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The time for marketing is now (again)

Look beyond performance

Fran Crippen loved the water. The US long-distance swimmer had beaten his competition many times. 7 medals in 6 years—one gold, four silver, two bronze. Olympic games in reach. Expectations were high for the Fujairah Marathon Swimming World Cup. Fran promised to call...

Never let a good crisis go to waste

Five secrets of marketing career success

A few days ago, The Marketing Society asked me to share with their senior marketers the insights from the largest ever study on marketer success. Seats were arranged in a circle, so I could see everyone’s eyes as I walked onto the stage. The room was packed. Before we...

The time for marketing is now (again)

How to get promoted

Making it to the next level can be exciting. More responsibility, more options, more pay. But how to get promoted? Perhaps your firm has a fixed promotion schedule, and it’s either “up” or “out.” Perhaps your boss likes you and pushes you up the ladder. Or perhaps...

Never let a good crisis go to waste

Do your numbers

When the numbers don’t add up, business dreams evaporate, change movements stall, projects die. Perhaps people love your idea. Perhaps no one asks if the numbers work out. But sooner or later, someone will. Ideally, that someone is you. ...

The hidden power of the marketing funnel

The hidden power of the marketing funnel

Last weekend, my partner and I took a bicycle tour to a small village near our home, called Adendorf. Each year, it hosts an iconic garden exhibition – a sales show with plenty of champagne and canapés. After a few glasses, we passed a large exhibition of roofed...

Apply for the EU and US CMO Fellowship 2020

Apply for the EU and US CMO Fellowship 2020

For the sixth year in a row, I'll work with The Marketing Academy, McKinsey, and Wisdom to help 40 blue chip marketers on the way to CEO. This year - for the first time - we'll run a U.S.-based program in addition to the successful European stream. The program is free...

How will life look after the crisis?

Ask customers for feed-forward, not feedback

Who’s the most powerful person in a firm? The CEO? No. The CFO? No. The head of sales? No. It’s the customer. When a customer complains, the CEO sits up. When a customer wants to leave, the head of sales gets on the case. In a firm, the customer’s voice trumps all...

What could you create in 90 days?

To instigate change, first build credit

“You can help us build a love brand. I want to hire you,” the CEO said. Nina was thrilled. Her last years in consumer goods had been tough. Tight margins. Aggressive competitors. A firm, in which everyone was a marketer. This telecoms CEO promised something very...

Make the middle manager cool again

Make the middle manager cool again

Who wants to be a middle manager? Not many people. It’s nice to be the trainee – young and cool; it’s nice to be the CEO – with all the power. But the rest? Stuck in the sandwich’s middle. No longer cool. Not really powerful. If middle managers were brands, they’d be...

The time for marketing is now (again)

Have more skin in the game

Everyone in the boardroom turned to me in anger. I spent much of my former career doing two jobs: leading large brands and running major marketing transformation programmes. I loved both. And in both, when it came to success, my head was on the table. In marketing, I...

How will life look after the crisis?

Don’t recruit yourself

We love the familiar, the recognisable, the known. And when it comes to picking a team member, many people are looking for a clone. Men recruit men. Creatives recruit creatives. Number crunchers recruit number crunchers. It’s easier to relate. It’s kind of natural....

The time for marketing is now (again)

Thrive in a matrix organisation

Do you thrive in a matrix organisation? In a matrix, everybody is in charge--and nobody has all the power. The person who can tell sales what to do, doesn't exist. The person who can tell product development to make amazing things, isn’t on that list. The person who...

Make the middle manager cool again

To make change happen, ditch your ego

Trust in politicians has evaporated. Consumer trust in brands is at an all-time low. And too many executives don’t trust their bosses. What’s the problem? Perhaps it’s professionalism? Brexit, for example, is a tough (and stupid) challenge – but the politicians in...

The hidden power of the marketing funnel

Beware the ‘binfluencer’

The internet is great. If you know something and you want to write a blog that 100,000 people read, you can. If you want to do a podcast that 100,000 people hear, you can. The internet is also great for people who don’t know much, but are good in front of a camera and...