less than 3% of US households will use aggregation by 2003. Costs, privacy and security fears being the major impediments to widespread adoption.

However, of those interested in aggregating finance-related accounts, three factors contribute to increased consumer interest:

1. An existing relationship with the aggregation provider
2. Access to real-time account information
3. Easy account set-up for aggregation.

Consumers want their most transaction-heavy accounts (i.e. cheque, savings, brokerage) aggregated.

According to the Forrester study, banks enjoy an advantage over other potential aggregators because: (a) they specialise in two of the three transaction accounts consumers most want to aggregate; and (b) they have "existing relationships" with more consumers than other financial service providers.

But banks should not assume consumer priority; more than 75% of research participants who stated a preference for their bank as an aggregator, would also consider other types of financial service providers.

Outside our core industry focus, Davis and Associates has been engaged to undertake a major healthcare marketing project on behalf of St John of God Health Services (the largest non-government provider of mental healthcare services in NSW).

The project comprises three major stages: an organisation -wide marketing audit; brand strategy development, including external market research; and marketing training /up-skilling.

During May and June, Davis and Associates were active in the media and on the hustings.

Dianne Davis was quoted in AFR BOSS magazine in May on measuring marketing performance,and in the AFR (25 May) on Ansett's "Absolutely Ansett" campaign. Dianne was also co-chair, and a member of a panel at the AMI's Financial and Professional Services Conference on 26 June, addressing the subject of how to attract and retain marketing talent. On August 30, Dianne will speak at the APSMA (Australian Professional Services Marketing Association) 2001 Annual Conference on best practices in tendering.

To ensure that the Australian marketing profession has a strong and influential industry voice within corporate, government and media circles, it is vital that marketers actively support the key bodies that directly represent their professional interests (AMI,APSMA,ADMA).

Other professions have given their industry bodies substantially more support than has traditionally been the case for marketers.

The accounting, legal and medical professions, for example, have built strong and influential industry bodies who have meaningful input into a wide range of regulatory and legislative issues, are listened to by State and Federal Government and are regarded by the media as authoritative commentators on their professions and industries.

The reality for the marketing profession is that their industry bodies simply do not enjoy the same status.

To change this situation, marketing professionals across Australia need to actively support and participate in their industry bodies.

Over the next few years, a number of critical issues will impact the role and influence of marketing in business (e.g. the need for marketing professionals to be represented on Australian boards, increasing accountability for marketing and the corresponding debate around relevant marketing metrics, the trend to outsource marketing); these will require well-considered responses from strong industry associations.

Rather than observe from the sidelines, become an active participant in your profession's future, including:

• Becoming a member of one or more of the key marketing bodies (AMI,APSMA etc)
• Actively participating in industry association committees, councils, discussion groups
• Supporting educational programs /seminars /conferences
• Encouraging your marketing colleagues and associates to take up industry membership/s
• Getting recognition and support from corporate employers for marketing industry memberships, subscriptions and conferences.