Marketing Resource Management

Marketing Resource Management (MRM) , often also called Marketing Operations Management (MOM) or (less commonly) Enterprise Marketing Management (EMM), describes a holistic approach to automating the entire marketing process and the final digitization end-to-end in the marketing area. The system aims to plan, control and optimize the central marketing resources budget , personnel , content and brand in the sense of the marketing strategy in a timely and needs-based manner. This should ensure an effective and efficient marketing process and continuous optimization of corporate marketing activities and processes.

Goals of the MRM

The primary goals to be achieved with MRM include:

agile marketing planning and control (complexity reduction and flexibility) for maximum customer orientation ( customer centricity )
easy and efficient scaling of marketing
high marketing quality and productivity
high marketing efficiency and low capital commitment
high marketing ROI
digital connection to digital media and campaign systems in advertising

MRM is as highly automated as possible with the help of appropriate software solutions (MRM systems). This often leads to the fact that this form of automation of marketing processes is incorrectly equated with the Anglo-American term marketing automation , in which the enrichment of user profiles based on user behavior is in the foreground in order to set up automated campaign processes for individual communication (especially lead Nurturing). MRM must be clearly distinguished from this.

Origin, market classification and relevance of MRM

MRM has its origins in digital transformation . The system approach can be understood as an instrument to make central consequences of digitization such as increasing fragmentation, high level of personalization, increasing complexity and the need to accelerate business processes up to real-time applications manageable for marketing organizations. The requirement for the use of MRM arises from the fact that marketing departments of large companies now work together with 12 times the number of agencies compared to 15 years ago, supervise six times the number of projects, in 15 percent of the time - while at the same time stagnating or often shrinking marketing budgets (source: GISTICS Executive Insights Inc.). As a control center for the management and control of all operative marketing processes, MRM also represents the company-organizational and business interface for the direct integration of finance, controlling and sales processes.

The US market has a clear pioneering role in the use of MRM. This is mainly due to the prevailing tendency there towards the establishment of marketing technology and solutions ( insourcing ) within the company , whereas in European markets, such as B. in Germany corresponding systems are often outsourced to (special) agencies ( outsourcing ). This different degree of adaptation has a significant effect on the general implementation speed of MRM.

Despite the differentiation of the markets, MRM has recently gained in importance worldwide, as technology analyzes by research and consulting companies show. Gartner certifies that MRM has increasing influence in the company, due to the global expansion of companies and the resulting increase in the number of users in different regions as well as capacity expansion in all five MRM competence areas (see functional areas of an MRM system). According to Gartner, MRM is gaining a stronger foothold in the mid-market segment, thanks in particular to Software as a Service (SaaS) and other hosted delivery options. (Source: Gartner, Magic Quadrant Report for Marketing Resource Management 2016). Forrester sees MRM on a clear growth course after initial market acceptance problems: “The MRM market is growing because more and more B2C marketing managers see MRM as an opportunity to address organizational and operational challenges. Modern marketing measures are spurring an MRM renaissance ”(Source: Forrester Wave Marketing Resource Management Q3 2018).

MRM systems

Marketing Resource Management Systems (MRM systems) are business software solutions that are used to support marketing planning and control. They are often divided into specific subsystems (application modules) that can be combined with one another depending on the company's needs, and ideally pursue holistic planning, management and control of marketing budgets, campaigns and activities. Comprehensive MRM systems enable agile, so-called 360-degree marketing, from strategic budget and campaign planning to the creation of the respective content and assets as well as the regional rollout to ongoing control and optimization of measures. Marketing departments should always be able to react to external influences and relevant changes during the development and implementation of marketing activities. Efficient cooperation between all those involved in the marketing process and a real-time view of marketing projects and their budgets is also of central importance. Holistic MRM solutions support the consistent alignment of day-to-day business with the overall marketing strategy and thus prevent the waste of resources on manual and administrative activities.

MRM systems are essentially differentiated according to the way they are used in the company (Source: Forrester Wave: Marketing Resource Management, Q3, 2018):

Company MRM solutions that enable integrated planning and control of all marketing resources across functions and departments on the basis of a uniform, modular platform
Embedded MRM tools as part of other or larger company software or marketing technology solutions such as ERP , CRM or CCM systems
Specialized MRM tools that adapt to the needs of the respective company and integrate accordingly across the board
Purely application-related MRM tools without cross-functional and / or cross-departmental resource planning and control (e.g. content creation tools)

Regardless of the type of use, MRM systems are usually offered as Software as a Service (SaaS) in the cloud. Here, for example, the system interface is displayed in a browser window. Among other things, this offers the possibility of mapping group structures, directly connecting subsidiaries or realizing external access to your own system ( multi-client capability ) without having to install a graphical user interface. This allows marketing service providers such as advertising agencies to be directly involved in business processes, for B. Placing orders, scheduling deliveries, checking the status of the execution of the measures against the budget, etc. These possibilities mean a significant time and cost advantage.

Functional areas of an MRM system

MRM systems should largely map all marketing processes . End-to-end integration and a move away from isolated solutions lead to a holistic MRM system in which marketing resources can be managed company-wide (see also company MRM solutions). MRM systems also improve the flow of communication in the company and, thanks to the integrated workflow management (for review and approval processes) in the sense of e-collaboration, can make collaboration in the company more efficient.

In terms of agile, holistic marketing planning and control, the typical core functional areas of MRM include the areas

Budget planning and management,
Campaign planning and implementation,
Content creation and distribution,
Brand management and localization as well
Performance measurement and optimization

The size of the company and marketing department as well as the degree of internationalization often determine the requirements for the functional areas listed above as well as the available investment volume for hardware , licenses and implementation . Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), for example, often do not need integrated company MRM solutions.

