City of Paris

Recently, a vice president of marketing at a young biotech company asked me to help her find a “marketing communication person” for her company. Without giving it much thought, I responded that the right candidate for her situation might not exist. In fact, for years I have been lamenting the dearth of effective marketing communication managers and the inability of companies to retain them. It seems that successful managers move on to marketing, to corporate communications, or to the agency side. Fortunately, I have had the privilege of working with a number of stars in this field and am happy to count some of them as my clients. I think I know some of the underlying reasons for their scarcity.

Marketing communications is probably one of the least understood disciplines in business. Too often, marcom positions are filled by frustrated designers who bring the promise of lowering the cost of developing marketing and sales materials. At other times, product managers who have an aptitude in communications fill the need, but only temporarily, before they return to their marketing career track. Some marketing communication managers rise through the ranks of administrative support because of their aptitude for details and task management, especially when it comes to trade shows. I have also seen marketing managers with no communication experience asked to take on entire marketing communication departments, usually out of convenience.

Predictably, these haphazard ways of hiring or appointing marketing communication managers lead to uneven results. Just as important, the lack of understanding of what marketing communication does goes hand in hand with a lack of appreciation for the function’s contribution to the company. Is there any wonder, then, that marcom managers look to go somewhere else where their talents and skills are better appreciated? And if management does not understand marketing communications, how can they evaluate the work that is being done? How would they recognize performance and reward it, or identify misfits or the need for training? And speaking of training, I don’t remember seeing any graduate courses, professional workshops or seminars addressing marketing communications.

So then, what is the definition of a marketing communication manager? What does he or she do for the product, the brand and the company he or she serves? Why is this professional discipline so ill-defined and under-recognized? Please tell us what you think by casting your vote on this week’s poll. Or post a comment. Or both.

The economy and resulting downsizing have caused many marketers to reflect on their careers, and a number of my colleagues are thinking about giving up the corporate life to try consulting, either to bridge the gap until they find the right position or to explore a long-term option. Some of my friends ask, “Is this right for me?” Others ponder the risks and rewards of a consultant’s life.

Pay for performance on an accelerated review cycle. Many consultant assignments are relatively short-term—running for weeks and months rather than years—even though we may have a long-term relationship with clients. And as many consultants like to say, we are as good as the last assignment we completed. So, in our world, pay for performance is more accentuated, since there is usually room for renegotiating compensation with every new assignment. And there are always some performance indicators when the assignment is completed—the process and overall sense of whether or not objectives have been accomplished—even though longer-term impact is less evident. So, in many ways, consultants have the benefit of getting faster feedback about their work. And, certainly, the quality of the work impacts their income more quickly than for their corporate counterparts, who generally have to wait for annual reviews and bonuses.

A long-term view in a short-term world. While assignments are often relatively short-term, the consultant’s continued success and ability to generate work (and income) are heavily dependent on credibility and relationships, all of which take time to build. I am sometimes surprised by the “hit and run” mentality of some consultants whose fees are not commensurate with performance or who are not willing to go the extra mile when the situation warrants it—for example, when miscommunication or erroneous information causes inadvertent project overruns and budget is limited.

Overhead in surprising places. By and large, consultants are free from the many meetings and regular reports that are part of corporate life. That “free” time is more than absorbed in time consultants need to spend on building the client base and generating new business, particularly during the start-up phase. By the same token, new consultants realize, suddenly, that they are on their own as far as professional development is concerned. The training courses and industry meetings that used to be funded by corporate budgets now have to come out of our own pockets.

A better lifestyle?  Perhaps. I used to chuckle when people told me how they envied me for being able to set my own hours. In reality, I felt that I had to be accountable to my clients as well as my staff, in many ways. In time, though, I learned to manage time and figured out how to separate my work life from my home life. (In that regard I don’t think we are any different from our corporate counterparts.) In our new world of telecommunications and connectivity, I think the opportunities for lifestyle improvements are available to all of us.

Come on in. The water’s fine.

The recent $15.5 million settlement between Leo Burnett and the U.S. Army in a case involving alleged overbilling for the “Army of One” campaign seems like another indictment of big advertising agencies. Having worked in both big and small agency environments—with more time on the small agency side, I might add—I feel compelled to offer my perspective. I should start by saying that my comments have nothing to do with business ethics, because I believe that good ethics has no relation to agency size, other than the fact that big agencies have big accounts and therefore their misconduct is of a different proportion.

For clients who are thinking about hiring a big agency (bigness being measured by the number of high-visibility, big-budget clients, the number of employees and offices, etc.), the first thing to consider is your rationale for hiring the agency. If your business demands the broad capabilities, industry stature and resources that a big agency can offer, that is a good reason to consider hiring one. If you have a good feeling about the team within the big agency that you are reviewing, that’s even better. If you believe that your business is big enough to put you at least within the mid-range of the agency’s current clients, that’s another sign that you may have a match. In other words, if your search criteria point you toward a big agency and you’ve found one that meets those criteria, then you can proceed, with all of the caution you might use in engaging any business consultant or partner.

All too often, clients hire big agencies for less than sound business reasons. Thinking that the aura of a big name agency will somehow elevate one’s status among colleagues is one. Hoping that the big name in itself will bring bigness to the brand is another. Believing that an agency is suitable for one business just because it is the agency of some of the leading brands in the industry is another mistake. In my experience, these are the most common reasons that mismatches are made, often at the initiation of the client. Another mistake is overestimating what the business needs and, simultaneously, not looking at the reality of the budget and likely promotional activity levels. I am talking about the small client who scoffs at the bandwidth of a smaller agency that might be a more appropriate fit.

Above all, agency selection is a business decision. The choice is about what is best for the business. Egos and self-aggrandizement should not have a part in this process.

Customer first. How often do you put yourself in your customer’s shoes when you are making a decision related to your product? How often do you make your company’s operating goals, input from management or sales, recent competitive action or, in marketing communications, your personal preference or taste drive your decision?

Live and breathe market research. “Customer first” begins with a good understanding of your customer. Market research is not limited to surveys, focus groups, benchmarking, modeling and all those techniques we learned in business school. How about a commitment to talking to customers? Set goals appropriate for your business. Agency people can help clients by asking for market research data or including market research and campaign monitoring in their proposals.

Adopt a blog or two. Participate in a dialogue with your peers by setting up your RSS feed to blogs that pertain to your industry, or any blog for that matter. Get exposure to industry news, new ideas or just new ways to look at familiar issues. Some of our favorite blogs are listed on the sidebar here. Or find your own. And of course we’d love for you to join us or to suggest your favorites.

Take a chance. Remember the quintessential risk-reward curve that your finance professor showed you way back when. Start with avoiding the temptation to hedge your single most important message by putting in some secondary goodies (my pet peeve). Trust your instinct the next time you have to make a decision—on a new hire, a new agency or a new campaign. Above all, prioritize and commit. I like the way Al Ries makes the case in his book Focus.

Block out specific times of the day to read and respond to e-mails. For those of us who are overly diligent with our e-mails, we’ll learn to be less reactive and more focused and to avoid impulsive responses. For those e-mail avoiders, it will help relieve that unwelcome backlog of unread e-mails. Try these Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload.

As for me, I am going to work on all of the above in my own business and with my clients. Along the way, I plan on plenty of exercise, a regular dose of good reading, and conversations with friends and colleagues to keep me in shape to deal with the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities of the new year.

Peace and prosperity to you and yours.