Integrated Marketing Management Aligns Executional, Operational and Analytical Processes in a Closed-Loop Process

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1 Research Publication Date: 26 October 2010 ID Number: G Integrated Marketing Management Aligns Executional, Operational and Analytical Processes in a Closed-Loop Process Kimberly Collins This research defines executional, operational and analytical marketing processes, and explains how each comes together in a closed-loop marketing process from concept to measurement. Marketing organizations should understand how to define their marketing processes and develop an integrated marketing management strategy. Key Findings The distinction between campaign management, marketing resource management (MRM) and integrated marketing management (IMM) is not always clear. Executional, operational and analytical processes help define these areas of marketing. Executional, operational and analytical processes come together in a closed-loop process to support marketing initiatives. The relative importance of each process type will vary depending on the phase of the closed-loop, end-to-end marketing process. Recommendations Understand how campaign management, MRM, analytics and performance management relate to executional, operational and analytical marketing processes. Document and define your end-to-end marketing processes. Understand how executional, operational and analytical processes can be used at each phase to maximize marketing benefits. Close the loop across all marketing initiatives to support strategic marketing planning Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Gartner is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. or its affiliates. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without Gartner's prior written permission. The information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information and shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in such information. This publication consists of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. Although Gartner research may include a discussion of related legal issues, Gartner does not provide legal advice or services and its research should not be construed or used as such. Gartner is a public company, and its shareholders may include firms and funds that have financial interests in entities covered in Gartner research. Gartner's Board of Directors may include senior managers of these firms or funds. Gartner research is produced independently by its research organization without input or influence from these firms, funds or their managers. For further information on the independence and integrity of Gartner research, see "Guiding Principles on Independence and Objectivity" on its website,

2 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Marketing organizations don't always think about process. However, the growing complexity in the marketing organization makes it imperative that companies document and define their marketing processes and automate them. An understanding of executional, operational and analytical processes, and how they relate to technologies such as campaign management, MRM and marketing performance management (MPM) is essential to marketing being able to develop and automate processes that bring business value (efficiency and effectiveness). IMM is how these processes and technologies are brought together to support a closed-loop marketing process for any initiative. ANALYSIS There is much confusion in the market on the distinction between campaign management, MRM, MPM and IMM (formerly known as "enterprise marketing management" or EMM). There are three different types of marketing processes that largely represent campaign management, MRM and MPM (see Figure 1). When these three processes are brought together into an end-to-end, closed-loop marketing process, IMM is achieved. IMM aligns these three categories of marketing processes to achieve return on marketing investment (ROMI). Gartner recently changed the term from EMM to IMM (see "Focus on Integrated (Rather Than Enterprise) Marketing Management"). Figure 1.. Align Executional, Operational and Analytical Processes Source: Gartner (October 2010) The three types of marketing processes include: Publication Date: 26 October 2010/ID Number: G Page 2 of 7

