Naras Eechambadi: Bringing Method to the Madness of Marketing

With a background in product development, research, analytics, consulting, management, and entrepreneurship, Naras Eechambadi prides himself on seeing the forest for the trees. The CEO of Charlotte, NC-based marketing services provider Quaero Corp., Eechambadi sat with CHIEF MARKETER Web editor Tim Parry to talk about his new book, “High Performance Marketing: Bringing Method to the Madness of Marketing” (Dearborn Trade Press: Chicago, 2005), why marketers need to restructure their organizations and processes in the face of new media, and why so few marketers “listen” to their audience.

CHIEF MARKETER: Why did you write your book, and who should be reading it?

Eechambadi: Marketing executives are under a lot of pressure from different sides – their bosses, their peers, their internal clients, their external customers – while at the same time technology and the media/channel environment are changing rapidly. I felt the need for a framework for them to think about their overall situation holistically -i.e. not just in simple financial ROI terms – and arrive at solutions that best fit their circumstances and resources. The book is an attempt to provide them such a framework to simplify their decision – making and put their measurement, technology, and operational challenges in context.

The book should be read by senior marketers as well as executives who interact with or support them in finance, IT, customer service, CRM, and sales.

CHIEF MARKETER: What point in the book should give readers the biggest “aha!”?

Eechambadi: If I have done my job well, the “aha” should come in Chapter 1 – it should tell the readers that I am discussing a problem that is very real for them and that the solutions discussed are relevant to them. It should also tell them that there is a way to figure out how to prioritize their issues and go about tackling them in a systematic manner rather than jumping on to the latest hot idea.

CHIEF MARKETER: How should marketing relate to CRM within most organizations, and how has this relationship changed during the decade?

Eechambadi: Marketing should be either leading or playing a major role in CRM in most organizations. However, this is not often the case. Too often, marketing is seen as a staff or support function that has a peripheral role in CRM or is just another seat at the table. However, with the increasing realization that true CRM requires more than technology and is more than just effective sales and efficient service operations, it is becoming increasingly clear that marketing can and should drive customer strategy, which in turn should be the starting point for CRM. We see marketing starting to play a more central role in CRM in many organizations.

CHIEF MARKETER: How important is it for marketers to scan social media such as blogs and message boards if they already have a CRM strategy in place?

Eechambadi: One of the major challenges for marketers over the past decade has been to shift from an outward focused one-way communications stance to becoming able and ready to listen to their customers through the many new interactive channels that allow customers to talk back to them. This transformation has been slow, even in structured areas such as e-mail. Listening can be hard, especially for people and organizations that are used to talking and setting the agenda.

As for social media, these tend to be unstructured, and it can be challenging to collect, analyze, and distill this information for the purpose of making future decisions. It is very critical in industries that are driven by trends and fashions to be monitoring these media. Companies in most verticals, however, should prioritize their activities and ensure that they are doing basic listening and serving their customers as well as they can, through traditional channels, before they devote significant resources to these social media.

CHIEF MARKETER: How can improvements in marketing performance improve customer relationships and increase customer value?

Eechambadi: Perhaps the greatest impact marketing can have is in analyzing customer relationships over long periods of time across multiple transactions to truly understand what drives customer value and how this, in turn, drives shareholder value. This insight can help focus customer-acquisition, cross-sell, and retention efforts on customer segments that provide the most upside and greatest return on marketing efforts. Most organizations tend to be very top-line driven in their acquisition, cross-sell, and retention efforts and do not differentiate sufficiently between “good” and “bad” customers. This results in marketing and sales efforts being spread too thin and dissipates the effectiveness of the spending, thus depressing returns and causing a chain reaction that often results in companies throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

CHIEF MARKETER: What are the main factors holding back marketing performance within most organizations?

Eechambadi: The lack of effective processes and organizations that are structured around outdated models, such as types of spending–like advertising, online, direct, promotions, etc.—channels, or products. Most marketing organizations have not changed enough to reflect the new realities. Neither have their processes kept up with the demands of customers and the marketplace.

CHIEF MARKETER: What steps should companies take to improve the effectiveness of their marketing?

Eechambadi: They should be honest in assessing their current situations and identifying where they need to focus to improve performance in the long term, not just through the next breakthrough campaign. They need to spend more time on business fundamentals such as developing more-effective processes, developing their infrastructure, and retraining their people where appropriate. This may not be as exciting as launching the next big campaign, buying the latest software tool, or splurging on an emerging channel, but over the long term it is what pays off. It actually frees up marketers to be more creative and experiment with new ideas. It also makes it easier for them to build bridges with other functions that are already more process driven.

CHIEF MARKETER: What do you see as some major trends in marketing among clients you work with?

Eechambadi: There certainly seems to be more integration across channels, more discipline around measurement and fact-based decision-making. Marketers are also becoming better at building bridges with other functions such as IT, finance, service, and sales.

I am very optimistic that we are entering a golden age of marketing, where it starts to be respected as a major business discipline that adds long-term value and is not just a sales support function, a cost of doing business, or a way to pump up revenues in the short term. Marketers, once they make the necessary adjustments, will have a great deal of fun with all the new media that continue to emerge and play a central part in our lives.