The end of the financial year is approaching. Does your budget process support your marketing objectives?
May 16th, 2010 by Daniel Young | Filed under Public Relations.We’re approaching the end of the financial year in Australia.
Have all of the leaves fallen off of your marketing program for the 2010 fiscal period?
Or, have you started stripping leaves to ensure that the full year budget is spent before the end of June?
Deciduous Marketing leads to consecutive campaigns targeting big groups of customers when simultaneous campaigns with each targetting relevant / interested groups of customers would be more effective. It is one reason why brands generally have a poor understanding of their customers.
Maybe its time your re-evaluated your marketing processes and approaches.
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Nice approach Dan – there’s been a lot of talk about how conversations have changed in a world of SM, but the idea that financing has to have a complete re-think as well seems pretty original.
The next big question is, after so many years of trying to convince the marketing fraternity that SM is important, unavoidable and basically the future of their (our) roles, how difficult will it be to convince others…? The question of measurement for SM is still well up in the air – it’s seems to be even more nebulous than measuring media results – so how can we convince those in charge of finance for a need to change their approach?
What’s more, finance is just the start. SM can impact the business in so many ways (just as sales and marketing has traditionally guided strategy and development) that to work completely it should be built into the very ground-work of a business – from both top down and bottom up. And that is a whole different kettle of fish.
Hello Alex m’old mucker…
You make some good points but I think that the business case for social media is solidifying, particularly in the B2C space where there are some great business impact/ROI case studies. Its a bit more complicated in B2B but there are definitely ways of joining the gaps between social media and lead generation (for example) in a way that continues to add value but can also persuade others in the marketing team to free up some budget for social media engagement.
I agree with you. Social media needs to lie at the heart of a business. The biggest barrier to that is cultural, ie. a closed, command and control approach to collaboration and communication.
You’re right though that changing the mindset of finance people presents its own set of challenges… I reckon a C-level sponsor for social media would be required. This person would be the change agent for the cultural evolution (prev. par) and they could enact, enforce even, the procedural change within finance.
There you go… 17 and a half points for me for using the most marketing jargon in a comment response and writing a comment that was longer than the original post.
Hi Alex & Dan
I dont understand all the jargon you two are talking about but marketing need to stop blaming finance for everything. Marketing do things. Finance are record keepers. Its like Andrew Strauss blaming the scoreboard attendant for his first ball duck.
Finance dont do the market analysis and analyse threats and opportunities.
Finance dont come up with marketing strategies.
Finance dont decide what activities marketing dollars should be spent on.
The only thing finance do in the budgeting process is help decide how much can be afforded to be spent, this is obviously necessary to ensure the business makes a profit to pay its way and keep everyone employed!
Your example of “quarterly spending initiatives” is a very old-fashioned way of spending money. Many good marketing managers I have seen take their yearly budget and split it between “regular/ongoing”, “campaigns”, and “special/startegic initiatives”. Hence every single month there is ongoing and/or special marketing activity, and so there is no dead period of the year.
To blame the finance function because you run out of money is well.. typical of poor marketers who don’t know how to plan..
The question should not be “Does your financial budget support your marketing plan” (of course it does), the question should be “Does your marketing plan to roll out your initiatives support the business needs all throughout the year.”
LA
I wasn’t pointing the finger at finance, LA. Just making an observation.
In my experience most organisations have a base annual budget for ongoing programs and then quarterley cycles of additional project budget.
The problem is that the social media programs tend to fall into the additional pot, as they aren’t yet considered core. This causes a problem because its essential that once engaged in social media, organisations have the resources in place to ‘continue the conversation’.
Out of interest, do you think finance people understand the opportunity presented by social media or are they more comfortable with marketing programs that are more directly tied to lead generation?
By the way, I will be in touch to recognise your contribution as the most active commenter, here at Just Another 24 Hours.