Marketing Planning and Budgeting is just like Christmas!
by Jay Kassing, MARQUIS
Did you get what you wanted for Christmas this year?
Right at this moment, most Credit Union’s are in some stage of the budget approval process. Marketers and other departments alike, want money for specific projects, in the hopes that St. Nick will deliver… My fingers are crossed for you.
Will marketing get their desired budget? Some will get everything they asked for, of course. Others will get just a few things on their list.
Experience points to three primary reasons why marketers don’t get the budget they asked for. Could the old naughty / nice question be involved?
Reasons:
- Your Credit Union doesn’t believe in Santa Claus (Marketing)
Does your Credit Union get serious about marketing: planning, understanding your market share, unique brand positioning, cross-sell ratios, highlighting specific objectives, and all other seasonal decorations? To do so requires a great deal of analytics. Credit Unions that are not strategic in this way typically relegate the marketing function to a less important role. Therefore, senior management will look for ways to minimize the expense of “marketing.” Yet management will rarely admit why. The leaders of your credit union simply don’t think marketing matters. They don’t believe in Santa Claus. Expect only socks and underwear (same as last year) for your marketing budget…and no American Girl doll or Play-Station 3.
- You stuffed the turkey but never cooked it.
There are a lot of marketers who got money in their marketing budget last year to try something cool, but failed to get it done. Why? And what are the consequences of having not done it?
Many people love taking on new challenges. Yet when you commit and get approval to do something unique, you need to execute on that plan. Some marketers get so lost in the tinsel, that they cannot see the tree. A little planning and a lot of execution is way better than seeking perfection in every step and never getting the project completed. In new things, there is much to be learned with simple trial and error.
Typically, management doesn’t embrace grandiose thinkers who aren’t big doers. The people who can actually “do” run the world. If you want your marketing budget to be taken seriously, you have to do what you say. Otherwise, the consequences of promising, but not delivering – means you can expect nothing but coal in your stocking.
- The chimney is too small to climb down.
If you don’t measure the impact of your marketing, you can only expect to get a little
of this and that in your budget. In other words, marketers who detail exactly what positive revenue/profit/cross-sale/retention impact their marketing has had on the health of the credit union will get everything they want. There isn’t a management team around who won’t spend a dollar to make two. If you can prove you are delivering on what you say, your ticket on the Polar Express will say, RESULTS.
The only way to prove your results is to measure everything. Otherwise, the fat man won’t get down the chimney. If you haven’t measured what you do in marketing…your budget will be – in the words of David Byrne of the 80’s punk band Talking Heads, “Same as it ever was.”
If you want a bigger marketing budget, do more with what you already have, and prove the results of your efforts. Re-think what you are doing. If you can’t measure something, should you do it? In the end, if it isn’t measured, it never happened. Well, at least marketing will never get credit for it. And that isn’t what anyone wants for Christmas.
