2 years ago

Is decoupling marketing development and strategy from asset production worthwhile?

Ina Niessler
Many businesses are implementing huge changes to their corporate strategy as they attempt to adapt to the challenges of the new normal. They’re exploring new ways of meeting customer needs and changing the way
Ina Nießler_Client Development Director_Client Services_SPRING Production

Many businesses are implementing huge changes to their corporate strategy as they attempt to adapt to the challenges of the new normal. They’re exploring new ways of meeting customer needs and changing the way digital marketing assets are both designed and published.

To facilitate such transformations, businesses are revaluating the effectiveness of their marketing departments and investigating whether a new set up could help them achieve more.

The first question they ask themselves is:

Does our marketing department possess the right competencies?

Many companies develop their marketing strategy internally, using all their experience and knowledge to devise a plan that can succeed. They will then usually employ a creative agency to develop a conceptual approach that can deliver their strategy. But when it comes to producing all the required assets for a marketing campaign, companies can sometimes encounter unforeseen challenges.

As marketing trends, needs, and requirements are constantly shifting, in-house marketing teams don’t always have the right mix of competencies to create the assets required for a new campaign. This can often leave companies with a headache…do they bring in digital specialists, expand their marketing team, or partner with external service providers?

A decoupled approach to production could be the answer.

Decoupled production means separating marketing production from strategy and creative ideation and assigning it to a dedicated marketing execution partner. In practice, by decoupling marketing production, brands can revolutionise the way their marketing department operates with new skills, enhanced production quality, lower costs and, most importantly, more flexibility.

What are the advantages of a decoupled approach?

Measurability and KPIs

A decoupled approach offers you the ability to measure production KPIs which allows the marketing department to gain clear, transparent insights into the production process. This upgrades the entire marketing department as a whole –– they move away from being a pure service provider to an internal consultant that works closely with relevant stakeholders.

Scalability

Experience has shown that marketing production is subject to seasonal peaks and troughs. Sometimes you’re busy, sometimes not. A dedicated marketing execution partner can be switched on or off depending on demand.

Fixed costs

By outsourcing to a marketing execution partner, marketing production is transformed into variable costs instead of fixed costs for marketing staff doing the implementation in-house.

Time to market (speed)

Digital communication and social media require speed in implementation. A marketing execution partner is dedicated to producing assets which guarantees that they can handle large volumes of work at any given time with speedy time-to-market timescales.

Strengthening headquarters and the role of marketing 

All of the above-mentioned points support and strengthen the company’s headquarters and especially the role of marketing. In short: Towards more qualitative work and away from pure implementation. 

What are the advantages for having access to a full range of marketing implementation services?

One Point of Entry 

There is only one entry point for all implementation requests of marketing materials. Marketing staff do not have to think about which provider to request and to commission for which project. Also, with a broad-based service provider, different implementation areas can work directly with each other without someone from marketing having to transfer data or deliver extra briefs. This avoidance of micromanagement reduces the burden on the marketing department. In addition, it also provides greater agility and flexibility. Furthermore, brand consistency can be ensured across all channels, also on the part of the service provider.

Transparency 

It is easier to achieve complete transparency regarding costs and assets. When working directly with subsidiaries and countries, marketing also gets a transparent overview of the implementations and activities outside the headquarters.

Challenges for companies 

In addition to all the benefits, the transition also brings challenges.

For many companies, it means a change in the role of the marketing communications department within the company. A strengthening and an upgrading. By specifically focusing on strategy and conception, this also creates a focus on quality. The quantity is transferred to the external partner. This means a change of responsibilities for marketing and the course of cooperation with all stakeholders in the company, thus influencing the positioning within the company.

What all belongs to marketing strategy?

Marketing is a very broad field. Here, we are referring specifically to the field of marketing communications.  The strategy is of great importance and determines the medium- to long-term focus for communication. It is the basis for the development of the marketing concept and, finally, for its implementation.

What all belongs to a marketing concept

Especially in the field of marketing communication, there are certain components of the communication concept:

– Strategic goals

– Addressing target groups

– Determination of communication goals

– Derivation of the communicative core messages

– Selection of communication channels and media

What is marketing production?

This is the execution and implementation of the individual marketing assets. In short, the production of all conceivable materials for marketing communications.

Do you want to learn what this means for your company, and where the potentials, and challenges lie?

Then let’s talk: You can contact me right here: Ina Nießler, Director Client Development, inni@spring-production.com, +49 162 252 38 90

Read more about the potential check here


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About me

I write about topics such as technology, business development and lean marketing

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Is decoupling marketing development and strategy from asset production worthwhile?

Ina Niessler

Client Development Director

Project management Sales