Recession, my foot! Lady luck still loves Google

Lady luck may have deserted the whole world. But she still smiles at Google.

Look at the stellar results. Google’s net income for the Q1-08 grew 30 percent, to $1.31 billion, or $4.12 a share, compared with $1 billion, or $3.18 a share, in the first quarter of 2007. Revenue climbed 42 percent, to $5.19 billion, from $3.66 billion a year earlier. The stock price soared to $535.

Excluding commissions paid to advertising partners, a widely followed measure, Google’s revenue was $3.7 billion, slightly higher than analysts expected – a rare occurrence by itself. Its profit, excluding the cost of stock options, was $4.84 a share, handily beating forecasts.

That’s the power of business model. Come inflation or recession, a robust business model could insulate the even the most vulnerable of businesses.

But I like recession for something else. It makes even the smuggest of breeds – marketers – to sit up and revisit their inherent deficiencies. Courtesy Swaminathan of Cequity, I was led to this CMO council study. Quite some candid admissions there. So unusual since CMOs don’t often own up and don’t skip a beat even while flying blind. If something goes wrong, they know it’s the client’s business that crash lands.

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Getting the hang of FOM

Fortune 500 marketer Paul Barsch asks “what is the future of marketing (FOM)?”

The open discussion format that he chose throws open the floodgates for comments to pour and pour. I am always intrigued by marketing strategies. Did read a few of those and they were terrific insights. A lot to quote and so I try mashing it up.

FOM ultimately would be something like this –

The integration of data across the entire enterprise so that marketing, finance, R&D, operations, call centers, everyone stop functioning as data silos and are using the same copy of data – could be one of the keys to corporate success in the future. The role of the CIO is changing from technologist to business strategist with IT as a driver of the business. Technology is advancing at rapid clips. CIOs must shed the "I keep the lights on" mentality and move more towards "I help this company innovate and become more efficient with technology".

The same fundamental change in mindset needs to happen for the marketing function as well. Instead of "I make the commercials and run the website" the new mindset will be "I know our customers, I know what they want today, I know what they'll need in the future and this is how we'll make it happen..."

If we want marketing to have a seat at the strategy table, then we have to step up and take ownership of the customer experience. Without this, marketing will, remain queen of the tradeshow. Customers/consumers just aren't impressed anymore with some of the initiatives companies roll out; they expect them. And often, a great service experience in one industry is expected in another--i.e. I had a great dining experience the other night, but why do I put up with the sub-par experience I usually get from the airlines?

As a Chief Relationship Builder, The CMO will need to create opportunities for dialogue with the customer so that he becomes the Voice of Customer (VOC) inside the enterprise. This goes beyond market research into the realm of building communities. [Paul paraphrases Roy Young] when he says, "sales sells, finance finances, R&D designs, what does marketing do?" Owning the VOC and taking more responsibility for the customer experience are two solid strategies for the CMO of the (near) future. Marketing is no longer getting the customers attention, it is engaging the customer. Marketing is no longer “Here’s what we do” its “How we can engage you”.

Marketing will have to embrace the "messiness" and loss of control that will come with a move to social media. If so, marketing may be able to move beyond the "sell one more Britney Spears cd" perspective to one in which marketing is seen by consumers as being honestly concerned with helping consumers solve problems via the creation of product/service solutions and doing so in a way that will create mutually beneficial experiences.

Having a platform for customers to speak to your company is just a tool. Having someone who understands the people speaking, can synthesize trends out of the conversations, and can create plans that meet both customer and business needs will make that tool a powerful part of business.

Future of marketing: A 5th P in the marketing mix. For PARTICIPATION.

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