The research findings are consistent: senior executives want proven ROI from marketers. This is not only the new mandate for marketers it applies to agencies as well. (78 per cent) CEOs do not trust their advertising and media agencies to create effective campaigns because they have lost faith in their ability to deliver performance-driven results, according to a report. More than three quarters (76 per cent) of chief executives feel agencies are too “inward looking” and talk too much about “creativity as the saviour” without being able to quantify the impact their work has had on business results, according to the Fournaise Marketing Group. It reveals bosses believe their advertising partners are “too quick” to take credit for results they can not prove they have had a direct impact on and are often “too opportunistic. Add it up it means the “business” of marketing has to change.
What do I mean when i talk about the “business” of marketing ? I’m talking about the elimination of agency dinners, the worthless meetings to discuss nice looking Power Points, the worthless time editing Power Points and an elimination of ass kissing marketing executives who are busy attending conferences in France to pat themselves on the back while saying there is no more budget dollars to do another mobile campaign even though it had a positive ROI.
While marketers are busy promoting themselves less than one quarter of companies report they “always succeed,” while more than 60 percent “often or sometimes fail” according to a Forrester study . 60%?! Why because the business of marketing made implementation, with the customer in mind, impossible. In addition both companies and agency clients have a greater focus on customer acquisition than retention (44% vs. 16% for companies and 58% vs. 12% for agency clients) despite the fact that attracting a new customer costs five times as much as keeping an existing one and 71% of consumers have ended their relationship with a company due to poor customer service.
Tight budgets and the lack of a clear online strategy have marketing executives concerned about losing business in the digital age. Even though companies are investing in their online marketing operations, chief marketing officers (CMOs) say there is still too big a gap between the expectations of consumers and the digital manpower they have available to deliver a satisfying online experience. How can this happen today ? Look no further than advantageous agencies who see budget dollars along with marketers who still think of digital as an add-on to their marketing strategy.
Oliver Blanchard says “The same hacks and posers who faked it all through 2012 and 2011 and 2010 and 2009 and 2008 will continue to lie and sell bullshit in 2013. Why? 
Because it’s easier. Because they’ve gotten a free pass so far. Because there’s good money to be made, selling bullshit. Because there’s a business model behind it and an “industry” to drive it, complete with metrics and equations and conferences and publishers all lining up to make their buck off confused senior managers with budgets to burn. There’s no incentive for any of this to stop. None. Nobody who has spent the last five years selling bullshit and building a personal brand around it is going to wake up tomorrow and have an epiphany. They know what they’re doing. They’ve been doing it long enough. If they had a conscience or an ounce of professional responsibility, they wouldn’t have chosen that path. They won’t “self-deport” from their trajectory of made-up success and industry status. Not until the speaker invitations and the money dry up. We’ll have to wait until they get fired or move on to the next scam.” The question is when will they be kicked out the door?
