ROUNDTABLE

What does "integrated marketing" mean to you?

Reggie Fils-Aime: It is all about the fulfillment of a big idea. That means all of the elements of the marketing mix are working together to drive the business forward, to make an impact with the target audience. It really is all about getting that big idea out in the marketplace.

Dan Collins: Integrated marketing is having both the message and the execution linked, so that wherever the customer is touching us or looking at us, they're seeing virtually the exact same message. Whether it's an advertising message that's linked to direct mail or to things that are on the Internet -- wherever the customer is looking and touching -- they're feeling the exact same Ritz-Carlton experience wherever they go.

Caren Berlin: Integrated marketing enables brands or businesses to optimize their marketing programs by being "idea centric" and not biased by the delivery mechanisms. It's about focusing on the big idea and then determining how -- and whether -- each discipline can be leveraged to achieve that specific idea.

Kim Manley: It's a great question, really. It doesn't mean a lot to me. I've never known anybody to ask for fragmented marketing. So, my experience with the term "integrated" is received in a fairly cursory manner because everybody I speak to claims or espouses the notion of it being integrated.

Integrated with what? What is integrated? Is it an advertising brief? Is it a communications brief? Is it a public relations brief? If it's integrated to the brand strategy, then it's a holistic brief. I'm somewhat cynical of the notion of anybody who proposes to me that we need an integrated marketing campaign.

How have you made "integrated marketing" work for your brand?

Manley: One of the keys to making it work is limiting the number of agencies you use. The vast majority of fragmentation occurs because of the disparate number of views, perspectives, and opinions that all come forward in terms of redefining, reassessing, or reexamining data regarding consumers -- or perceptions regarding consumers -- that encourage you to look at things in different ways.

While the data points are valid and the insights are valid, you can only execute so many things for so many people. And everybody you use as a supplier will strive to create a point of differentiation in terms of their agency or their insight.

The consequence is that you end up creating things that are fragmented as you seek to address various data points or insights that come from different sources. Therefore, I think you need to have the courage of your conviction -- or the courage to support your brand strategy. In addition, employ agencies that are capable of executing against the strategy, as opposed to consistently questioning the data points or insights you've created.

Fils-Aime: For VH1, probably the best example of integrated marketing is our VH1 Divas show. First, as a programming idea, it's big. It rates well. It really communicates a key element of what our brand, VH1, is all about -- and that's the celebration of great music.

What makes it so special from an integrated marketing standpoint is that we bring it out into the marketplace in a variety of different ways and with the help of a variety of different partners. We bring it out by leveraging our radio network. We bring it out in the marketplace in terms of CDs and DVDs, as well as through affiliations with the performers who appear on the show.

"I've never known anyone to ask for fragmented marketing." KIM MANLEY, ALLIED DOMECQ

Our advertisers also support it with their dollars in terms of linkage back into advertising, promotional support and in-store activity. It really is a big idea that hits the consumer in a variety of compelling ways. It drives tune-in for us and moves product for our advertisers.

Another example, from my Guinness days, was when we developed the concept for the Guinness "Win Your Own Pub" Sweepstakes, where we asked consumers to write a fifty-word essay on why they ought to win a pub. We received thousands and thousands of entries. It was just a huge idea that broke through the consumer mindset and motivated all of our constituents.

It motivated our wholesalers and our retailers. We generated massive in-store support and sold boatloads of Guinness products. It was such a big idea that it captured the minds of a number of other business partners. We had articles written about it; we had people who had won the pub telling their stories. I mean, it was huge.

Collins: If you were to take a look at any of the direct-mail pieces that we have done in conjunction with our Web site, you would see that the look and feel are virtually identical. That's so the customer can feel -- from start to finish -- that the wording, photography and the message are identical. We don't change the message. We don't have a different look and feel on our Web site for a package or promotion than for a direct mail piece.

The same thing is true with advertising. For example, we consistently use phrases like "it's my pleasure" and it's "ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen." That same message is communicated whether it's an advertising piece, a direct mail piece, or on our Web site. It's the way that we answer our phones, it's the way the guest is greeted in the hotel, and the way the guest is given a fond farewell.

