What's New in Marketing - Issue 64, December 2007

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Engaging Your Most Valuable Asset

Avvio MD, Duncan Gardner, claims that employee communication is the key to building a brand and growing a business.

Companies invest millions of pounds every year marketing their products, raising their profile and delivering their new proposition. They employ the best planners, the smartest creatives and the finest brains in their organisation to create campaigns they hope will strike a chord with their customers.

But according to Duncan Gardner, Managing Director of internal communications experts Avvio, it is the people who work inside their own company that should be the primary audience. He claims; "Employees must understand, proudly represent and be ambassadors of 'their' brand. They are the link between the company and its customers."

Building inside-out

The success of a brand and future sales can be augmented when employees buy-in to the product or service first. Market leaders aim to come up with innovative and engaging campaigns which look to convince employees before customers.

"Some of our most recent communication campaigns have been designed to appeal to staff almost as much as potential customers," says James Norrington, Creative Director of Avvio. Sky's current TV campaign 'Believe in Better' was preceded by an intensive internal campaign to educate the company's 16,000 employees in the new products and services on offer. The new markets were worth an estimated £20 billion, and the internal launch was regarded as key to maximising the external opportunity. Sky wanted to communicate what they stood for and why the company was going in the direction of broadband and telephony. The resulting internal marketing campaign included a microsite and event-based initiatives to get the message across.

If executed well, internal communication campaigns not only boost morale, they can affect a company's bottom line too. A sense of representation ensues and communicating to employees can not only increase sales but also provide a feeling of 'belonging' within the organisation.

Vodafone completed an internal e-learning campaign to educate its employees on new areas of the business. The medium most convenient to all employees, whether on-site or in the field, was the internet. Vodafone had a microsite developed where all employees could learn about the new products and services on offer before an online assessment tested them on their knowledge. The campaign was a success and the process is now used as a benchmark for Vodafone's e-learning activities.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Internal motivation is not the only factor when considering specific communications campaigns. With increasing pressure to be good corporate citizens, business leaders face tough decisions. What social issues should be addressed? What initiatives should be developed that will provide the greatest return? Once again, a strong brand can play a leadership role that employees can get behind and show their support for.

"CSR is more than running a responsible business - it's a vision that should reflect the brands core values," says Gardner. "Recent demand demonstrates that employee communication is changing to focus on environmental impact and similar social issues."

In 2006 Sky launched a 'carbon calculator' to encourage its employees to be responsible for their own environmental impact. With over 4200 individual calculations in the first month, the scheme was soon expanded and offered to Sky customers and the general public as www.jointhebiggerpicture.com providing advice on how to reduce carbon emissions.

The environmentally friendly medium chosen to communicate this initiative was a website which complemented the overall brand. A 'carbon credit card' was delivered to all employees to record credits awarded with each carbon saving made. Whether it was a car share or cycling to work, each employee's contribution was logged and helped build a virtual coral reef - which filled with more marine life as the credits rose.

Corporate Change Management

Change is healthy and, for any organisation with its sights set on the future, it's essential for growth and success. But change also sends out shock waves, the biggest of which occurs during company acquisitions. If communication channels are not properly used at this time you can be sure people will become more concerned about their role and their future - and forget all about the job of stabilising the business.

"Overcoming problems associated with managing change is an important skill for any company," says Jo Kerr, Account Director at Avvio. "That's why a well-executed internal communications plan is so vital. The messages that make up the plan not only encourage all employees to work together but also help them understand their role, the vision of the company and give people the chance to play their part in the future."

Kerr advises that for change to be effective it needs to be implemented at all levels and embedded in the culture of the organisation. "Decision makers should never forget that change is a major cause of stress among staff. Getting staff motivated to support the changes is crucial for success. The best employee communication is all about communicating the right things in the right way and in a way that will build trust between the company and its employees."

Avvio is an independent, owner-run creative communications agency founded in 1992 by Duncan Gardner, Managing Director and James Norrington, Creative Director.

