Reshaping the Marketing Department

Click 'Read Original' for details. When we think about many marketing and strategy problems, we find that finding a theoretical solution is not difficult; as long as we identify the right problem, we can always find an answer. But putting the theoretical solution into action and actually executing it is another matter. Strategy problems become execution problems, and marketing problems become organizational problems. As a strategist, you must have encountered this situation: you have a suitable solution, but due to functional and organizational issues, everyone has their own interests, and interests determine decisions, so the solution is never executed, and the strategy becomes empty talk. So today we are not talking about marketing and strategy, nor methodology, but returning to the more fundamental organizational issues. How should the new marketing department's organizational structure be built? And how to advance and complete a project from 0 to 1? Explore the model of the new marketing department from three levels: solutions, organizational structure, and execution. As follows: Personalized Solutions When it comes to marketing, it must be creativity; without creativity, it is not marketing. So, for a long time, big ideas have been the antidote for all brands. Almost all brands share a mature solution, which requires brilliant creativity, visuals, and copy, ultimately presented through media to drive sales. So when doing marketing, people rarely think about more fundamental questions: Why shoot a TVC? Why make a set of posters? Why find KOLs? Why go viral? What everyone generally thinks about is how to shoot a TVC, how to make posters, how to go viral. That is wrong; we should step back and think about why, because this universal solution often does not work. A personalized solution is the key to reshaping the marketing department. Based on your product and brand situation, and the consumer consensus you hope to achieve in the future, identify the core problem, propose a strategic direction based on the core problem, position the core event in that strategic direction, and then execute it. This event could be anything: 100 offline activities, 50 industry presentations, 1 billion in down-market media, product iteration and upgrades, 200 salespeople, 10,000 people for ground promotion, placements in 10 blockbusters, sponsorship of popular variety shows... For example, Heytea is a good brand, from product quality to brand tone. But in the process of brand growth, we never see advertising, never see a stunning TVC, never see traditional media placements. Yet they are indeed a good brand. They have their own marketing solution, subtly shaping the brand through product, visuals, PR, word-of-mouth, etc. So, how to sort out the brand's core solution? Actually, there are just two things: identify the problem to be solved and find the solution. Identify the Core Problem Let's talk about problems first. I have always believed that problems are more important than answers. Finding the problem is difficult; many problems are hidden and not easily discovered. So, identifying the core problem is crucial. Don't look at marketing problems, but at corporate growth problems. The social environment is changing, the social media environment is changing, users are iterating. In the fierce external environment changes, what problems have appeared in brand growth? Sort out the hidden problems. Is it a deviation in public consensus, or has the business model reached its ceiling, or is the product aging, or is it just a need to expand awareness? Most people will let their interests decide, and as marketers, they will turn all problems into marketing problems. First, you need to think clearly whether the current brand problem is a marketing problem. It could be a product problem, a market environment problem, a competitor problem, or many problems leading to growth stagnation. For example, I will mention Meters/bonwe's marketing below. They did marketing well, but it had no effect because it was not a marketing problem at all. Using marketing methods to solve it naturally cannot solve it. Market Solution Thinking Brand strategy or solutions ultimately provide a solution to the problem, a definitive solution, not 'this could work, that could also work.' It must be 'this is the only way' to solve the problem, and only do one thing. Two contrasting examples illustrate this well: Li-Ning and Meters/bonwe. The problems they faced were similar: both domestic brands encountered product aging, and young people no longer had these brands on their shopping lists. The problem they needed to solve was how to get the brand back on young people's consumption lists. Facing the same problem, they gave two different solutions. Meters/bonwe sponsored the most popular youth variety show 'U Can U BB' (Qipa Shuo). From a marketing perspective, this should be a very correct decision. The brand wanted to be younger, so it sponsored a youth variety show, which was trendy and had attitude, and the show could display the brand's clothing. I remember they even incubated a shopping APP, traditional brand internet-ization. Almost all decisions were correct. Today, looking at Meters/bonwe, it continues to lose money, and its stock has fallen from over 8 yuan in 2015 to 2 yuan now. Li-Ning faced the same problem, but their solution was not to advertise or expand awareness, but to iterate products with a smaller entry point. We all know that since Li-Ning appeared at New York Fashion Week and changed to 'China Li-Ning', it became a representative of national trend. I have even visited Li-Ning's offline stores several times; prices are not lower than Nike and Adidas, and the clothing is indeed better looking. It is said that annual revenue has exceeded 10 billion. In Li-Ning's upgrade case, we did not see common marketing tactics like advertising blockbusters, large media placements, or variety show sponsorships, but a set of personalized solutions belonging to Li-Ning. Universal solutions are outdated, ineffective, and no longer work. Don't rush to think about how to do it; first think about why to do it. From Meters/bonwe's failure case, we can clearly see the powerlessness of universal solutions in the face of the market. Shooting advertising blockbusters, sponsoring the hottest variety shows, large media budget placements, developing shopping APPs—every decision was correct, even every step was done well, but ultimately nothing was solved. This is a problem of 1 and 0. Li-Ning solved the 1, while Meters/bonwe was obsessed with 0. Without 1, no matter how many 0s, it is still 0. So, in the Internet era, when facing marketing problems, we must return to more essential solutions, provide effective solutions, first solve the problem of 1, and then adding 0s is effective. Jump out of the inherent marketing thinking, switch to market solution thinking, and