The Connection Between Marketing and Leadership

A few days ago I had lunch with a friend who recently returned from Europe and Asia where he has lived and worked for the past 3-1/2 years. In the course of our conversation we discussed which is the most important to running a successful business – marketing or leadership?

The conclusion is that both are equally important. But even more, there is an integration of how marketing and leadership are combined in order to succeed in business today. The writer Milan Kundera summed it up as “Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation.”

In the airline industry Southwest Airlines with Herb Kelleher, and Virgin Airlines with Richard Branson, are examples of entrepreneurs whose success is due to strong leadership integrated with marketing. Bigger players in the airline industry consistently battled financial difficulties and looked for government subsidies to stay in operation, the combination of weak leadership and ineffective marketing.

The qualities of great marketing and a great leader must exist in tandem to achieve top standing in the marketplace. Take a look at the qualities of both, and how they apply to key areas of leadership and marketing.

Motivation. A great business leader makes it possible for people to achieve beyond the skills they bring to their jobs. Great leaders challenge employees to think. They provide opportunities for growth. This in turn creates empowered employees who get fulfillment from the work they do. Each employee is a powerful marketing agent for the company or its products through their interaction with customers, prospects, friends and family.

Great marketing motivates consumers. It provides them with knowledge presented persuasively so they are engaged by the message, allowed to see the product as a part of their self-image, and compelled to make a purchase decision. Without motivation, leadership and marketing are ineffective.

Consistent Vision. To build a brand through marketing, a consistent message is imperative to take ownership of the customer’s mind for your product category. Frequent changing of the message, changes in product or service market positioning and changes in the look and packaging of the product create confusion for consumers.

Consistent messages grow out of the consistent vision of the leader. A leader who stays in focus about the vision for his business or organization creates a culture of understanding and identity that sets the example for consistency in all company communications and actions. Where vision is understood and reinforced, employees feel part of something tangible, and see how they contribute to achieving and sustaining the vision. As you lead and develop marketing, ask yourself if what you are doing is consistent with the vision.

Innovation. The lifeblood of any business or organization is the willingness to take risks, try new and improved ideas and embrace change. According to Apple founder Steve Jobs, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Innovation is the energy that fuels economic growth and prosperity for business. Leaders of great businesses encourage and reward innovation, look at “failures” as steps to success, and stimulate an atmosphere that rewards different thinking.

In marketing, innovation manifests itself in the extraordinary value of being first in a product or service category. It’s another aspect of successful branding. Consumers, when questioned about the name of a product or business for a specific need, can at best name the top three. Usually it is the top two. Through innovation businesses have the opportunity to be first in their category.

Marketers and authors Al Ries & Jack Trout claim, “Being first is more important than being best.” Innovation, in both leadership and marketing, is what distinguishes between being the leader or being the follower.

Singularity. It is imperative in leadership, as in marketing, to look for the one best strategy. To launch a variety of campaigns or diversify a business in too many directions creates fragmentation and lack of a defined purpose. Military strategists call this singularity the “bold stroke”.

The bold stroke is considered to be the one thing that will work. Singularity provides small businesses with extraordinary competitive advantages. Where larger businesses often feel the need to get into everything, the smaller business, due to size considerations, is much more likely to be singular.

Smaller businesses can use singularity to find the one spot where larger competitors are the most vulnerable. In the 1960s and 1970s, foreign automakers found that American automakers were vulnerable in the category of small fuel-efficient cars. So they launched their assault on American companies in that one, singular area where they found vulnerability. The outcome was hugely successful. They took the leadership position and marketing advantage for small cars.

Confidence. Simply put, confidence in leadership and in marketing is the ability to accept and expect some failures as part of achieving the vision, innovation and purpose without being influenced to change it. For my first 13 years in advertising and marketing I worked for a company that was bursting with confidence. Confidence about our products, our markets, and our potential.

I never had to be concerned with failure. The leadership acknowledged that some failures would occur. The expectation was that we learned from any failures. That is the foundation of confidence. It is learning from failure and applying it as an integrated part of development and strategy. We never changed direction or strategy as a result of a disappointment or a failure. Instead we applied what we learned and continued on our path to success.

One of the best examples of how confidence integrates leadership with marketing is the history of Sam Walton’s development of Wal-Mart. Walton knew it was rare to hit the center of the target every time, or even the first time. People were not punished or demoted for failures at Wal-Mart. Walton said “If you learn something and you’re trying something, you get credit for it”.

Companies and leaders without confidence have a tendency to constantly start over or try something different any time there is a failure. It’s throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Image. It is important to “walk the talk” in leadership and marketing. Leaders who contradict their words with their actions are ineffective. Marketing that makes promises for products or services that in turn don’t deliver on those promises are on a quick path to failure. Nothing kills a bad product or service faster than a great marketing campaign.

Image is the opposite of ego. It is knowing who or what you are, and consistently being that. Branding is about connecting with consumers so they see their image in the brand. Image includes those attributes that define the identity.

The most important aspect of image is that once it is established, either in your marketing or your leadership, if you change it, it is at your own peril. Companies fall into this trap consistently when they try to expand in ways that take them away from their image. If Rolex decided to come out with a low-priced watch so they could sell to the mass market, the image of Rolex would be irreparably damaged. (They haven’t, of course.)

Characteristics of great leadership are constant regardless of the individual leader. It is the leader’s style, and the differences in style of each leader, that are defined in the image. Likewise in marketing, each campaign for different products or businesses requires a distinct image. But the characteristics that define great marketing are constant.

People. In the end, success for a business always depends on people. It is always about people. Leadership is about inspiring people. Marketing is about connecting with people. Both are done at an emotional level.

In his February 28th, 2008 radio broadcast, “The Age of Persuasion”, Terry O’Reilly provides one of the best examples of the importance of people in both Leadership and Marketing. The International Olympic Committee had narrowed down the selection of locations for the 2012 Olympics to either Paris or London. The two cities met separately with the Olympic Committee members to each pitch why they should be chosen.

The French group focused on all the reasons they wanted Paris to be the city of choice. They promoted the city of Paris from the perspective of why Paris deserved to get the Olympics.

The British group focused on all the ways London would promote the Olympics. They wanted to motivate involvement from young people worldwide and showcase why the Olympics are still important in the year 2012. They delivered a message that connected with each committee member personally, and they did it with personal messages delivered by prominent British individuals ranging from Princess Anne to Tony Blair.

The contract for the 2012 Olympics was awarded to London. By remembering that in leadership, as well as in marketing, the connection is always made at a personal level, the British group succeeded. It is always about people.

The start of a new year is a good time to remember the inseparable impact of leadership and marketing in the success of a business or organization. If both are weak, the outcomes will be weak. If both are unfocused, the outcomes will be unfocused. If both lack vision, the outcomes will lack a purpose. Jack Welch, former General Electric CEO said “Good business leaders create a vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion”. The same is true of marketing.

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