The Business Case For Investing In Your Marketing Now

Cost pressures, budget cuts and resourcing issue are causing many companies to retrench and focus on the immediate rather than the future.  Understandable, but not the right thing to do, regardless of whether your business is B2C or B2B if your ultimate aim is brand growth.

So how do you build the business case and convince the CFO and CEO to invest in your marketing strategies now?

To build that business case you need to demonstrate:

• That you have cut costs and found savings – recognised the need to support the business in the short-term, and put in place the disciplines to sustain those savings going forward
• That your teams are working efficiently and effectively – and that you have priorities to focus on to further improve once budgets allow
• You have a clear, evidence based rationale to underpin your business case with aligned teams supporting your strategy, and ideally a champion supporting your cause.

Cutting costs and findings savings in marketing

We’ve previously identified a number of ways to cut costs without damaging your brand or agency relationships, but here’s a reminder of some of the fundamentals:

• Repurpose, reduce, recycle – make the most of the assets and collateral you already have. Consistency of messaging will support brand building, and it also has sustainability benefits through reduced production costs.
• Agency contract compliance – to provide cost transparency and unearth hidden inefficiencies – done properly it builds trust and collaboration between the brand and agency teams.
• Just doing things well – better briefing and constructive and collaborative creative evaluation and feedback is more efficient for all concerned
• Roster rationalisation – by having a more streamlined roster you avoid duplication and the hidden costs of managing and monitoring too many agency partners
• Agency fee benchmarking and resource optimisation – useful at any time to  identify inefficiencies and any abnormalities in rates/staffing, but particularly useful when scopes of work have changed due to budget cuts.

Efficient and Effective Ways of Working

When was the last time you stood back and reviewed your communications development processes in detail.  Where are the overlaps, where are the bottlenecks?  With the convergence in media, creative and production there should be ample opportunity to deliver efficiencies.  Having an objective, impartial review of processes can help overcome resistance to change.

Evidence based rationale

Industry best practice, latest trends and insights and case studies from competitors and other sectors help guide decision making and underpin recommendations.  Prioritisation of recommendations with an understanding of indicative costs, complexity and risk creates a roadmap for implementation, and confidence for key decision makers that the proposed actions aren’t just a ‘pet project’ but part of a well thought out plan.  Having a senior stakeholder to champion your plans adds credibility and confidence.

On-going having strong communications to update the organisation and teams on progress, highlight quick-wins or iterative gains maintains commitment and focus across the teams, and helps to mitigate fear of change and the unknown.

Having immediate quick-wins and a clear plan of action ready for when conditions improve puts you at a competitive advantage.

At the Observatory International we have a number of techniques to help you build your business case for change and investment.  Do contact us if it would be helpful to find out more.