find personalized solutions for your brand. Reshape the Organizational Structure Let's talk about organization. The organizational structure is built based on solutions. Currently, most marketing departments' structures are built based on previous universal solutions, which are nothing more than brand, PR, media, events, BD, etc., with each department responsible for one part, each doing its own job. Such a patchwork combination is difficult to coordinate effectively. Everyone sweeps the snow in front of their own door. The brand department thinks about shooting a TVC every year, the PR department thinks about who to send press releases to, the social department thinks about riding hot topics to go viral, and BD thinks about cross-industry collaborations. Each does their own thing, ignoring others. Such an organizational structure makes it difficult to accomplish big projects. Cut the Social Department In recent years, all brands have assembled a new department. I don't know what your company calls it; maybe it's the new media department, social department, or communications department. It may exist independently or as a second-level department under the marketing or PR department. Its main task is to do new media communication, operate WeChat and Weibo, etc. If you don't know how to reshape the marketing department's organizational structure, the first action is to cut the social department. This does not mean that social is not needed, but that all communication is on internet social platforms. All content, public opinion, and word-of-mouth are there. All marketing personnel should have social thinking, not just the social department. Moreover, in most marketing departments, the social department is a supporting department, while the core departments are traditional advertising and PR. In this case, social becomes a new tool attached to the traditional system. When all communication is internet communication, the social department should be cut, but employees without social thinking should be laid off. So, all staff should have social thinking, and there should be no separate social department. Of course, many departments are unnecessary; decide what functions to keep based on personalized solutions. From Functional Departments to Project Departments Next is personalized reshaping. Based on personalized solutions, match with personalized organizational structures. Change from modular to dynamic. No longer is it 'I am in branding, I only shoot films; he is in PR, he only sends press releases to media teachers.' The model of sweeping snow in front of your own door makes it difficult to complete comprehensive projects. For example, the major video websites like iQiyi, Youku, and Tencent Video have their marketing mainly responsible for the promotion and dissemination of hit shows, with an organizational model based on hit content. For example, in the early days of Meituan, they needed more merchants to join, so they needed a strong ground promotion model, and thus had a powerful ground promotion team. For example, Li-Ning mentioned earlier focuses on product iteration, using core events to showcase product innovation and drive influence expansion. What marketing needs to do is turn product innovation into a marketing icon. So, different solutions bring different organizational models, changing from universal modular combinations to dynamic organizational models. From being responsible for functions to being responsible for projects. Ultimately, this marketing organization serves the solution. It does not need to be complete with everything. There should no longer be a universal organizational structure, but each marketing department has a personalized organizational structure. It may be that after solving a phased problem in three to five years, entering another stage, it needs to adjust to another organizational structure. The organizational structure will be constantly adjusted, and solutions will constantly change. What abilities are needed at any time? That is, what kind of people do clients need most today? People always think that jumping from an agency to a client is a smooth path, but now creative people from agencies are finding it increasingly difficult to jump to clients. I have several friends in 4A creative roles who have tried multiple times to go to clients and failed. Some succeeded, but after arriving, they were still very uncomfortable. Agency creatives each do their own job: art does art, copywriters write copy. But at a client, it's hard to say; maybe the leader will ask you to do ground promotion. Later, I found that marketers need an important ability—the operator. The ability to bring things from paper to the ground, to accomplish something from zero to one, is becoming increasingly important in the marketing industry. For example, if you are asked to do Taobao Maker Festival, first make a plan, then find suppliers based on the plan, find 10 different suppliers to collaborate, from offline activities to online communication, from advertising to PR, everything. Being able to accomplish this from nothing is a qualified marketing operator. Summary In fact, what we ultimately need to reshape is the collaboration model between people, working together for a solution, rather than each working hard in their own function. Look at many client marketing departments now; it's easy to coast. They have budgets and suppliers. They just have meetings and pick faults, but have no opinions of their own. Shoot films, send press releases, find KOLs, and finally brush traffic. They don't know why they do it; anyway, everyone does it, so we might as well do it. Like Meters/bonwe, shooting blockbusters, doing sponsorships, doing social—all actions are fashionable and diligent, but ultimately they didn't succeed. These are ineffective actions. In the process of reshaping the marketing department, the most important thing is responsibility. Regardless of position, everyone must be responsible for their duties. What the CMO needs to solve is to find the market solution for the brand in the next three to five years, jump out of the marketing framework, find the most fundamental problem, provide effective solutions, and reach consensus within the company. Then, adapt a dynamic organization based on the solution. The principle of this organization is that it can do things and has responsible people. Even the most grassroots personnel must be responsible for things and make decisions independently. And the marketing manager should transform into a project operator. They should not only be able to shoot ads or do PR, but also be able to accomplish something from 0 to 1, providing strong execution for the solution. Three sentences: Provide market solutions, adapt dynamic organizations, cultivate project operators. The above is my understanding of the new marketing organization. Welcome to discuss. Source: Yang Bu Huai (ID: yangbuhuai01)