How's Your Company's Marketing IQ?

The economy really sucks.  Stock prices are way down.  Fuel prices are way up.  And this guy Obama looks like he's going to be our next President.  CEOs are scared.  Their personal portfolios are suffering.  The Board is antsy.  Revenues and profits are down. What's a CEO to do?  Why, fire people, of course, and cut costs like crazy.  Here's a typical CEO thought bubble "The future be damned.  I've got to save myself NOW."  Here's a novel idea that rarely seems to occur to our titans of industry:  cut costs somewhere OTHER THAN marketing.  Rather than marketing being the first department to take the hit, the sagest executives should view marketing as the last place they want to cut.  

Too many supposedly savvy CEOs fall prey to the same disease when times are tough.  It's called Slashitis.  Its symptoms are a panicky need to slice costs right NOW in order to preserve:  1) company EBITDA and 2) the CEO's own personal continued employment (hate to see those big paychecks stop showing up in the bank account).  In many companies, a good dose of cost-cutting is often good medicine.  It's easier for an organization to get fat and complacent when things are going well.  Tough times force companies to take a hard look at their cost structure and make "adjustments" that are often overdue.  It's business Darwinism - mutate or become extinct.  It's survival of the fittest.  

But too often, the marketing department and its budgets are wrongly targeted for the most drastic cuts.  Generally, a cutback in marketing doesn't hurt you today or even tomorrow. Just like it takes time for marketing to work.  It takes time for the lack of marketing to hurt.  If your company has a well-managed marketing department, your marketing investment (notice the word investment) should be laying the foundation for future success and prosperity. Marketing's mission is to build brand preference, create a predisposition to buy and generate prospects for the sales team.  All are absolutely core tasks in any well run company.  Under what economic conditions (short of imminent collapse of the entire enterprise) does it ever make sense to NOT be doing these things?

If marketing is viewed as only a cost (not an investment) then it is far easier and far more justifiable to cut its budgets and its people.  Marketing should never be just a cost.  If it's viewed that way, it's for two reasons.  Either the CMO has done a poor job of developing marketing metrics that document the effectiveness of the company's marketing programs OR the CEO is simply out-to-lunch when it comes to understanding how imperative marketing is to a healthy well-run business.

This later statement may seem extreme, but I have seen many companies where the CEO is literally clueless about marketing.  You've seen these companies, too.  Here are seven deadly signs of a company (and a CEO) with low Marketing IQ.  

1. A history of non-marketing executives in the CMO job.  If the CMO role is routinely being filled by a sales exec or an operations exec or (heaven help it) a finance exec, you know this is likely to be a company with low Marketing IQ.
   
2. A history of no one at all in the CMO role.  Duh.
   
3. A lack of even the most basic marketing metrics.  What are they measuring?  If they're not measuring it, you know no one is really managing it.  Another sure sign of low Marketing IQ.
   
4. A marketing staff that has no idea how to set objectives, develop plans and measure progress.  If everyone is focussed on a marketing task or two, but no one can define overall objectives or show you an overall plan, this is another sign of low Marketing IQ.
   
5. A total DIY marketing mentality.  If everything has always been done "in house" you better look out.  Another sign of low Marketing IQ.
   
6. No customer or product research.  This is like trying to drive a car blindfolded.  No information is another sign of low Marketing IQ.
   
7. Dull middle-of-the-road boring totally forgettable marketing communication materials.  "Safe" is the riskiest marketing approach of all.  If the company is not doing anything that stands out, it's another sure sign of low Marketing IQ.

I hope your company is different and shows none of these signs.  I hope you've got a marketing savvy CEO with a high Marketing IQ who's hired a strong CMO.  I hope that this rotten economy is not causing your company to abandon marketing in the interest of short term profit.  If not, my advice is to polish up that resume because you're on a losing team.