Marketing's About Winning and Keeping Customers

Introduction

Marketing has moved a long way since the early 'marketing Copernican revolution' which put back customers at the centre of any business activity.

It is clear that the recent news that British MPs and Peers are to be taught marketing principles by the Bradford University School of Management is great news for marketing but, even more importantly, great news for the British Economy and British politics. In the light of many recent papers about the need for getting marketing expertise right at Board level. How is that for a board: 'Government Board level'!

Most marketers would think that this decision is long overdue since they find it hard to understand how any organisation (whatever size or purpose) can thrive if it does not make use of marketing principles. Clearly such achievement is worth noting but it may hide several issues and dilemmas that still need addressing. I have selected few areas below that merit special attention.

The pervasiveness of marketing

Although it is widely accepted that no business can survive without 'marketing' (even if some may use different words to describe their 'marketing activities'), there is still the tendency for savvy marketers/gurus to primarily focus on the needs of the large companies at the expense of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This is seen as an anomalous situation in the light of the fact that most companies in the UK (dare I say in the world) fit in the category of SMEs. Britain's aim to be more competitive is particularly upset by this situation since it is arguable that it makes more sense to focus on the needs of the new small companies who are in their early stages of gestation, and therefore, particularly vulnerable. The supporting argument for this view is that the large majority of newly set-up businesses tend to 'fall by the side' within the first year or so of being operational. As many argued before, marketing does not guarantee survival of companies but can surely maximize chances of success since it is all about understanding the market and planning for a successful future.

Indeed, if early gurus of marketing argued that marketing is so central to any business, the main focus should be now on how to help every business capitalize on its wisdom. This does not mean spending a lot of time and energy dealing with issues such as 'how to set up and run a marketing department' (despite the importance of this topic) or looking for boundary lines between marketing and, its sister function, selling and forgetting about the purpose of marketing. These may be interesting issues that some researchers may find it valuable to indulge in. However the employer who is running a small business (with no marketing department!) in a very competitive/cut-throat environment, has no time for such debates and is only interested in how to help his/her business thrive.

The Marketing and Sales Standards Setting Body (MSSSB) was set up especially for this purpose: to understand the marketing needs of employers (whatever their size) and advise them accordingly. In line with this aim MSSSB is continuously looking for ways to support employers. For instance it worked with many well established successful companies and professional bodies to produce world-class standards for marketing best practice. It is also developing an apprenticeship model for marketers to support small companies in developing the marketing skills of their workforce in the context of their daily responsibilities.

Marketing of marketing

How many times did we hear that marketers seem to be the least able people to market marketing? The reason that is usually put forward is that there are many misunderstandings about marketing. Two misunderstanding come to mind as follows:

1. that marketing is just about (marketing) communications and in the worst cases marketing is about producing logos, mugs and leaflets.

2. that irresponsible marketers make irresponsible marketing

Regarding the first one, the misunderstanding is further promoted by the fact that 'different gurus" can have different views about what is marketing. I attended recently a national seminar that brought together several experienced marketers to help redefine 'marketing' in the light of advances over the last few decades. By the end of the morning debate there were no sign of agreements. Of course one might say this is healthy and actually reflect the richness of what marketing is about. However it can also be argued that if we cannot agree on what marketing is about how can we expect others, less knowledgeable audiences, to understand it better.

MSSSB's view is to focus on what marketers do to achieve the outcomes they want. This is a functional approach. It consists of asking: "what is the key purpose of marketing" and "what do marketers need to do and know to achieve this purpose". Our approach is as inclusive as possible. We came up with 100 job-roles that marketers could have and we clarified all these job-roles in terms of objectives, behaviours and knowledge associated with each job-role. We believe this approach is more effective and more useful to marketing practitioners who are more concerned about learning how to do their job effectively than delving too much on academic definitions.

