Many organizations realize their current marketing structure is no longer serving them well, as the demand for integrated marketing brings to light silos and complexities that make coordinating messages difficult. But before an organization can restructure effectively, it has to have a deep understanding of how marketing is changing.
In these videos from Lindsay, Stone & Briggs’ Jumpstart Series—a precursor to the agency’s Brandworks University conference in May—Monitor partners Sandra Pocharski and Steven Goldbach discuss the importance of integrated marketing, along with the structural barriers organizations often confront when trying to achieve it.
In the first video, Steven Goldbach reminds marketers that customers are expecting not just great products or services, but great experiences—and this requires reaching them at multiple touchpoints, in a consistent and effective way. Sandra Pocharski also notes that the breadth of experience consumers are looking for requires organizations to be extremely well-aligned to deliver this effectively—not simply putting a Band-Aid on silos by using increasingly complicated matrixes, as this only increases the cost of coordination.
In the second video, Sandra Pocharski outlines the benefits of moving to a simpler structure in which marketing decisions are made not by those in “super-prescriptive” specialties, but by managers with a more holistic view of the brand purpose. Steven Goldbach adds that marketing teams should be composed of flexible players who can switch roles when the need arises, instead of highly specialized ones that are only comfortable in a specific area—in other words, “we need more hockey players and fewer football players.”
Sandra Pocharski is a Partner with Monitor and the head of the firm’s Leadership and Organization practice. Her work with clients has centered on business unit and brand strategies as well as organization and process redesign, capability development and change management. She has designed and facilitated major strategy and marketing excellence programs with nearly a dozen Fortune 500 clients and has accumulated significant experience in the consumer products, financial services and life sciences sectors. She received her MBA at the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College, and her B.A. in Economics from Stanford University. She can be reached via e-mail at Sandra_Pocharski AT monitor DOT com.
Steven Goldbach is a Partner at Monitor and leads the firm’s North American CPG practice. His work with consumer-oriented companies focuses on helping clients become more prepared to engage with consumers in a highly connected world. Steven led Monitor’s work with one of the world’s leading consumer goods companies to reinvent its approach to consumer communications. Steven is a frequent speaker on the topic of integrated marketing. He is a graduate of Columbia Business School and Queen’s University. Reach him by e-mail at Steven_Goldbach AT Monitor.com.