Doing More With Less

Viewpoint by Andrew Flynn, Partner

In an increasingly competitive environment, most companies are trying to stretch their marketing investments. The critical step is to understand what role each brand in your portfolio is playing to help you achieve your business objectives. If that link is clear, ask yourself a simple question: "If I had only a dollar to spend next year on marketing, how would I spend it?" The most important priorities will become evident pretty quickly, and the less important should be ruthlessly pruned. Too often, companies maintain spending in areas that no longer provide significant strategic or economic value and in reality underfund everything in order to assure comprehensive coverage. The cold hard truth is that at any given time, some brands are simply more important to feed than others.