MSSSB is also helping to disseminate best practice by carrying out research, helping design relevant qualifications for all levels of expertise as well as promote to employers the message that marketing can be the difference between success or failure of their business.

Regarding the second point above I can illustrate it with a recent event as follows. I attended a Westminster debate where the motion that was put forward was something like: "It is marketers and not economists that will save the environment'. At the end of the arguments put forwards by the protagonists of both camps, there was a vote to support or reject the motion. The motion was unanimously supported and all marketing colleagues self-congratulated themselves for a well owned victory. However there was not much debate about 'now what?'. We know that marketing is a powerful tool for change but how responsible marketers have been/will be in using this tool responsibly? Haven't we all heard: "with great power comes great responsibility...". Interesting also to note that there are law cases where 'not acting when we see something wrong taking place may be as bad as acting wrongly'. There has been accusations of 'collusive indifference' between marketers who in some situations could see the potential adverse impact of malpractice on society/environment and yet feel it's all part of business (let alone think about whistle blowing). The general argument for the lack of action is some (Smithenian?) notion about not interfering with market forces/wisdom which will, eventually, give the answer. The outcome is clear for everybody to see: many thousands a year of deaths due to smoking related diseases, countless problems associated with obesity, teenage pregnancy, drink-driving, unnecessary environmental deterioration etc. Of course this is not to say that these ills are to be blamed on marketers but surely a higher assumption of their responsibilities could make a significant difference.

Fortunately there are many marketers that want to assume their responsibility vis a vis society and the environment. This is reflected by the countless initiatives for developing social marketing standards of good practice. I am delighted to say that, as we speak, MSSSB is busy developing national occupational standards on social marketing that will support the work of those marketers whose responsibility is to produce effective programs to induce healthier changes in society. This point is further expanded below.

What is the next step for marketing?

Marketers generally refer to an evolutionary process that moves the company from product focused to what may be termed 'systematic customer-focus'. This evolutionary process could apply at the macrocosm level (the evolution of marketing over the past 50 years or so) or microcosm level (how a company restructures and changes its local culture to become customer centric). Whatever the focus, there still remain the strongly argued view that marketing is not about meeting the needs of all customers (as some current 'customer-centric' conferences would have us believe). The simple reason for the impossibility of such approach is that companies' resources are limited and customers' variation in tastes/interests can be limitless. Nevertheless it seems that the evolutionary steps of marketing may need revisiting. A slight variation of this process (reflected in four stages) could be offered as an alternative to the 'product-customer-integrated customer-centric marketing). This alternative would perhaps focus more on the philosophy/attitude of the executive/owners of the organization. Here are the stages:

1. Product-centred stage: Philosophy: "the aim of the business is to sell what we produce". This attitude is usually due to imposed routines that may be several decades old. The tacit message of this organization is 'to do as you are told as there are good reasons for the existence of the current procedures'.

2. Profit-based selling: Philosophy: "Our business is to make as much money as possible for as long as possible. Understanding or ensuring loyalty by customers is only looked at if need be but not routinely and, certainly not, continuously as we think we have a pretty good idea about our (unchanging) customer wants and there is no need for continuous monitoring of their views."

3. Customer-focused stage: Philosophy: "Our business is to meet a need whilst making a profit and survive for as long as possible. We are primarily led by the demand for our product/service and the need to comply with regulations. We will use the latest 'scientific' marketing methods to attract, win and keep customers."

4. Responsible customer-focused stage: Our philosophy: "Our business is led by ethical principles and globally-oriented. Our aim is to meet a need/demand while continuously working to look for healthier alternative to meeting the need whilst helping improve the human condition.

