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Why CEO’s Need to be Involved in Marketing

By Jacqueline Drew
START Marketing Inc.
www.startmarketing.com

I'm not proud of it, but recently I completed a marketing plan for a client who was not happy with what he got – he didn't like the ideas in the plan, he didn't like the decisions in the plan, so of course didn't want to execute 90 % of what was in the plan.

What happened to cause such client dissatisfaction? Well, the owner of the business had decided not to be involved in the planning process, and had instead delegated this role to his manager. Now, the manager was very bright, and so I thought we could still get a good plan without the owner's involvement. Needless to say, I was wrong. So for all of you top executives out there delegating key marketing decisions to your managers, sales representatives and personal assistants, I thought I'd give you a few key reasons why you should reconsider doing so:

• First, as the owner or leader of a company, your personal reputation will judged against the brand created by the marketing program, so you need to be involved in ensuring the marketing program is comfortable for you. In the case of my dissatisfied client, the manager and I were keen to give the company a larger public image through a series of local radio ads. The owner was painfully shy about being seen to aggrandize his business in any way, even though we had intended to portray a friendly, humble corporate image. He thought we were trying to make the business seem too “big time.”
• Second, if the CEO doesn't get involved in the process, they won't buy into the plan. A piece of paper presented at the end of the process can never reflect all of the passion and debate behind the decisions it details. Bold decisions look crazy. Safe decisions look obvious. Had the CEO been at the table those bold decisions would be revelations. The safe decisions would have been wise. And the plan would have been his own.
• Finally, if the CEO's power isn't behind the plan, then there is no authority to execute it. The manager had the idea power, but not the spending power. He also didn't have intimate knowledge of the finances to be sure that what we were recommending was affordable. We also discovered that the owner had his own marketing ideas and direction which wasn't shared with us. So the plan wasn't at all the powerful tool it should have been.

So what became of my client? They are moving forward on some aspects of the plan…and we've both now got the 20/20 hindsight about what went wrong. I am still pleased to be dealing with them….perhaps more carefully than before. The owner also offered me the chance to take on another strategic project, for which he insisted he would not be involved. I politely declined.