Introduction of an MRM solution

The introduction of MRM systems can be divided into the evaluation and implementation phases in a similar way to the introduction of ERP systems . As an alternative to the classic " waterfall model ", companies can use methods of agile software development with iterative approaches such as bswp. Use Scrum . In the German and European economic area, the introduction of MRM solutions usually takes place from the bottom up. Here, digital asset management (DAM) serves primarily as an entry area for the implementation of MRM tools and systems. In the Anglo-American economic area, in which marketing is often organized and managed in a much more centralized manner, the integration of MRM systems is usually top-down and often in the form of company MRM solutions (see also creation, market classification and relevance of MRM).

Customizing

MRM systems are usually based on industry best practices and are designed for “ plug & play ” use. They can be connected as far as possible with all established marketing tools and integrated into corresponding ERP solutions. If there is a need to adapt MRM systems to specific needs, MRM users have various options. Technical solutions essentially include the rewriting of part of the software supplied, the writing of a self-developed module for the MRM system used or the connection of further, external solutions via corresponding interfaces. Alternatively, there are non-technical options, such as changing business processes or guidelines, in order to be able to make better use of the provided MRM functionality.

Advantages of MRM customizing:

Improves user acceptance
Offers the potential to gain a competitive advantage over companies that only use standard features

Disadvantages of MRM customizing:

More time and resources needed for implementation and maintenance
May prevent a seamless interface between suppliers and customers due to differences between the systems.
Restriction of the future upgradeability of the MRM solution
Creates an excessive dependence on customizing and negates the principles of MRM as a standardizing software platform
Threats the reliability of the system

Commercial MRM software

According to research, there are currently over 7,000 software solutions for the marketing sector (source: Marketing Technology Landscape 2019, Marketing Technology Media, LLC). The largest and technologically leading providers in the field of corporate MRM solutions include:

Aprimo
BrandMaker
IBM
Percolate
SAP
SAS
Stylelabs (Sitecore content hub)
Workfront

(Source: Forrester Wave: Marketing Resource Management, Q3, 2018)

Free and open source MRM software

While there are already numerous providers of corporate MRM systems in the commercial sector, the software offering in the free or open source sector is currently limited to individual components or partial solutions, such as digital asset management (DAM) or the product Information Management (PIM).

Providers are u. a .:

ResourceSpace (DAM)
Wrike (DAM)
Daminion (DAM)
Pimcore (DAM and PIM)
SyncForce (PIM)
Akeneo (PIM)
TreoPIM (PIM)

Strategic assessment

In the context of a company's strategic planning , an assessment must take place as to whether the introduction of an MRM solution generates a competitive advantage for the company. At the moment, especially for large companies, MRM represents a competitive advantage, as the effective and efficient marketing scaling required by digitization can only be achieved through extensive automation of the marketing process : "Modern marketing operations spur an MRM renaissance." (Source: Forrester Wave: Marketing Resource Management, Q3, 2018).

Development trends

The performance information most frequently requested by Markt and the resulting development trends in the MRM area in 2019 include:

Agile workflows: This is primarily about processes that are flexible where allowed and compliant where necessary. The aim is to react to changes as planned and to work towards solutions with small, fast steps while keeping error rates low. Workflows that are prone to errors and necessary for documentation, such as B. Review and approval processes are automated. At the same time, it is important to enable more effective and efficient processes across silos, hierarchies and company boundaries (integration of external participants) in order to work better together and to be able to meet the constantly increasing demands on the marketing team.
Closed-loop optimization: Efficient marketing is only possible on the basis of a 360-degree perspective. This means that planning, budget, marketing content, the target group approach with these as well as the ROI of all marketing activities must be stringently linked in order to be able to transparently evaluate and control each individual marketing measure at any time according to its contribution to success. High-quality MRM solutions enable permanent control and optimization of the entire marketing with regard to an optimal budget use in a closed cycle of continuous data acquisition, analysis and application of the analysis results.
AI-based content and processes: Artificial intelligence and machine learning will sustainably develop marketing process automation, especially qualitatively. Metadata proposed by the AI, intelligent search bars, AI-based image recognition and processing and AI-based budget allocations, etc. are just a few areas that are already emerging to keep the growing multidimensional complexity under control.
Growing together of Mar-Tech and Adtech via low-code and no-code platform integrations: For the automation of tasks and processes in marketing, many different tools and systems have to be used and connected with one another. In practice, this often means that companies have to wait until developers of third-party applications offer the required SaaS integrations or until they have programmed the software themselves. Modern MRM systems have online tools for this purpose, via which web applications such as B. e-mail delivery tools, can be easily and quickly integrated with a variety of other software components for business management. The end result is a networked MRM software platform that increases data accuracy, reduces administration, and increases productivity. (Source: Forrester Wave: Marketing Resource Management, Q3, 2018)

literature

Graham Jarvis, John Ozimek, Romek Jansen, Frans Riemersma: Marketing Resource Management: A Practical Guide to Implementing Techniques and Software to Measure the Impact of your Marketing Effort . Ed .: Kogan Page Ltd. London 2019, ISBN 978-0-7494-5147-9 (English).
Uwe Seebacher, Axel Güpner: Marketing Resource Management: This is how marketers rush to the top of the company! 1st edition. USP Publishing, 2011, ISBN 978-3-937461-18-2 .