We could see that the steps of this approach move from the product, to the customer, the society, to the global community. Since the customer is no longer one particular person that lives in a particular place, with a particular culture/environment, it makes more sense that marketers adopt more closely the famous adage adopted by the Chartered Institute of Marketing "The World is Our Market". Dare we say that the world is to become the market of all employees working for global organizations. In this sense marketers should lead the way in trying to understand the multiplicity of views, cultures etc without any prejudices. Indeed how many of us have heard of CEOs with short-sighted, rigid chauvinistic views. This becomes even more relevant in the light of debates about personal brands that need to promote an international, humanitarian open attitude that inspires trust. As communities will interact more and become more and more mixed, even small businesses cannot afford to hold bigoted views.

Marketing as a box of tool?

Stage 4 in the above described personal view of evolution of marketing above appears to reflect the zeitgeist of current societal concerns. Given that marketing has on many previous occasions been the target of criticism as a result of actions from 'irresponsible marketers', the view is now to look at how marketing can be effective and use its successful methods for the good of society. In this sense of marketing as a 'box of tool' different people can have different views/philosophies for using marketing (just like using a knife, for good or destructive purposes). As stated above, and in line with this argument, MSSSB has just started a large-scale project for developing national social marketing standards. The aim of this project is to develop standards of best practice that have been proven effective in developing healthier attitudes in society. Some people may argue that this is another word for 'propaganda' and deviously limiting personal liberties. The answer to this is that whether we like it or not, we are all the time being targeted and influenced (consciously or unconsciously) by many views around us (about life-styles, politics, philosophies etc). Consequently it would make sense to try to take time and consciously try to help the 'better forces of society'.

Although a new 'science', social marketing has already demonstrated its effectiveness in several areas (obesity, teenage pregnancies, addictions -including to legal drugs, drink and driving etc). The promise that these planned standards offer for a better society are very substantial.

Is marketing a science?

The answer is yes and no. Yes because at the heart of its methodology, marketing tries to understand the needs of customers, develop new ways of meeting those needs and verify whether they meet those needs. In some ways this is what scientists do: they carry out researches to understand/theorise about their subject and then they test their understanding with experimentation. But that's as far as it goes. Marketing is an incredibly complex, multi-disciplined subject where it would be very hard to control all the relevant factors to develop ideas that can be generalised. It is therefore not an exact science as what applies to one context may be totally different in another context. Nevertheless, it is a necessary subject as businesses are constantly looking for opportunities to improve/or differentiate themselves as a result of any small advice (even uncertain!).

So what's the final word?

The above suggest that there are many reasons for optimism. However there are still many, many challenges and misunderstandings. Marketing is a philosophy yet not a philosophy, a science yet not a science, a helpful methodology but not always, a subject marketed by professional marketers yet not clearly understood by the lay man. This is no surprise, as any human being with his/her feet firmly on earth can vouch for the fact that contradictions and fuzziness are part of our world. I certainly have learnt that as a result of many years spent in research in social science that most things we deal with are never clear-cut. To borrow a name from a recent methodology set up to deal with 'greyness', most of our world is 'fuzzy' and hence require a 'fuzzy logic' to deal with. I am still developing my thinking in this area. But is it bad that the world of marketing is fuzzy and contradictory in many cases? The jury is still out as, depending on the person, the answer could be "how difficult!" or "how exciting!" Again it is both! Perhaps a better question to ask would be: "how can marketing keep on sharpening its vision and address the richness of our world to help reach the best possible advice, inspired by ethical practice, for business success?"

Dr Chahid Fourali is head of the UK national Marketing and Sales Standards Setting Body. He welcomes people to get involved in the projects of MSSSB to support marketing best practice. To find out more please email: msssb@msssb.org or telephone 01628 427106.

Can We Really Stop Teenagers Smoking Through Social Marketing?

In the past six months we've watched the nation crack down on smoking with the national ban on smoking in public places since April. And while more and more adults are quitting the habit, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) reveal that about 450 children start smoking every day in the UK. With 82% of smokers starting before the age of 18 and 39% of under 16's in the UK smoking regularly, * there's no doubt that something drastic needs to be done. But what does the Government need to do next?

Teenagers will always find a way around an age limit, just as they do with alcohol, they will ask adults to buy their cigarettes for them or take them from older friends and family members.