So, whenever we create a program or an activity, the first thing we ask is whether it is consistent with our image and makes sense in the eyes of the consumer. Once that test has been passed we look at the creative and messaging to make certain that the words, the phrases and the visuals reflect that established sensibility about Ritz-Carlton.

Berlin: When we were launching the new Cadillac line of cars, the challenge was to communicate that the cars were breakthrough. While Cadillac created an ad campaign behind the launch, we enabled their potential customers to interact directly with the cars through a variety of marketing disciplines.

For example, we put the cars in the hands of people who were Cadillac's potential targets and in places our potential targets would frequent. We enabled them to sit in the car and to drive the car. We used direct marketing to drive people to the places where the cars had been placed. We used local radio to create awareness to drive people to the locations. Everything centered on getting the consumer to interact with the car.

For Clairol Herbal Essences, our basic goal was to launch their new highlighting product. The objective was to get people to try the product. So we partnered Clairol with "American Idol," the Fox television show, capitalizing on the heightened interest in the show and the fact that it was extraordinarily tied to our target.

We created a program that impacted every touchpoint -- starting with the auditions. We promoted the product and actually highlighted people's hair while they were standing in line, waiting for their auditions. We created awareness at retail. We created sponsorship opportunities on the show itself -- when they get down to the finalists, we're going to be doing their hair on a segment.

The Herbal Essence site was also linked with the Fox site and the American Idol site, so people could actually experience the auditions and up-to-date information as it was happening on the Web. We did promotional radio -- again creating awareness of the affiliation and the sponsorship and driving people both to the store, as well as the Web, and engaging them with the product.

A recent Reveries.com survey found that the overwhelming majority felt that the promise of integrated marketing has been only "somewhat" realized. Do you agree or disagree, and why?

Berlin: I agree that it has been only "somewhat" realized and the reason is that much of the marketing is still driven by one discipline -- which is advertising. When that happens, it stifles the opportunity to totally optimize the program. A lot of the problem is client processes, as well as people within the companies who are not trained to do integrated marketing. Other times it is that companies are not structured to facilitate the integrated process and the optimization.

Integration -- or optimization -- is fully realized when people believe in it and in the value that it can bring to their businesses. If it's force-fed, it never really achieves its potential. You've got to break down the barriers and start with a clean slate of what you're trying to achieve. If you create a structure where everybody benefits -- from the client side as well as the agency side -- regardless of the discipline you bring to the party, you'll have a much greater likelihood of success.

Collins: I completely agree with that because, in many cases, of the variety of different marketing tools. For example, Ritz-Carlton doesn't do television, so we have a lot more control as to what we do. But in many organizations, what's communicated on television might be radically different than what is communicated in direct mail or in newsprint.

"Whenever we create a program the first thing we ask is whether it is consistent with our image." DAN COLLINS, RITZ-CARLTON

Some marketers tend to think that when customers go to a different medium, that they have different viewing habits. We feel that's not necessarily true when it comes to an advertising message. When customers come online to look at Ritz-Carlton, those customers still have a Ritz-Carlton image in their minds. If we don't project that image online, then we've failed.

In many organizations there are multiple silos and each one of those silos has a vision as to what a given medium can do and the customer too often is left out of it. They try to create the coolest and the neatest stuff without putting the customer first.

Fils-Aime: I would agree with the survey that it has been only somewhat realized. I think it's because the brand owner, at times, gives up responsibility for integrated marketing to their business partners -- whether it's their advertising agency or media agency or promotions agency. I firmly believe that it's the brand owner's responsibility to create the idea and to fulfill it out in the marketplace and to make it happen. That's the only way it will happen.

It may make working on the partnership a bit harder, but if you take responsibility, as the brand owner, for creating the integrated marketing concept, and driving it through all of your business partners and all of your relationships, then you'll make it happen.

There are organizations out there that do that very well. Pepsi does it very well. A number of the car companies do it very well. Look at what BMW has done with its advertising -- the BMW films. They certainly created a big idea, fulfilled it in the marketplace, and then integrated it back into some of their key new car launches. It tends to be those organizations that really are dogmatic in protecting their brands and creating those big ideas out in the marketplace.

