Impacting Value:
How Marketing Drives Business Innovation & Growth
Wrap-up
In the shadow of Brandenburg Gate, the historic site landmark in the heart of Berlin, senior marketing executives from across Europe gathered for the 3rd annual CMO Summit. The theme of the event, “Impacting Value”, asked regional marketers to look long and hard at the issue of how marketing must drive business innovation and growth. The CMO Council was pleased to play host to senior executives from eight different countries and representing major organizations such as Microsoft, BEA Systems, Cognos, Amdocs, Google, HP, NetApp, CA, Symantec, Siemens, Getronics, McAfee, Macrovision, Sutas, BCS, Times Media, IDG, SAP, Roland Berger, CoreMedia, Saltigo, Keynote Systems and Reuters to name but a few. In the face of globalization, heightened demands on regional assets and resources, and the need for marketers to account for spend and deliver true value and assume the lead as a business driver, the CMO Summit provided attendees with an opportunity to network among peers who face similar challenges, albeit in different countries and often different industries.
In his keynote presentation, Malcolm MacDonald, Emeritus Professor, Marketing at the Cranfield School, points to the need for marketers to face challenges head on and to understand key immutable keys to marketing. Namely that marketing is a process for defining markets, quantifying the needs of the customer groups (segments) within these markets, putting together the value propositions to meet these needs, communicating these value propositions to all those people in the organisation responsible for delivering them and getting their buy-in to their role, playing an appropriate part in delivering these value propositions (usually only communications), and monitoring the value actually delivered. Key to how world class companies react to trends and challenges: For this process to be effective, organisations need to be consumer/customer-driven.
Click here to download the Summit presentations
Overview
Global organizations, regional operations and micro-businesses are being challenged like never before to evidence the business value of their strategies, programs, resources and spend. Today’s marketers must face globalization, new media channels, market fragmentation, increased customer control and demands, product and service commoditization and the constant push for innovative competitive edge and increased profit, senior marketers have quite the burden to bear.
The 2007 CMO Council European Summit theme -- “Impacting Value: How Marketing Drives Business Innovation and Growth” -- will explore these complex issues and provide an open forum for senior marketers in the region to gather, contemplate, formulate and advocate best practices to define the impact of marketing value.
Core Discussion Areas:
- Justifying the Investment: Making a case for marketing spend in the face of economic shifts and competitive business pressures.
- Growing Equity: Marketing’s role in realizing greater sales, channel and customer yield and value.
- Extending Influence: Growing marketing’s accountability, imprint and leadership across the organization.