The 'don't do it because it's bad for you' message often doesn't stick any more, and is seen as an interference from the nanny state. When you tell a teenager, or anyone for that matter, not to do something the automatic response is to want to do it more.

Teenagers are well aware of the risks of smoking. Many aren't affected by the message that smoking kills, because when they're 15 the idea of cancer in forty years' time often doesn't resonate with them. The Government needs to find ways that will lead to positive behavioural change, and get the teenagers to voluntarily buy into the argument.

Essentially, they need to try to stop young smokers as early as possible before their addiction truly kicks in. Adult smokers will need more than marketing messages to get rid of their addiction, but people who haven't started yet or are simply experimenting can have their inclination to smoke successfully challenged and changed, if the right message is given to them at the right time. The problem however is that young people often don't want to give up.

Take Claire, a 16-year-old student, for example. She commented on the ASH forum: "It won't make any difference; plenty of smaller newsagents will still sell cigarettes to us, as they do with alcohol. There is so much underage drinking in Britain, so how will this be any different? Plus, it's the person's decision, if they want to smoke, they'll smoke."

The key to social marketing, as with all marketing, is to understand the customer's frame of mind to understand what's motivating them to behave in the way they do. Once you understand that, you can offer messages that they want to buy into and agree with. Adult campaigns showing smokers dying of cancer and cigarette stickers with images of smokers' lungs can work with adults but are often irrelevant to teenagers, most of whom don't think about their mortality at such a young age.

In order to really change behaviour, we need to talk to young people in their environment, and communicate in their tone and style and make the message relevant to them. This is where social marketing comes into play.

Social marketing is the application of commercial marketing techniques to public health and other social issues. Just as commercial marketers develop products, set appropriate prices, consider the best times and places to be available, and promote their products through advertising and incentives, social marketers do the same thing to influence individuals to change their behaviour in a positive way. Marketers can help to reduce the barriers to desired behaviour by making rewards more accessible or by changing the environment so that it becomes easier to fit the desired behaviour into existing lifestyles.

By thinking from the mindset of the teenager we can re-evaluate how we build relationships and perhaps be more subtle and casual in how we approach them; by thinking from the teenager's point of view you get further insights into what approaches succeed. Teenagers care about their looks, their fitness, and their spare cash, so one approach is to tap into this. Emphasising the positive benefits of not smelling of smoke, having clear skin and white teeth, and the positive impacts this will have on their attempts to, say, attract their next girlfriend or boyfriend is likely to be a more effective message. Or to take another example, for teenagers who like sport, whether it's rugby, football or hockey, emphasise the benefits of healthier lungs to enhance performance.

In terms of the approach, use the communication channels that young people like using - such as social networking sites. Any messages you offer need to be consensual and it's a good tip to encourage viral communication, by creating messages that teens are more likely to forward to each other. By exploring the Internet sites the teenagers visit, you can see what works and what doesn't and learn how to communicate with them by seeing how they communicate with each other. Teenagers don't have to take what they're given any more - they can choose what they want to hear. If they don't like what you have to say, they really can take it or leave it.

Communication has got to be on their terms and in language they understand and relate to.

In October The Roy Castle Foundation launched an innovative online game targeting the image-conscious teens. The Effects of Smoking enables young people to upload a photograph of themselves on to a website and view the ageing effects of smoking on their skin, teeth and eyes. Teenagers are likely to forward onto one another as what initially appears to be amusing but is actually a hard hitting message making this technique work really well.

This type of campaign to discourage smokers completely is in stark contrast to the successful marketing campaigns run by the tobacco companies in the 1950s which positioned smoking as an attractive habit by tying into Hollywood stars, such as Audrey Hepburn, which got women hooked. Today, although smoking is banned from adverts and very much frowned upon in Hollywood by the size 0 health fanatics, role models like Kate Moss and Amy Winehouse sometimes appear to glamorise smoking with a rebellious tone, creating a great challenge for the Government.

