People often ask: What exactly is (are?) marketing operations? And how is it any different from other marketing stuff

Besides a few marketing executives at large IT firms, few people might have any clue what marketing operations is. We relish the opportunity to shed light on this newly emerging domain. It is the objective of this article to:

1. define the role of marketing operations;

2. demonstrate how and why focusing on marketing operations drives revenue and profit;

3. bring marketing operations to a wider audience, to help more companies succeed.

Marketing operations centers on the simple principle of consistency. Why consistency? Two reasons:

• customers do not buy from a business which doesn't operate consistently

• employees and/or partners must deliver a consistent experience for the customer

No matter how great a product or service is, without consistency on the frontend (customer experience) and backend (staff/partner operation) you're in trouble.

Before we dive deeper, let's first touch upon what marketing operations is not. As anyone who has ever read Jack Trout will know, it is as important to position yourself both in terms of what you are, and what you are not. Marketing operations does not define overall marketing strategy and branding. If you're a large enterprise, these big issues generally are defined by a Chief Marketing Officer, often in consultation with a prominent advertising agency. At smaller firms, there may be only one person overseeing both strategy/branding and marketing operations. If so, fine. But it is important to understand that they are not the same. From our experience, some people who excel at marketing operations may not enjoy strategy & branding, and vice versa. In any case, distinguishing between these areas is important as it will help to frame future conversations.

Given a marketing strategy and brand guidelines, we can turn the page and discuss marketing operations. Let me introduce Truman Dunne, marketing manager of Little Feats, a manufacturer of educational products for children. Truman recently prepared a presentation to his boss, the CEO, for the Little Feats 2008 marketing strategy. Good news, it was approved, pending a few small amendments. Now Truman is ready to get started with a marketing operations plan.

Broadly, the Truman's marketing operations plan is all about executing marketing strategy, and exercising control over the end-to-end process. As we all know, the devil is in the details. There are three key drivers of successful marketing operations:

• Resources (People, Money) - the fuel

• Process - the how & what, in the proper sequence

• System - the automation or tracking that is applied

Truman starts with the Process, and then applies the Resources (people, money) and integrates the two by means of a System to achieve the results. Or, he may design a System and the apply Resources. Either way, everything starts with the Process.