Ironically, the departure of senior staff from marketing department payrolls in corporate downsizings has sometimes resulted in the brand memory residing in a company s agencies. However, agencies which must take direction from a dozen often junior operatives in decentralized organizations are too often treated like vendors rather than partners, and they find themselves fighting for their lives instead of fighting for the Betterment of the Brand. Centralized agency management is the key to stability, which in turn leads to consistency, synergy and marketing communications productivity. Pseudo-intimacy is how one principal describes too many marketers alleged involvement with consumer wants and needs, feelings and frustrations. Even when customer wishes are considered, marketers too often collect data rather than develop consumer insight.
Budgets are vulnerable to quarterly earnings imperatives.
There is no concern for the future. Marketers need to develop new measurements related to other than units of production, and assign accountability for performance against these measurements not only internally but to agency partners, who should be equally tasked with brand stewardship . Many if not most companies will plead guilty to more than one of these organizational barriers to the Betterment of the Brand. We believe companies should embrace the following Three Primary Principles which we've observed among our clients. Corporate management guru Peter Drucker coined the phrase, The business of business is generating customers.