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March 2, 2008
Campaigns that Count
by Sridhar Ramanathan
Ask a CEO about “marketing campaigns” and they usually think of high profile public relations, creative advertising, email marketing biltzes, sales promotions, etc in order to cause a spike in sales. Okay that’s not bad. It wouldn’t be far from the wiktionary definition of “campaign” which is “a series of operations undertaken to achieve a set goal; as, an election campaign, a military campaign, an advertising campaign.” The real question is what separates the few, effective campaigns from the majority of campaigns that don’t deliver what CEOs expect? Read Mike Gospe’s book “Marketing Campaign Development” and you’ll see spelled out very clearly how your team can produce far better results than the CEO and VP of Marketing may even expect.
What’s the secret? What are the characteristics of marketing campaigns that deliver? Here’s a litmus test that I can posit from Mike’s book:
- Are there SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely) metrics?
- Is there a simple, compelling value proposition for the target customer?
- Is there an executive sponsor who can ensure cross functional support?
- Is there a highly competent campaign manager?
- Is there an overall campaign map spelling out how the objective is to be achieved?
- Are there blueprints for each program contributing to the campaign?
- Are the team members aligned on the vision, objectives, and plan?
- Are key processes in place such as decision-making?
- Are there feedback loops in place to make error corrections during execution?
- Do you celebrate wins?
As I look back on my own HP career when I was head of marketing for the HP Managed Services Business (then HP Outsourcing), I can see why HP Enterprise Desktop Management was a disappointment and why HP ERP Outsourcing hit it out of the park. The latter met all the criteria, the former only three of them.
You’ll enjoy Mike’s book because it’s full of case studies, practical advice, templates, blueprint models, and useful tools that you can quickly embrace and put to work in your team. Get the book by clicking here at HappyAbout or at Amazon.com.
Disclaimer: I’m one of the editorial assistants for the book and a long time colleague and admirer of Mike Gospe.
Posted March 2, 2008 | Permalink
Posted to Marketing Management