Friday, May 20, 2011

A new Sourceforconsulting.com report, sponsored by Dow Jones, which surveyed nearly 100 consulting firms[1] across Europe and the US, has found that over half (56 per cent) of consulting firms are isolating their marketing departments by not giving their heads a seat on the board.

Further highlighting this issue of isolation, the report found only a small proportion of marketing departments (28 per cent) reported that they have a ‘lot of influence’ or ‘complete control’ across a range of major marketing disciplines.
 
The report found the bigger the firm, the bigger the problem. Sourceforconsulting.com’s Index of Marketing Health, which measures the success of marketing departments within consulting firms, puts Big Four firms bottom of the pile, and in stark contrast, Tier 3 firms (firms with 50-200 consultants) at the top.
 
Influence varies considerably from one area to the next. Whilst the report found that consulting firms often believe communication to be the start and end of marketing – it’s promotional activity over which marketing departments appear to have most control. But even here the proportion of marketing people saying they have complete control is just 19 per cent – which begs the question: if marketing departments can’t be given complete control over promotional activity, what exactly are they allowed to influence?
 
Ed Haigh, Head of Content and Marketing at Sourceforconsulting.com and author of the report, commented:
 
We have a situation in which marketing is thought to be the preserve of just about anybody, but where those actually employed to do it are confounded by structural reinforcement of the vicious circle that inhibits them from making a difference in the first place. The result of all of this is the isolation of marketing departments: from positions of influence, from the information they need to do their job better, and from clients.”
 
Marketeers need access to clients
The report recommends that marketing teams should be embedded on big, or particularly innovative, consulting projects for the following four reasons:
  1. It gives marketeers first-hand experience of the challenges faced by clients and the approaches their consulting colleagues adopt in addressing those challenges.
  2. It addresses a common criticism of consultants that marketeers simply don’t know what they (consultants) do.
  3. It allows marketeers to see where similar solutions are being deployed in different clients and to facilitate learning, thought leadership and promotional opportunities.
  4. It helps marketeers develop micro-propositions for specific sectors and target new clients.
However, the report found that when push comes to shove, the message from consultants and senior management seems to be: we’ll support you in whatever way we can, just keep your hands off our clients. In fact, about two thirds of marketeers across all firm types never, or rarely, spend time on client sites and in the biggest firms that figure is more likely to be nearer 85 per cent.
 
Some of the other key findings from the report included:
  • Tier 1 firms (with over 1,000 consultants) with a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) are nearly five times as likely to say that differentiation isn’t a problem for their firm and nearly twice as likely to say that their marketing department plays an important role  in executing their firm’s strategy than firms without a CMO.
  • Firms whose senior marketeer sticks around for more than two years saythey have influence over core marketing activities, have less problem with differentiation, and have better alignment with their firm’s overall strategy than firms where the senior marketeer has a shorter tenure.
  • Firms with very centralised marketing departments perform better on all counts other than their ability to differentiate themselves, than firms with very de-centralised marketing.
 
For further information on the Sourceforconsulting.com report, Breaking vicious circles: Consulting firm marketing in 2011, sponsored by Dow Jones, visit www.sourceforconsulting.com or email julie.cleasby@sourceforconsulting.com, or telephone +44 (0)20 3178 6445.
-ENDS-
 
For further information about this press release, please contact:
 
David Pippett, DWP Public Relations
Tel: 07899 798197
 
Edward Haigh, Head of Content and Marketing, Sourceforconsulting.com
Tel: 0845 293 0993
 
About Sourceforconsulting.com
Sourceforconsulting.com is a leading provider of information about the market for management consulting. Set up in 2007 and based in London, Source serves both consulting firms and their clients with expert analysis, research and reporting. We draw not only on our extensive in-house experience, but also on the breadth of our relationships with both suppliers and buyers. All of our work is underpinned by our core values of intelligence, integrity, efficiency and transparency.
 
Sourceforconsulting.com is owned by Source Information Services Ltd, an independent company, which was founded by Fiona Czerniawska and Joy Burnford. Fiona is one of the world's leading experts on the consulting industry. She has written numerous books on the industry including: The Intelligent Client and The Economist books, Business Consulting: A Guide to How it Works and How to Make it Workand Buying Professional Services. Joy Burnford was Marketing and Operations Director at the UK Management Consultancies Association between 2003 and 2010, and prior to that worked for PA Consulting Group and has extensive experience of marketing consulting services.
 
About Dow Jones
Dow Jones & Company (www.dowjones.com) is a News Corporation company (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV; www.newscorp.com) and a leading provider of global news and business information. Its principal products include The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Factiva, Barron's and MarketWatch. Through its Local Media Group, Dow Jones operates community-based newspapers and Web sites. Dow Jones also provides news content to television and radio stations.

 


[1]Approximately 100 consulting firms were surveyed for this report, including many of the biggest names in the consulting market, all of the Big Four and a very wide range of regional and local firms. Responses were almost entirely from people in either Europe or the US and came predominantly, though not exclusively, from marketeers across a wide range of grades and with a wide range of responsibilities.