Marketing Champions: Practical Strategies for Improving Marketing's Power, Influence, and Business Impact

If you are tired of the label, "promotions guy or gal", then this book is for you because it expands on the true definition and role of a marketer. Many companies like to put marketing in the advertising, promotions, communications box, and this is where most marketing professionals reside in the organization. However, this is a recipe for marginalization. A true marketing professional masters promotions, advertising and the like, but expands the marketing role to own the customer relationship and experience. For marketing professionals to be taken seriously and have a "seat" in executive circles they must be concerned with terms not usually associated with marketers like cash flow, earnings, shareholder value, and reputation. Even more important, marketing must contribute to corporate and business strategy with daily input and research from having a firm pulse on customer wants and future needs. Roy Young, Allen Weiss and David Stewart show that marketing can and should focus on more than just the "Promotion" aspect of marketing. Chapters detail how to work closely with others in the organization from sales, operations, finance, R & D and even the executive office. The book has very limited treatment of many of the technologies (CRM, data warehousing, analytics etc...) that help enable the measurement of marketing results. But overall, its message is too powerful to not give the book five stars. As a marketer, if you like staying in the promotions box and limiting your career opportuniites then don't read this book. If, however, you have aspirations of the executive suite, or at least the invitation to executive level discussions, then pick up this book and dive in!

All of the innovative marketing strategies and best practices cannot be successful without a well-run organization. "Marketing Champions" provides marketing professionals with the road map to take a more prominent leadership role in driving business performance. This book will change the mindset of marketers as they better align with corporate objectives and forge productive alliances throughout the company. The authors do an excellent job of presenting an approach to win-win relationships for all players. Good tips and structured questions are included to help you easily put key concepts into practice. "Marketing Champions" is a must-read for marketing executives ready to make their organizations one of the most respected and influential contributors to business growth. It is the critical guide for taking ownership of financial and strategic outcomes, breaking down operational barriers, and unlocking the company's full profit potential. Not only will this help CMO tenures last longer than the typical 23 months, but it will better position CMOs to compete for the CEO role.

Marketers need to stop asking for a seat at the table, and start earning it. Marketing Champions explains why Marketing doesn't have a seat today, and offers clear steps to get there. It's the leg-up you've been looking for.

Wow! I wish I had read this book many years ago when I was starting out in my marketing career. Marketing Champions shines the light on the challenges marketing organizations face in building respect for the discipline inside the walls of the company. Marketing is one of the most misunderstood functions in US corporations today; yet it is one of the most powerful and pervasive. This book enables marketers (entry level to CMO) to look at marketing from the outside in. It helps them to 'brand' marketing within their companies. It provides insights that make marketers more successful - by enabling them to build long-lasting relationships with colleagues. If every marketer in your organization reads this book, the value and power of the marketing department will increase tremendously. This is a must-read for any marketing professional who wants to be successful and professionally satisfied.

Here's why I like this book. It really looks at all the "customers" of marketing and gives you the tools and resources to ensure you can add value to them and gain their commitment and buy-in to the marketing agenda, which is inextricably linked to the company's agenda and growth plan. We're talking about the C-suite and internal/external customers. I love the sections around finance and the language of the boardroom, which is all about cash flow, risk/return, and KPIs/metrics. If marketing is ever going to get a seat at the (boardroom) table, it needs to be fluent in the language of its key constituencies, just like it is with external customers. Marketers know that if their messages are not aligned with the critical issues of their prospects/customers, they are unlikely to resonate and gain traction. The same with internal customers (e.g., CEO, CFO, VP of Sales, Operations, etc.). Lastly, I like the last few chapters around uncovering and vetting new opportunities. If marketers can help their company to increase their top-line and the magnitude and velocity of cash flows, there is no reason for them to worry if their company downsizes. It's only when marketing is seen on the periphery that marketers need to worry. Unfortunately, that's all too common today. The corporate shears often prune those "branches" farthest from the trunk or the core (aka, revenue or cash flow distance). This book can help all business people to re-assess how they are perceived internally and externally and how to drive some new, and more positive, perceptions (and value) by focusing on what each audience cares about.