It feel like’s it’s 1999 rather than 2009.  A new search engine, another web browser, and the likely demise of an Internet brand.  If you’re confused, I’m speaking about bing, Chrome, and AOL.  What does this all mean to marketers?

Search marketing is exploding.  JP Morgan estimates that paid online advertising this year will explode by 50% to surpass $49 billion, of which nearly $15 billion will come from the U.S.  The reason is simple: more and more purchase decisions begin with online search.  This year, 4 out of 5 people will use a search engine to find products and services, according to Forrester Research.

Customers are more empowered to drive purchase decisions more than ever before thanks to blogs, directories and social networking sites that offer recommendations and product ratings.  And this behavior will only become more widespread as usage of smartphones and netbooks increases, and wireless connectivity spreads.

And the greatest potential lies within the overlap between search and mobile marketing is where the greatest potential lies.  Consider how shopping habits have begun to change.  Consumers, myself included, are relying more on their mobile phone to make real time purchase decisions, comparing prices before buying many items such as books and consumer electronics.  Some websites and marketers now offer electronic coupons you can download to your mobile phone.  And hopefully soon, you’ll be able to automatically receive promotional discounts when you enter your favorite store.

Marketers need to put search marketing at the forefront of their brand and marketing strategy plans rather than only consider it part of their online or interactive marketing strategy.  Those brands that understand how purchase behavior is shifting will be able to capture this market opportunity.

P.S. If you’re interested in reading more, I’d suggest you visit the D7 all things digital conference website.

If you haven’t read Malcolm Gladwell’s article in the latest New Yorker magazine, you really should.  It’s about underdogs and why they need to break established rules in order to achieve success or face certain failure.

When you think about this statement, it makes sense, especially when it comes to marketing strategy.  Why would an organization attempt to compete with rivals on the same dimensions where it’s at a competitive disadvantage?  Why wouldn’t you explore every option to dissolve your competitors’ advantages?

According to Gladwell there may be two reasons why.  First, it’s difficult to commit to straying away from how things are done.  Developing and executing a new marketing strategy that is counter intuitive to standard practices may be negatively received by your key constituents.  But breaking the rules shouldn’t be “safe”.  Pursuing a distinct marketing approach will test your organization’s willingness to stumble in the short-term as well as its appetite for long-term success.

Given that you’re competing on less or inferior resources (skills, funding, capacity, etc), you’ll also have to work that much harder to compete.  The sweat equity that will have to be put in is much greater.  I’m reminded of a Vince Lombardi quote my soccer coach used to drill into us: “Fatigue makes cowards of us all”.  And that’s what happens; not just in sports but also in marketing.  Being the underdog can be thrilling because it permits you be unconventional but it can also be draining since you likely have to do more to get the same tasks completed.

I would add that many of us are so hard wired to marketing a certain way that we involuntarily play by the rules, even when we’re trying to break them.  As marketing consultants we constantly help our clients face this challenge.  It’s not easy to break the mold and sometimes it needs to happen incrementally rather than all at once to avoid having the organization go through shell shock.

Consider the following leading brands and what they did differently as underdogs:

• GEICO: Used unconventional messaging to strike a chord with customers on insurance
• Best Buy: Established different customer experience by eliminating sales commissions
• Apple: Introduced products like the iPod and iPhone that have redefined product categories

A colleague and I recently attended a webinar on “The Inspiration Discipline: Using Inspiration to Drive Business Growth” lead by Andy Stefanovich from Play, the innovation/creative consultancy that Prophet recently acquired.  Many interesting ideas were shared, though one concept in particular stuck with both my colleague and me.

The concept they introduced is called the Human Library, where you use discussions with different types of people to expand your thinking on a specific issue or project (I guess the name Human Library refers to “checking” different people out of the “library” for conversations as needed).  As described, the concept probably doesn’t make much sense, but this example that Andy shared shows how it would work on an actual business project:

Play was working on merger integration for the JPMorgan-Bank One merger and wanted to help their clients better understand best practices in bringing together and integrating two different groups of people.  To help with that, they talked with three people/groups:

1. People who had worked on the AOL-Time Warner merger, who gave advice on how to handle a large corporate merger.
2. The President of the Virginia Military Institute, who oversaw the college’s introduction of women to what had historically been an all male school.  He helped them understand how to introduce a new group of people to an already established entity.
3. A marriage counselor, whose profession is centered on understanding the union of different people.

These three groups represented three categories of people Andy suggested you speak with:

1. Direct (AOL-TW merger),
2. Tangential (VMI President) and
3. Abstract (marriage counselor).

The takeaway from this story was to expand the way you’re thinking about and approaching an issue by gathering inspiration from different points of view.  So next time you’re looking for best practices or a little inspiration, try reaching in to your Human Library and checking out someone from each of these different groups.  You never know what will inspire you!

