I’m up, I’ve been to Pop’s for my giant coffee and lemon curd scone – I’m serious, you have to have one of these if you ever come to the Oregon Coast – and ready to write another day.
I wrote for 7 hours straight yesterday, penning almost 3,000 words. And of those I’ll bet I keep 2800 of them. That’s progress. I’m excited. I ended the day with a walk on the beach, and a trip to the Warrenton fish monger where I discovered sea candy. Smoked scallops. Wow.
Writing can give you a kind of endorphin like running does. I experienced that yesterday – when I stopped thinking about it and just let it flow onto the page. I’ve felt that playing the piano when you can actually close your eyes and feel the music and stop thinking about your fingers connecting with the right keys. Thank you Sr. Annette for making me learn to type by touch.
That was the moment when I had complete clarity and could see what marketing will really look like in the year 2020. I know I’ve been steadily and regularly poo pooing traditional marketing like direct mail, newspaper ads and of course TV commercials. I also feel that social media is not a campaign and that having a Facebook page is akin to having a newsletter. Not that exciting – yet. And I’m amazed that no one has called me on it and said “So, Miss Smarty Pants, if all that is dying a grizzly death what will work?”
Spoiler alert.
My goal with this second book is to push CEOs and marketing professionals to systematically forget everything they know, before it destroys them. It’s not as simple as saying – you replace your direct mail campaigns with X and you’ll calculate the best ROI ever. The 2020 vision of marketing is this: The CEO is the Pilot. The CMO has to be the co-pilot. There, I said it.
That means the CMO of 2020 needs to have the business savvy, strategic thinking and working knowledge of financials so they can take over if necessary. When in the history of credit unions has the CMO been anointed acting CEO? Never.
Before the CFOs get their panties in a wad, let me explain. You are air traffic control in this metaphor. You are monitoring changing conditions, to help guide the plane in. You are not on the plane. We need you on the ground.
Compliance, IT, audit, you are the mechanics. Constantly tinkering, checking, that we are stable enough to fly.
Operations would be the crew aboard the flight. They are responsible for the inflight experience. And they need to SEE the pilot every now and again so we know we’re good to go. I know after 9/11 we bolted down the door, but after each flight, let’s come out and say “Buh Bye” to our customers, okay? Thank them for their business.
Before we fly we need a flight plan. This includes our target (audience) and our unique destination (differentiator). Both pilot and co-pilot have this knowledge at all times. They work together to complete it. This is a big chunk of the book.
So stay with me on this metaphoric journey. Using those visuals, where would you say marketing is today? Take a moment to really think about it.
They are certainly not in the cockpit. They’re in an office somewhere printing brochures about flying, highlighting the features and benefits of air travel.
We have but 10 years to get from there to the front of the plane. I am laying the groundwork with this book. Stay tuned……
The 2020 Vision of Marketing 
4 comments
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March 25, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Stan Cowan
What – no complaints from CFOs or CEOs out there on this one? Really? Guess you know who your audience is, then, right Denise?
I almost forwarded this one on to the powers that be. Why didn’t I? Probably the same reason why I’m wondering if I should actually hit “submit” on this comment.
I have had those conversations, though, about CMOs becoming CEOs (what, less than 5% at best?) – I can only think of two right now in all of CU Land.
Here’s a question for you to answer/blog about: What area should the head of E-Services fall under? I.T.? Marketing? Other?
March 25, 2010 at 12:37 pm
Denise Wymore
Stan,
You got that right. I hope my audience are folks like you that are brilliant marketers clawing their way into the board room. But in order to earn that spot at the table we must get more strategic. We can’t wait for CEOs to spoon feed us the business strategy. We need to be right there next to them helping them articulate it, develop it and execute it. Not just lay it out with appropriate font and stock art.
As for your question about E-Services. If you mean your online presence (website, online banking, bill pay, mobile banking), I think that needs a branch manager like your call center and brick and mortar enjoy. It is, after all, a branch. Marketing should never run a branch, nor should IT. We support them.
March 26, 2010 at 6:30 am
Stan Cowan
Agreed – more strategic. What if convincing others to think that way is difficult, much less ACTING that way? Hmm…
E-Services: I should have probably defined it better, perhaps. I believe our website is (more times than not) the first place members and potential members experience our Credit Union. Not sure I want a Branch Manager managing the content, graphics and functionality of it. Marketers do that best. And, I’m not sure a branch manager has the technical expertise to manage the electronic aspects of online banking, bill pay, mobile banking, PFM, etc. Yes, it’s an online branch, but what about the other marketing aspects (email, text-based, one-to-one cross-selling via personalized ads, etc.)?
March 26, 2010 at 6:50 am
Denise Wymore
Stan,
Great point. I agree. Everything you said is what marketing should do – manage content, graphics and functionality – on the web. You don’t want branch managers creating posters for their lobby – same thing. We call that “pirate marketing” arrrrgghhhh…Marketing’s role is supporting and merchandising the branch.
I think if you got the right branch manager, however, with the technical skills and people skills to manage online banking, bill pay, mobile banking, PFM – that would be ideal. This would be a great topic for a Liquid Lunch.
Here’s what I’ve seen. Think back to the telephone in the branch. The phone never really rang unless we had a personal phone call. Then we added checking (share draft accounts). Phones started ringing off the hook. Most credit unions had the tellers answer the phone. So the dilemma: Who’s more important? The member in the lobby or the member on the phone? The answer: Who’s easier to ignore.
So one by one, credit unions created call centers. Pulled those distractions out of the lobby and into their own department with a dedicated branch manager.
When I worked at First Tech (VP Marketing) we started getting a ton of emails from members. These were Microsoft, Intel, Amazon.com – that’s how the preferred to communicate. We dumped them in the call center. New dilemma. Who’s more important? The member on the phone or the member that sent an email? Emails are so easy to ignore. They just lay there. That’s when we created an E-Services Manager. Someone with the technical and people skills to manage the experience online.
I think it’s time to question everything as far as the org. chart goes. I visit overstaffed branches all the time that are ghost towns, and hear members complain about wait times on the phone. We need to evolve.