3 Executional Processes (Campaign Management): These processes analyze customer data, segment customers, and deliver communications to customers or partners across multiple channels and points of interaction. Campaign management is the term we use to describe this set of executional capabilities and processes. This covers all targeted campaigns, including those that are outbound, inbound and eventtriggered. Channels of communication include traditional channels, such as direct mail, and the Web, as well as sales and customer service channels (e.g., contact center). Newer channels include mobile and social media. This set of processes also includes marketing enabling sales in areas such as lead management and distributed campaign management. Customer responses and feedback are important components of closing the loop. Benefits: Drive revenue growth, improve customer experience and increase operational efficiency of targeted campaigns Operational Processes (MRM): These processes support the internal operations of the marketing department and management of resources (e.g., budget, human and content/assets). MRM describes the set of operational processes and associated application functionality. Subprocesses include planning and financial management, creative production management, digital asset and content management, and marketing fulfillment. Subprocesses, such as creative production management, marketing asset management and marketing fulfillment, support higher-level processes, such as brand management, that manage the end-to-end creative process from idea to fulfillment. Benefits: Improved accountability and cost tracking, decreased costs, reduced waste, and stronger brand Analytical Processes (Analytics and Performance Management): These processes support executional and operational processes by driving planning, optimizing outcomes and measuring performance. Many of these processes are embedded within the executional and operational ones. For example, analytical processes that support campaign management include segmentation, predictive and propensity modeling, customer value analysis, customer data mining, Web analytics, and lead and campaign measurement. Analytical processes that support MRM include budgeting, media planning and optimization, simulation/scenario planning, content usage and effectiveness metrics, financial analysis, and cycle time measurement and analysis. Analytical processes that cross both campaign management and MRM include MPM, marketing mix optimization, ROMI analysis and market/competitive intelligence. Benefits: Ability to measure and compare marketing performance across the marketing mix, ability to calculate ROMI Benefits can be achieved for each major process area; however, integrating the three types of processes maximizes revenue growth and attribution, builds customer and brand loyalty, and minimizes costs and waste, thus optimizing ROMI. Chief marketing officers should help their companies define end-to-end marketing processes, and determine the subprocesses across campaign management, MRM and analytics that will support the macrolevel process. The overall process should remain the same, but different subprocesses will be necessary at different phases and for different types of marketing initiatives (e.g., direct campaign, advertising campaign, retention/loyalty program). The marketing process should be designed around the customer, to improve the customer experience in ways that will increase satisfaction and loyalty and drive revenue for the company, while minimizing marketing costs (see Figure 2). Publication Date: 26 October 2010/ID Number: G Page 3 of 7

4 Figure 2. Create a Closed-Loop Marketing Process Source: Gartner (October 2010) These three types of marketing processes (executional, operational and analytical) and their subprocesses get integrated into the closed-loop marketing process from concept to measurement. IMM weaves together executional, operational and analytical processes throughout the subphases of the closed-loop process. The process steps for the closed-loop process include: Develop concept or marketing plan: This is the phase or process step where concepts about campaigns, promotions, loyalty programs, product launches and creative ideas are formulated. Objectives for each can be set and aligned with overall marketing objectives and corporate objectives. Operational and analytical processes are weighted heavier at this phase. Operational processes for objective setting, project management, and concept review and approvals are utilized in this phase. Analytical processes help determine potential benefits or effectiveness in the market, as well as establish metrics for measuring outcomes. Executional processes focus on understanding potential target segments for the marketing initiative. Plan and optimize: Once the concept or marketing plan is approved, the next phase is to develop a better understanding of the market and to develop a more detailed plan for the marketing initiative. Analytical processes are vital to this phase. Analytical processes support competitive and market intelligence, as well as customer analysis, to determine optimal target audiences or segments. Operational processes help define the plan in more detail, and can be used to seek quotes or bids from external vendors, if needed, for work on the initiative. Executional processes help determine the actual segments or audiences that will be recipients of the marketing initiative, and help determine appropriate channels and sequencing of channels for multistage campaigns. Analytical processes help to optimize campaigns, offers, channels, promotions and media. Allocate resources: At this phase, the team that will work on the initiative is identified, and the budget is established or drawn from pre-existing program budgets. There is a Publication Date: 26 October 2010/ID Number: G Page 4 of 7

