Viewpoint September 21, 2009, 1:48PM EST

A Marketer Is a Terrible Thing To Waste

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If your marketing radar is tuned to leading indicators and trends, maybe you were able to see signs of the downturn early enough to be prepared. It's this ability to see the world in panoramic view that makes marketing so vital to an enterprise's long-term viability. No other function focuses on and can integrate these key elements:

• Intelligence: What's going on in the market, and how is the crisis affecting it?

• Customer insights: What do my customers need, and how do I serve them best?

• Value proposition: How do I articulate the value of my product or service and create differentiation?

• Commercial activation: How do I deliver via channel, marketing communications, training, etc.?

Ultimately, marketing is the key to sustainability and vitality—in good markets or economic crises.

Ecomagination, the initiative we launched five years ago to introduce an array of environment-friendly product offerings, is an example of how we at GE heeded the trend that business needed more clean technology. We heard our customers asking for help—from consumers requiring more efficiency to power utilities, airlines, and railroads, determined to emit fewer greenhouse gases without going broke in the process. We connected the dots from very different vantage points and saw a coherent pattern, a strategy that has allowed us to build something new and paved the way for more than $20 billion in revenues that didn't exist before.

Invest in the Best

Most CMOs agree that there are many good marketers looking for jobs right now. One CMO I know voluntarily cut her staff by almost 20%, using this slow environment as an opportunity to expand the roles of the most talented members of her team and recruit top talent for the future.

Marketing recruiter Greg Welch of Spencer Stuart believes that these are the times that make good marketers better. "Difficult business cycles actually make it easier for us at Spencer Stuart to identify the very best leaders," he says. "They are the ones who are able to take flight while facing head winds. Obviously, it takes both courage and strength to lead when the chips are down. During tough times, we often see many weaker companies pull back on their spending, reducing investments in both media and innovation. Interestingly, however, we believe that the best companies and their CMOs are able to actually strengthen their positio—and grow market share."

Confidence

By nature, most marketers take a long-term view. And the ability to see into the future and motivate people to action is a marketing hallmark. So marketers have a role to play in creating a vision for the future, creating excitement about what's possible, and building confidence today that there will be a better tomorrow.

At GE, we are facing the worst economy in a generation, yet we recently announced a $6 billion bet to improve the health-care system through new innovations that will help cut costs, improve access, and increase quality.

Jacko of Kennametal is equally optimistic. He believes that his company's focused efforts "give our employees hope for the future. This has been an excellent opportunity to internally reestablish our brand identity, promise, structure, and processes that will drive the future growth of the company."

Barbarian Group's Palmer sums it up well: "An economic crisis, especially this one, is in most ways about fear and perception. Companies that panic and try for short-term effectiveness in campaigns end up hurting their brand because what people want in a panic, more than anything, is to know it's O.K. Some of that needs to be brands reassuring their customers, and citizens at large, that they are solid and not going anywhere. In other ways, a brand needs to tell people that it is still O.K. to go buy some blue jeans. It is."

A marketer is a terrible thing to waste. Why wait for a crisis to rebuild your marketing impact?

Provided by Design Mind—published by frog design. Written and designed by frog's employees and featuring contributions from guest writers and artists, it provides perspectives on industry trends, emerging technologies, and global consumer culture.