After 30+ years in this business, from start-ups to global companies, I’ve sat through more brand plans than I can count. Most are well written. The language is right, OGSMs, positioning, brand architecture, consumer journey... You can often tell people have been trained.
But then you get into the actual business, and the gaps begin to show. Below summarizes themes I've seen from first-hand experience.
- Pricing isn’t understood, it’s assumed.
- Everyone learns the 4 P’s, but I’ve found in many instances marketers lack fluency around how a shelf price actually gets built. Net FOB/net revenue, DMU, RMU, and margin flow are the backbone of the business, not finance jargon. If you don’t understand how money moves through the system, you’re not setting strategy, you’re guessing.
- Many metrics are still a mystery.
- Shipments vs. depletions are elementary. However, beyond that it can be hit and miss. I once met a brand manager, 7 years into the role at a global company, ask me what I meant by sales per point of ACV.
- And even when people know the metrics, they treat them like gospel, ignoring syndicated proxies from Nielsen and Circana. Useful, but far from complete.
- Sales teams are treated like a black-box.
- One of my simplest tests to assess a marketer’s engagement is ask who their sales counterparts are in a major market.
- I once asked a brand director (two years in role) this same question about Los Angeles, and he didn’t know. Some of that is structural, layers between marketing and sales, but at some point, that becomes an excuse. If you don’t know who’s selling your brand, you’re disconnected from reality.
- Most learning happens outside the building.
- In any role in my career, I spent as little time in the office as possible. The real education was in the market. I love being "in the field". Riding with colleagues, reps, distributor personnel and talk shop all the while (with clearly understood objectives and agenda). This is how one builds relationships when things get hard and avoid the trap of cookie cutter marketing plans that may not apply to all cities.
- The best compliment a marketer can get is when all of the teams outside the building know and trusts them as one who makes their job easier.
- Financial acumen stops at the marketing budget.
- Most marketers can manage A&P though that’s not the same as understanding a business. Contribution margin, working capital, inventory turns, and cash flow keep the lights on.
- If we don’t understand that, we’re not managing a brand, we’re just spending money.
The above won’t apply to all marketers, but it applies more often than we want to admit. And sooner or later, the market stops grading our decks… and starts keeping score.
