marketing
in associationwith
Some of the most important decisions around brand
development and innovation are taken during times of crisis when people aremore open to fresh ideas,Majgaard says. “Companies have been in financial crisis so no doubt
there have been times when the management of compa- nies have spent too much time, more than they want and more even than the bankers want, talking together to get this right,” he explains. “The way out, other than looking after costs and not spending one dollar, pound or euro you shouldn’t spend is to reinvigorate your understanding of the market you are in because that’s the only way to grow.”
Success formula At some point in time, he says, companies must rethink their success formula, or how they relate to the customers and their market. “It’s the old classic question – who is your customer, what are you offering them and how do you do it? If you get the right idea, the right needs and the right competence, you get that equation right and you have a new success formula. “The formula may well be to continue what you’ve
always done, but if you don’t look at that, there’s a high risk that something goes wrong because the world has changed, consumers have changed the way they behave and, if you are in business to business, customers have changed. “Some people argue that it’s all about price, but that’s
not true,”Majgaard contends. “That’s maybe how it looks on the surface. Ultimately, no one just buys on price; they buy on value. If you only bought on price, we would all drink water.”
The boardroom imperative Given his background, it’s no surprise to find that Majgaard is a strong believer in the need for marketing representation in the boardroom. “It is terribly important for the shareholders that mar-
keting is represented,” he says, adding that marketers themselves obviously want to be there too. “It’s important because the core idea in a company is to link up with cus- tomers and do something special for that customer.
“If the skill that is designed to work with that is not
represented, I’m deeply worried,” he continues. “My phi- losophy is if the board can go on without marketing peo- ple there, it is mostly because many companies are thriv- ing on old ideas. So there is no new idea, there is no new understanding of the customer. But it’s not much fun being led by a person whose skill is to count money if there’s no money coming in.” In general, the marketing function continues to be
underrepresented at board level, he says. “First, crisis drives thinking towards money. And we have a new own- ership model in theWestern world in private equity. Now I highly regard private equity – I think it’s a very exciting newmodel. But it is prettymuch populated by people who are money-educated and it tends to drive strategy a little bit toomuch in that direction. I think also because of that, the need to have good marketeers in the boardroom is increasing.” He points to his old company, Lego, as an example of a
business with a tradition of having good marketing people in top management. “We had a few incidents where maybe the finance guys had too much to say, but apart from that they’ve been very good at it.” The emphasis on marketing is something that is com-
pletely integrated into the culture at Lego,Majgaard says. “It’s a lot of people who know what is right for this brand and that has come over a long period of, you could say, inci- dental training. That is what builds a brand.”
Marketing through innovation Marketing also has a fundamental role to play in product or service innovation, Majgaard believes. “Why should you be an expert in knowing what the customer wants and then not be able to transfer that into innovating or inventing the offering? Those things have to go together. “That theremay be different sub-skills is another story.
In terms of market research, there are people who are specifically skilled at that and that may have taken years to build up. If you come to innovation, if it’s new tech- nologies, marketing people may not master that. Or if it’s design, there are a lot of sub-skills that you need to orchestrate to get it right. But overall, innovating the offering is about doing things that the customer will like
52 Irish Director Spring 2011
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84