Marketing
Issue No. 30 - August/September 2006
Heard in high places
Marketing Week 2006
Megan Dalla-Camina is director of Strategy and Marketing, IBM Australia and New Zealand.
Her presentation will turn on three main points: the role of marketing at the boardroom table; brand strategy as a marketing tool; and the increasing emphasis on marketing metrics.
She is passionate about the need for marketing input at the highest level.
“For marketing to deliver on strategy effectively, marketers have to understand the business strategy at its core,” Megan says.
Marketing needs to be witness strategy being thought out at CEO and senior leadership level, which means having a seat at the boardroom table.
Too often in smaller businesses, she says, marketers don't have enough responsibility in an organisation to have a place there.
“In larger organisations marketing does, but as you go down in size it doesn't,” she says.
The reason this is so important is the demonstrated fact that brand-guided companies on average consistently outperform other companies, even at very large multinational level.
Megan cites research showing that among companies where marketing has had decisive input, even ownership of branding strategy, 82% outperform their industry average.
Megan has developed her expertise during a career including positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers, GE and now at IBM.
“At IBM the director of marketing is the director of strategy as well,” she points out. “That linkage drives results....
