Marketing teams are increasingly biased to short-term techniques to deliver the annual plan. In digital businesses this might be a shift to generic search terms or in FMCG an increased bias to price promotion. Neither approach are sustainable, but often the skills and capability aren’t in place to change.

Pivoting to a brand-led model is one of our specialist skills. In the past we have developed brands like Innocent, Bear snacks, MoneySuperMarket, Zoopla and Checkatrade. More recently as a consultancy we have helped a US business create an umbrella brand proposition for over 50 sub-brands, a global tech consultancy reset it’s core identity and vision, and a digital marketplace business in the UK and Spain switch to a new brand building model.

Our approach finds new growth platforms, by auditing your existing research and developing and validating new opportunities with suppliers we’ve worked with for over 20 years. As part of this, we work closely with you C-suite, so they understand and support the plan. Our first-hand experience and structured lower risk scale-up approach helps key stakeholders get onboard.

The process can include introductions to known high performing creative agencies, or direct links to creative directors, saving the business time and money.

Every year the performance bar gets raised higher and marketing teams need to deliver more, often with less. As the incumbent marketing leader it can be hard to independently and impartially look at the plan and decide where there are opportunities to squeeze out more. This is a question we have been asked regularly and having been marketing leaders ourselves, we can look at the plans and suggest opportunities.

This helped a UK food manufacturer improve gross margin and marketing investment, by properly understanding what was adding value to the product mix and resetting the value proposition.

We also helped a global B2B IT consultancy, where the marketing mandate was driving underperformance and constraining growth. Marketing wasn’t engaged enough in the business planning process, minimising their input into sales collateral, which inevitably affected the quality and quantity of prospect leads. By reframing the relationship, creative execution and performance was improved.

And finally, a digital marketplace business required an audit of its multi-channel B2B and B2C marketing activity. This showed the overall approach was strong, but the translation of strategy into execution was flawed. There were over 50 different brand messages being communicated in different media channels, without a clear prioritisation or role down the acquisition funnel. Simplifying the strategy and focusing the messages enhanced performance.

Sometimes there are leadership gaps that need filling. This could be as a fractional CMO supporting the existing team, interim cover for a short-term vacancy or full permanent recruitment.

Sideminds can help in these situations. We are part of a network of over 40 C-suite marketing leaders, who are either independent consultants or ‘inbetweeners’. ‘Inbetweeners’ is our term for our pool of VP/Marketing Director or C-suite level leaders, who are between jobs and keen to take on roles as they look for their next full time post.

If you are recruiting for a more permanent role, we also help getting the brief right. The Marketing Leader’s CODE assessment helps decipher the blend of marketing skills you need in your company. It is the only marketing leadership assessment tool available and is used by CEOs and recruiters as a pre-screener to avoid the costly mistake of recruiting the wrong person.

The CODE report can be discussed directly with your recruitment company, or Sideminds can promote to our personal network of leaders, including The Marketing Academy Fellowship. The Fellowship is a network of over 300 senior C-suite marketers, who have been recognised by McKinsey for their marketing capability. Sideminds connections has placed CMOs recently in sectors like financial services and property.