Our blog


07/12/2010 12:50 PM
How are you going to keep the FD away from your budget?
It is around this time of year (for companies that operate a calendar fiscal) that the Finance Director typically seeks to grab back some of the marketing budget. If the activities in the annual marketing plan haven't been implemented yet (or the funds for have yet to be committed) then you can bet the FD will be looking to take back what they can.


The marketing department often have themselves to blame. I guess that in a typical UK marketing department 90% of the time is focused on implementation and short term trading - they forget to balance this with ROI measurement and building long term brand health. If the Marketing Director spent more time demonstrating a return on investment to the board it would make it more difficult for the Finance Director to grab back some of the budget.


What makes this more frustrating is that it is easier than ever to demonstrate an ROI. Yes certain activities can't be measured in detail but econometric analysis techniques are more sophisticated than ever before and it is less expensive than it used to be to do this analysis.
How many are prepared to fight for their budget? How many can demonstrate the ROI to justify keeping the FD away from the budget?

06/25/2010 05:10 PM
Is now the time for you to license your brand?
Brand licensing isn't new and in a lot of cases is done badly. There are many examples of companies slapping a logo on to a product that has no relevance to the brand (would anyone like to buy Coca-Cola branded wallpaper? It's available here: http://interiorandgarden.com/coca-colalicensedborder-10b10-5800200.aspx ).

If licensing is done well (eg Mars Ice Cream) it can become a powerful revenue stream, broaden brand appeal and build overall brand awareness as well as prompting consumers to view the brand in a different way.

We've recently been looking at this for a client. The revenue generated from the licensing fee will be invested by our client back in to their marketing budget, giving them more funds to build their brand and sell their core products. However to ensure the license doesn't risk damaging the brand we've advised our client to work very closely with the licensee on an ongoing basis and retain a considerable amount of control on how the brand may be used by the licensee.

As budgets continue to be cut we think more CMO's will be open to the idea of licensing to generate additional revenue and extend the brand but they need to be careful not to erode brand equity and ensure they don't let their brand become something it was never supposed to be.