Manley: If I were a young brand marketer today I think I'd find it pretty complex. My question is, "who made the promise?" If I speak with Martin Sorrell or Maurice Levy -- or whomever else -- what are they going to promise me? Fragmented marketing? This is marketing 101. So, if someone says to me they've discovered a new means of integrated marketing, I just don't believe them.

Therefore, the premise, to my mind, of something "integrated" is an agency hoping that it can pick up more business. What you're telling me is what you will give me -- unless I give you all of my business -- is fragmented plans. You'll become divisive in terms of other agencies that might have other parts of my business. And that's true, they do.
So in terms of the promise being "somewhat" realized, I guess it depends who is getting paid, doesn't it?

What is the best way for brand marketers and their agencies to work together to make "integrated marketing" rise to its potential?

Collins: The most effective way is to become much more customer-centric. I found something on the Web a couple of months ago that I thought was just really, really reflective of the way that I believe marketing people should be looking at their businesses. There's a company called Clear Insight -- I'm not giving them a plug because I don't know anything about them. But on their Web site they have these intersecting circles where they talk about "culture," "identity" and "equity." Each of those terms is then centered on "customer impression."

"It's the brand owner's responsibility to create the idea and fulfill it." REGGIE FILS-AIME, VH1

That captures the model for Ritz-Carlton, because we were built on a culture first of serving customers, and then our identity came from that. What we've had to do with our agency is make sure that they're spending time understanding what our culture is, and driving that around the "customer impression" to create a success. Our ad agency went through the same training that our new employees go through so that they understand completely what everything's about. We did that because we want them to create the same message that our staff is delivering in the hotel.

Berlin: Brand marketers and agencies really have to create an idea-centric culture. That requires changing the planning process and the incentive, because the best way to work together is to establish a process that facilitates and rewards integrated planning.

That process has to be focused on holistic problem solving. That means the idea drives what we do -- as opposed to what we do driving the idea. So if one of the agencies is advertising -- or one of the agencies is direct marketing -- that's not the solution. The idea is the solution. Then it's a matter of linking all of the different disciplines in the appropriate manner to optimize that idea.

Manley: It comes down to limiting the number of agencies you use. You can only present so many points of difference, so many value equations, so many emotional connections, so many rational benefits, for a particular brand to consumers.

The evolution of information technology over the last decade or two has allowed literally hundreds and hundreds of different specialist agencies to present new, and sometimes very insightful, points of view. The difficulty is, how many of those can you actually activate or how many of those can you actually execute against? At a point at which the consumer is bombarded with thousands of different points of information that either trigger a sense of desire, or a sense of want, those who are able to create clarity have a better probability of succeeding.

Ensuring that kind of success around the globe is indeed a complex skill in its own right. A lot of that comes down to the practices and principles which you create within your own business. Therefore, you need to teach or create a role model for your own employees to seek to be creative within the defined parameters that are clearly articulated.

There's a lot of great marketing talent out there, in different countries and different places, each of whom can articulate an explicit point of differentiation for any one of their markets and any one of their consumers relating to your brand. The end of that journey is absolute fragmentation and there has to be a point at which there is some unifying benefit that consumers -- be they in Brazil or Argentina or North America or the United Kingdom or wherever else -- recognize and conform relationships with the brand, because the value of that brand is consistent to them.

Fils-Aime: The brand marketers need to be the driving force. They need to set the vision of what it is they want to get done, and by doing that, drive their agencies to work together and add their own unique value to drive it forward.

You also need to measure it to make sure it's working. First, is it moving the business forward? Is the volume increasing? Is the profitability increasing? Second, is it capturing the minds of consumers as measured by mentions in the press and increasing level of participation? Third, did it capture the minds of our retailers and wholesalers?

We measured our efforts in all three ways during my tenure on the Guinness business, and our big idea got bigger and better every year as a result. "Win Your Own Pub" started purely as a promotional idea, but eventually became part of our media campaign. We supported it aggressively with media. It truly became bigger and better every succeeding year -- it ran for a good six or seven years.

Which skill sets are most important for marketers to have to make "integrated marketing" a reality, and how can they be acquired?