Preventing our next generation from millions of tobacco-related deaths is by no means an easy task and unfortunately there isn't one solution for all. The Chartered Institute of Marketing suggests that the Government can achieve great results by looking at new ways of communicating with young people and finding innovative ways of researching teenager's values, to discover what resonates with them. By engaging rather than preaching and using social marketing techniques, we may just see some great success and help teenagers stub it out.

*Statistics taken from The Roy Castle Foundation 2007 and Government Statistics on smoking and drinking 2005

Handbag Management

There's a significant moment that any entrepreneur goes through at some point - sometimes straight away, after the first five employees have given subtle feedback via an approachable third party, or sometimes more directly by upping sticks and leaving. You get told you're either a leader or a manager.

Handbag Management

Management is a truly tricky thing. You can read all you like from the free book that comes with a subscription to Harvard Business Review, understanding monkeys on backs and team motivation. But the truth is you've either got it or you haven't.

As it happens, I'm a pretty hopeless manager. I've tried, very hard in fact. I've started and grown three successful businesses in the last fourteen years. I've sold two - and the last one had, and the current one has, an exceptionally strong team culture. I think the secret for someone who isn't a good manager is to have a business partner that is approachable. Jason Holland has been my agency partner since 1995 - he is good cop to my bad cop when the need arises, but he is always approachable, always listens, is always on the team's side. Me, I'm on our business's side.

My own management style has been described as "hand grenade management" - the services we provide are ultimately my responsibility, and our reputation is built on perfectionism, so I tend to be the one who tips up with last minute problems that always, always need solving straight away. So if someone has a management problem, they'll go to Jason. If they have a problem with me, they'll rely on him to solve it.

On the flipside, companies do need leadership. And leadership is about being able to listen to everyone's opinions but make up your own mind, even when it's a decision that hurts. It's also about being ultimately responsible - if it goes wrong, it is always, without exception, the leader's responsibility. If it goes right, then it's the responsibility of a leader to make sure the team gets the credit. Once a team trusts your judgment, and trusts that you are there to take responsibility, whether they like your style of management or not, they come to rely on your ability to protect them - from clients, from blame, from the difficult business decisions that require a singularity of purpose rather than a democratic desire to please everyone.

And because you're not managing people your role becomes less tangible. Eventually you become that thing in the middle that people dance around but which is essential to the successful management - by others - of the business. I imagine if you're a captain of industry the role becomes that of "eye of the storm". Personally I'm quite happy to be handbag-in-chief.

As it happens, in the end no matter how much you believe your metier is not the role of manager, and I do know that it's not something I'm particularly good at, you still have to do it. I do practice. I spend quite a lot of time worrying about how best to motivate people, and more particularly as my company grows how to provide my management team with the tools to make their jobs easier - to make it easier for them to be managers who can set aside the mechanics of management and concentrate on building a communicative, networked culture.

My own company, a digital agency with some big, demanding clients, went through a commercial audit earlier this year. It was fascinating having someone else spend two months forensically testing the processes and robustness of the company. I don't think they really told us anything that we didn't already know, but they identified the fault lines and gaps, and articulated things in such a clear way that we felt refreshed and reinvigorated. One of the most significant things they recommended was also one of the simplest.

As a result, we've spent some time putting into place a system to track every project and every element of every project, in awesome detail. The agency's workflows, previously managed by highly skilled project managers who handled campaigns from start to finish, handholding, spoon-feeding and nurturing, have been transformed into series of checks and defined processes. While culturally it was difficult to imagine how our preciously shepherded work could be turned into processes that could be followed blindfold, it has actually removed many of the problems - woolly approvals, retrospectively essential paper trails, missing ads - and allowed the team to focus on spotting opportunities in strategy, not delivery.

