Marketing Automation: Jennifer Bergin, Kodak

In these times of constrained resources, manufacturingcompanies are looking to implement various types of technology to automatecritical processes despite shrinking budgets. In the area of customerrelationship management, marketing automation can make processes that wouldotherwise have been performed manually much more efficient, and even make newprocesses possible. It is not yet an area that is widely implemented, but isnevertheless gaining attention as a key value driver for consumer goods manufacturers.

Recently, I had the opportunity to ask Jennifer Bergin, whobelongs to the Kodak Business Solutions & Services Group, Marketing &Development, about the pros of marketing automation and why creative workflowmanagement may be the best place to start.

In your opinion, what is driving adoption of marketingautomation in the consumer goods industry?

Bergin: Working efficiently is an imperative in today'scompetitive global marketplace. A global business requires the integration ofmarketing processes with global business requirements. Marketing strategiesmust now expand to include cultural norms, buying criteria, and sellingpropositions for dozens of international locales and partners. Marketing teamsmust schedule, collaborate and review print, broadcast and multimedia contentamong themselves and many creative and production partners. As worldwideoperations become more complex, marketing creative and production professionalsare continually challenged to do more with less, without compromising qualityor effectiveness. Marketing and brand managers with bottom line responsibilityare forced to take a much closer look at process automation to meet these newbusiness challenges and are turning to technology for help.

How do you define marketing automation?

Bergin: Marketing automation combines cutting-edgetechnology tools with the strict discipline of process management to enhanceefficiency and eliminate costly manual processes. By employing marketingautomation tools, marketers can improve visibility into work in progress;automate project management, expense management and report production; enableefficient re-use of approved assets on a global basis; streamline manualprocesses; improve team collaboration and communication through Web-based tools;and, ultimately, gain control of their marketing spend.

How can consumer goods manufacturers begin to take advantageof the benefits of marketing automation?

Bergin: A good place to start is in the area of creativeworkflow, which is the focus of a significant portion of your marketingresources. State-of-the-art creative workflow management tools manage brandcontent, as well as the artwork and labeling development process, from conceptto completion.

A creative workflow management system creates a dashboardview of all projects in real time and automates color control and fileconversions, which help to maintain global brand identity.

Approved assets of all types -- graphics, text, audio, videoand Web content -- are centralized to increase utilization and become availableacross marketing teams for use in mixed-media campaigns as well as forregionalization and localization.

Some systems have the ability to manage copy elements in aninnovative process that certify their accuracy, helping eliminate a commonsource of error, rework and cost.

Web-based collaboration, review and routing tools enablereal-time collaboration among dispersed teams, both internal and external, withfull version control.

Plus, project history is automatically documented,simplifying Sarbanes-Oxley and regulatory compliance.

External agencies can be brought into the marketing workflowas well, helping to streamline content development processes and removeunnecessary cost.

Can you elaborate on the specific cost and time savingsafforded by successful creative workflow management? Corporate marketers thathave implemented this type of system have reported dramatic savings in time andmaterials.

For example, they've documented reductions in average reviewcycles from 56 days to six days. In addition, I have seen some companies reducethe amount of rework by 38 percent.

The average time spent chasing down projects and files hasbeen cut by 65 percent, and hard dollar costs from errors and proofing werereduced by $1.2 million in the first year alone.

All in all, creative workflow management is enablingcorporate marketers to gain unprecedented control over their marketing spend.