Fils-Aime: The first key skill is creativity, because it all starts with a big idea. You first need to have that galvanizing idea or vision. Then, you pull all the different elements into it to make it happen out in the marketplace. The second skill is discipline, in terms of focusing all of your constituents -- all of your partners -- on fulfilling the vision and fulfilling the promise of the big idea. Different business partners tend to want to take an idea slightly off its tangent, and so you've got to be disciplined to pull it back all together.

That discipline comes from that diverse work experience. It also comes from having a passion for the business and a passion for the idea. When we have been able to make integrated marketing work in the marketplace, it's been because folks have been truly passionate about the idea and have knocked down walls to make it happen.

The third skill is a relentless focus on the results. You've got to measure it, you've got to be hard on yourself -- what's working and what's not? And you need to really push it forward in terms of how do you make it bigger and better? How do you put new life into the idea? For example, VH1 Divas was becoming a bit of an old idea. So, last year, we took it to a different venue -- to Las Vegas. We pulled together the biggest female stars from last year -- both new and old -- and we infused new life into it.

Ultimately, it's the brand owner's responsibility for driving forward an integrated marketing idea. There was a point when some of that responsibility was given up to the agencies -- the advertising agency, the media agency and the promotions agency. However, the brand owner has to own the focus for an integrated marketing effort and integrated marketing campaign.

Manley: It's complex. There are some companies that are creators of new talent and I have great admiration for them -- the likes of Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola, for example. Firms like that have graduate programs and bring people in who then gain levels of experience in terms of brand or consumer marketing.

One of the things that I encourage -- and look for in terms of the people that we recruit in our business -- is a balance between the large corporate entity and global branding. That level of experience has come from almost an entrepreneurial experience, or an entrepreneurial engagement, that has been something other than spending massive amounts of money, briefing big agencies to produce lovely advertising campaigns.

They're hard to find because they're not encouraged to go out and do that. The safe havens of large corporations, and some of the doctrines of a lot of educationalists, encourage people to get on the graduate program and away you go. It becomes a somewhat self-perpetuating cycle. However, if you look at the agencies themselves -- be they boutique British agencies, advertising agencies, whatever else -- they tend to find talented individuals who have somehow created engagements with consumers that are something other than just an advertising campaign. They're hard to find but they are out there.

"Agencies can be a lot smarter if they understand the inner workings of their clients." CAREN BERLIN, ARC MARKETING USA

Collins: First, you need people who are empathetic, who understand all sides of the equation -- the need to grow share and to generate revenue; the need for the short-term and for the long-term. At the same time, they need to understand how customers behave and to recognize those differences -- because at least in our world those are very different differences. We have short-term needs but that may not necessarily match up to how the customer will use us. So, we have to find the right way to balance it.

Secondly, you need people who, when they have a gut instinct, follow that gut instinct, and push it as far as they can. They also need to try to balance that by looking at data, and use data to be that final arbiter of what the decision should be. In our environment, we believe strongly in taking calculated risks. And at the same time we really encourage a tremendous amount of input from a variety of different people.

For example, when we draw up a new advertising campaign we bring in our corporate steering committee, because they're the ones who are out dealing with the field on a daily basis. That's as opposed to us just saying, "hey, this is what we think the new ads should look like, take them and deliver them, and try to sell them." We try to balance all of the different constituencies that we serve and feel very open to putting the information out there and letting them react to it. We do that because once we get their reaction, then we also get their buy-in.

Berlin: It's vital that people are trained as general marketers first -- versus advertising, promotion, media, interactive, or even direct specialists. We have the greatest success when somebody is looking at the marketing problem from an overall marketing perspective, rather than from a specific discipline.

From an agency perspective, one way to accomplish that is with a rotational program -- creating integrated teams on large clients where it makes sense -- and having those people rotate through the different agencies and their respective disciplines. That way they can actually experience how those disciplines can be leveraged, rather than just sitting in a meeting with somebody who's representing that discipline.

It would also be great to take somebody from the agency side and put them into the marketer organization. Sometimes there are things that agencies recommend that can't be done from an operational standpoint. Agencies can be a lot smarter and make their recommendations much more powerful if they understand the inner workings of their clients.