DATE: 5.4.04 FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR: The
Winkler Group
CONTACT: Michael
Fineman
Fineman PR
(415)
392-1000, x21 or mfineman@finemanpr.com
FORTUNE 500 CAN FREE UP $100 MILLION EACH – JUST IN
MARKETING
Marketing
management expert Winkler, calls for accountability in marketing operations
Billions of dollars a year are wasted in the marketing
departments of Fortune 500 companies in, paradoxically, the effort to generate
revenue. While businesses have been
reengineering internal processes, streamlining supply chains and deploying
technologies, the marketing function has remained the least accountable corporate
activity according to marketing management expert Agnieszka Winkler.
Winkler founded a unique pay-for-performance marketing consultancy
that provides companies with the tools and skill sets to improve their marketing
ROI.
”For the past 20 plus years, the focus of marketing
has been on the creative side of the marketing business," said Winkler. "But the linkage between financial performance
and activities has been weak. At the same time, marketing operations have
become increasingly complex with globalized brands, corresponding integration
proliferation of product lines and brands and more.”
"So what do marketers need?” asked Winkler. “They
need the right information and rigorous analytic tools to make business decisions,
and they need streamlined processes to control marketing spends, integrate
marketing messages and improve brand alignment. They also need well-defined
metrics to prove the value of marketing to their CEOs. These are tools that
will enable the CMO to move from a functional manager to
CMO Council board member Jan Soderstrom has noted there
is an “overall consensus among CMOs that techniques, methodologies, tools
or software for measuring marketing results effectively do not seem to exist.”
“It’s apparent that CMOs need to know these tools do
exist,” said Winkler. “We’re talking
about organizational tools to realign
marketing resources and measure staff throughput; to provide a single, consistent
overview of resources, costs and output; to diagnose breakdowns and monitor
compliance; and to map marketing operations worldwide according to set objectives;
among others.”
“In stepping
back and taking a look from the outside, the numbers associated with waste and
duplication in marketing operations are astounding,” said Winkler. “With a $1 billion dollar marketing budget,
not uncommon for these companies, we see a way to free up more than $100
million, in some cases, while improving program quality and brand equity.”
Winkler is the Founder and Chairman of The Winkler Group.
The first two companies she founded, Winkler Advertising and TeamToolz were
both acquired. The Winkler Group is made of senior marketing executives whose
experience includes general management at the CEO level, worldwide branding,
marketing management and operations, market research, advertising and software
development. Clients have included, Sony, Laura Croft/Tomb Raider, Accenture,
Johnson & Johnson, and Hewlett-Packard.
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