It has in fact started to transform our business. Where before we were a family, who occasionally screwed up - but because we have a very leadership-oriented culture the team was cosseted, managed as if they required protection - now we are a network of empowered people who can focus on the bigger things, like giving more to our clients. We have made systematic the processes of delivering our product, so that in fact people can be managed in effect in such a way that the can take more responsibility themselves, not less. It's another significant moment for entrepreneurs to go through - leadership means not protecting managers, but growing leaders from the lowest ranks who can ultimately manage themselves.

Felix Velarde is MD of Underwired, whose clients include Peugeot, Nickelodeon and Virgin.

Team Building and Leadership

Ultimately, our role as marketers is to drive sales. To do this requires a tenacious, motivated and creative team whose goals, performance, and subsequent rewards are linked to the overall objectives of the business. It is important for marketing leaders to ensure that their teams understand how the marketing campaigns they are developing, running, executing and measuring fit within the overall goals of the business and, most importantly, are adding value to the organisation.

The marketing team often bears the brunt of gripes from other departments. Having a solid understanding of the business and its customers will help marketers to arm themselves against negative perceptions that other departments may have of them and will help to ensure that they stay motivated and continue to deliver creativity and results.

We're all aware of these naysayers from other departments - and even sometimes the management team - whose view is that marketing is an unnecessary, added cost that just gets in the way of business. I've even heard a sales team member refer to the marketing department as 'the Bermuda triangle' - the department where you send things and they never come back.

In order to engender a positive attitude from within their own companies, marketing leaders need to help ensure that their team is creating successful campaigns and achieving ROI. Targets must be set and measured for results. These targets should be directly linked to driving sales and converting leads. For example, measuring the number of leads your marketing team delivers to the sales organisation from an online incentive or direct mail piece, as well as measuring the amount of revenue influenced by individual marketing campaigns can help justify marketing budgets and prove the team's worth.

Meeting these targets - and rewarding your team for doing so - will also help your marketers to hold their heads up high. It provides them with tangible proof that their efforts are contributing to the success of the business.

So we know that measurement, targets and goals are important to motivation - what about creating the ultimate campaign? Marketing, like any other aspect of business, needs to revolve around your customers and having insight into how your customers are interacting with your brand - whether it's online, in a physical branch or store or via a call centre - can help your marketing team target and develop timely and relevant campaigns, incentives and reward schemes for your customers and prospective customers.

When this is done correctly and combined with an appealing, creative approach, your organisation's marketing campaigns will feel like a service to your customers. A successfully targeted campaign will get people talking about the great mailer, email or online voucher they received from your company. This helps spread the word that you are in tune with your customers' needs and promotes brand loyalty within your customers - and their friends. It is also highly motivating for the team behind the campaign to hear their friends and family talking about how good it was!

Another key ingredient to a motivated marketing team is to get the balance of tasks right. Behind every creative idea and campaign are the mundane, process-driven jobs such as managing budgets and allocating the right resources to the right projects. Technology, such as marketing resource management software (MRM), can help automate and simplify these tasks. MRM provides behind-the-scenes, administrative support to marketers and helps to ensure that every campaign runs smoothly. Having software to help manage the workflow and processes also means that your marketers can spend more of their time on the strategic activities they were hired to do -- like developing and targeting creative campaigns.

Keeping your marketing team motivated comes down to three simple steps:

1. Involve your marketing team in the overall business. Set goals and measure their results to make the team and the campaigns they develop accountable for achieving business targets and sales performance.

2. Ensure the team has the support, data and tools they need in place to develop highly targeted and relevant campaigns that feel like a service to your customers -- and get their friends talking about them.

3. Release them from the administration: keep the team interested by using technology to help manage the process side of their jobs - giving them more time to develop creative campaigns and marketing strategy.

A well oiled system of targeting, executing, measuring and improving campaigns will help ensure that your marketing team will stay fresh, in touch with your customers and motivated to provide the best possible service to your business and to your customers.

About the author: Chris Manton-Jones is vice president and managing director for Unica EMEA.