It’s hard not to notice the number of marketing jobs being eliminated across the country, the hesitancy of companies to add critical staff, and the massive amount of work trying to be absorbed by the remaining team members. Worse yet, the morale of the people left in marketing department dwindles as they fear job security, and have more work to get done in the same hours of the day. The largest impact on the organization though, is the inability to capture on growth opportunities with reduced staff and reduced budgets. Marketing is afterall a key source of growth for companies. And as I noted in an earlier posting, now is the time to invest in marketing - not lose your voice in the market.

So, how are marketing departments getting the work done to drive growth?

First off, they are prioritizing. Not all initiatives are created equal, and with fewer hands to do the work, more focus is being spent on picking the few “right initiatives” to generate growth. Second, they are making important investment decisions - shifting budgets to marketing tactics they feel will yield the biggest bang for the buck. Third, they are outsourcing marketing, but for short periods of time, as needed. Companies with headcount pressure are finding relief through temporary marketing support to help deliver against their core marketing initiatives, and manage the natural ebb and flow of their marketing needs - all without having to hire.

We have seen through our clients a need for on-demand access to a team of seasoned marketing professionals who can help them develop and deliver marketing programs, when needed, for as short or as long as needed. So we developed CMGP OnDemand - access to our team, our diverse skill set, our marketing expertise to address immediate marketing needs. Think of it as an on-call marketing department.

We were intrigued recently with a LinkedIn poll to members of the group, Chief Marketing Officer, requesting members’ one sentence definition of ‘what is marketing?’

We were even more intrigued by the range of answers from CMO’s, marketing VP’s and marketing leaders.

Before we jump into the responses and our thinking we thought it would be worth sharing what the marketing thought leaders from academia say:

• Marketing is the social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.  - Philip Kotler
• Marketing is the whole business seen from the point of view of the final result, that is, from the customer’s point of view. Concern and responsibility for marketing must therefore permeate all areas of the enterprise.  - Peter Drucker
• Marketing is a tightly integrated effort to discover, create, arouse, and satisfy customer needs.  - Ted Levitt

While reading through the posted answers we notice two themes that were present in each answer:

1. The first theme was associated with what marketing’s purpose is, which primarily fell into two camps; either internally focused (i.e. driving sales and profitability) or externally & internally focused (i.e. satisfying the customer that in turn delivers business results).

2. The second theme was associated with the practices of marketing, (i.e. what does marketing do) and with this respect we found answers that ranged from siloed focus of only including communication to what we think of as an integrated effort involving the full marketing mix (we really do think this regardless that Levitt states this as well).

As we are consultants, we’re obliged to look at these two dimensions in the old two by two matrix, and we thought it would be interesting to map the participants answers back into these four quadrants.

While we are not necessarily surprised by the results of this little exercise we are interested in the correlation between the respondants answers and what this means for their respective businesses. Our hypothesis, and what we have experienced with our clients is that those companies that view marketing as an integrated set of activities (think 4P’s including customer service) to satisfy and retain customers perform stronger then those that view marketing as purely a communication function (i.e. advertising) and or purely to drive internal business results (which in our view comes as a result of satisfying a customers need).

What this means for 74% of respondents to this survey is there is an opportunity to deliver more meaning and value to their respective organizations through either shifting their focus to delivering on their customers needs and satisfying them day in and day out and or shifting marketing’s sphere of control to encompass all aspects of their business that impact their customers’ experience and satisfaction.

In full disclosure, one of our partners, Russ Lange weighed in with the following; Marketing is the sum total of everything a company does, intentionally or unintentionally, that affects current and future customers, competitors and partners.

At CMG we stress collaboration and teamwork both when helping our clients solve problems and when turning inward to find opportunities for our own business. One of the nice perks of operating this way is that you have plenty of stimulation to get the wheels turning when a thorny issue arises (and the support to keep you honest). It’s a benefit of working across a variety of industries and a wide range of marketing disciplines as well. We learn from working with clients in one industry and get to apply those ideas to clients in another. And for most of us, that kind of diversity is one of the big draws of working in consulting.

What we’ve learned through our conversations with CMO’s (as part of our CMO Agenda research) and through our experience helping companies is that this type of knowledge and inspiration is truly coveted by marketing leaders. It’s a big part of what led us to kick off our CMO Agenda research, now in its second phase. We are not only getting the opportunity to have fascinating conversations that provide insight and inspiration to our team, but we’re able to pass on the ideas and learnings from participating senior marketers to their peers and our clients.

Here’s an article we published with the CMO Council in their monthly e-journal Marketing Maginified that explores seven thought starters for active leaders looking to transform their organizations. These concepts flowed both from our CMO research and our work, and we hope they spark an idea or two for you.

You can find out more about the first phase of our CMO Agenda research effort by reading our executive summary or requesting a copy of the full report.