5 heavy reliance on operational processes for budgeting, financial management and human resource allocation, and the analytical processes that support them. Create campaign or content: At this phase, campaigns and content are created for the marketing initiative. Executional processes focus on defining and automating the campaign and the channels in which it will run. Operational processes focus on project management for the reviews and approval of creative content based on format and channel type. Content can be stored for reuse in future campaigns. Executional and operational processes become integrated in channels that blend creative content with targeted offers (e.g., digital marketing and social media). Analytical processes are primarily focused on the measurement and reporting of cycle times for campaign and content creation. Pilot, test and vet: At this phase, the marketing initiative is piloted, tested and updated based on results. Executional processes determine the scope of the pilot and execute the testing phase. Analytical processes measure and report the results of the pilot. Operational processes are used to vet the updates and make appropriate changes to the plan prior to execution. Execute campaign, distribute leads or fulfill content: At this phase of the process, the campaign or promotion is executed, leads are distributed, content is fulfilled, and loyalty programs are managed with customers. Executional processes are of prime importance here, to support campaigns, promotions, leads and loyalty programs. Operational processes support the procurement or fulfillment of marketing collateral and content to the field. Analytical processes track and measure throughout execution of the campaigns, leads, programs and usage of marketing content. Evaluate and analyze results: This phase evaluates the final outcomes of campaigns and promotions, periodically measures loyalty and lead conversion, and provides reports or information in a dashboard for decision making. There is a heavy emphasis on analytical processes. Costs for each of the initiatives can be aggregated. Effectiveness (revenue attribution, satisfaction and retention, and conversion rates) can be measured for each initiative. ROMI for each of these initiatives can be calculated with that information. Close the loop: Closing the loop and feeding results back into marketing planning is essential for improved marketing performance. This phase of the process evaluates each marketing initiative and compares it with others in the marketing mix. Marketing performance across all marketing programs, campaigns, promotions, lead programs and creative advertising, as well as across all marketing channels, is used to develop and plan future marketing initiatives. Marketing mix optimization and scenario planning can be used to optimize and model future marketing plans at a global level, and can also be used to improve the performance of future initiatives in that area. Overall, ROMI can be calculated and assessed. The relative importance of executional, operational and analytical processes vary at each phase (see Figure 3). Understanding how these processes integrate at each phase will enable companies to build IMM platforms that provide more-efficient and seamless processes, regardless of the type of campaign initiative (targeted campaign, creative advertising, digital marketing, promotion, loyalty program, product launch or lead program). Documenting your endto-end marketing process for each type of marketing initiative will help determine your automation and technology requirements, and ultimately will help in selecting better marketing solutions and technologies to support your specific marketing processes. Publication Date: 26 October 2010/ID Number: G Page 5 of 7

6 Figure 3. Relative Importance of Executional, Operational and Analytical Processes by Process Step Source: Gartner (October 2010) Tactical Guidelines Understand the differences between executional, operational and analytical marketing processes. Define an end-to-end, closed loop process for your marketing initiatives. Determine how executional, operational and analytical processes are used at each phase of that process, and the relative importance of each phase. Create an IMM strategy that integrates these processes in the most seamless fashion. Understand the benefits of each process, and how they impact each phase of your closed-loop process. Establish metrics and calculate ROMI. RECOMMENDED READING "The Five Competencies of MRM 'Re-' Defined" "Marketing Framework: Essential Building Blocks for Multichannel Campaign Management Functionality" Publication Date: 26 October 2010/ID Number: G Page 6 of 7

7 "Focus on Integrated (Rather Than Enterprise) Marketing Management" "EMM Platforms Support the Marketing Ecosystem" "Marketing Performance Management Applications: From Reporting to Optimization" "Marketing Performance Management: A Hierarchy of Analytic Applications and Tools" REGIONAL HEADQUARTERS Corporate Headquarters 56 Top Gallant Road Stamford, CT U.S.A European Headquarters Tamesis The Glanty Egham Surrey, TW20 9AW UNITED KINGDOM Asia/Pacific Headquarters Gartner Australasia Pty. Ltd. Level 9, 141 Walker Street North Sydney New South Wales 2060 AUSTRALIA Japan Headquarters Gartner Japan Ltd. Aobadai Hills, 6F 7-7, Aobadai, 4-chome Meguro-ku, Tokyo JAPAN Latin America Headquarters Gartner do Brazil Av. das Nações Unidas, andar World Trade Center São Paulo SP BRAZIL Publication Date: 26 October 2010/ID Number: G Page 7 of 7