The term Marketing Resource Management (MRM) was coined by Gartner in 2001 to describe a suite of software which automates the key background processes driving marketing campaigns. The different stages of planning and budgeting, manufacturing marketing materials, distribution and reporting, etc. can all be managed using MRM software. Each application functions independently but is linked and anything entered by individual users can be viewed by all others. Triggers built into the system act as ‘nudges’; if approval is delayed or a mailing required then a trigger prompts the necessary action.
But you can’t automate creativity…
Because marketing is creative, it’s perceived as difficult to automate. The philosophy behind MRM is that the technology simplifies the administration leaving marketers more time to work on ideas. Andrew Yates, senior vice president at Aprimo, says, “Automating key aspects of the process can save about 30 per cent on the average cycle time. People waste time doing things in the wrong order and waiting for, or chasing, things that are late. MRM streamlines the workflow, letting people know when something requiring their input is on its way and prompting them to take the necessary action.”
Not only is MRM proactive, it’s also a huge information source. As all the key dependencies are linked users, they are able to interrogate the system to clarify any questions they have about the process. Yates of Aprimo again: “The system can be customised to produce personalised portals for every user, rather as you get ‘my Aprimo’ on webpages for example.”
But isn’t the joined-up thinking behind MRM only what companies should be doing anyway? Dr Judith Margolis, senior lecturer in marketing and head of the centre for strategy and marketing, Open University Business School, certainly thinks so, “To my way of thinking MRM is just a description for something which should already be in place. Some companies are much better than others at linking their systems together, but that has always been the case and will continue to be so. In my opinion the idea behind MRM is certainly right but almost as certainly not new.”
What are the advantages of MRM?
The system can:
- Store timetables and budgets online for viewing/updating.
- Have online versions of artwork, draft text, etc. for immediate comments/approval.
- Speed up workflow and so improve time to market.
- Store searchable online ‘library’ of reference materials, guidelines, templates and campaign histories.
- Link with mailing lists and other fulfilment databases.
- Assist with monitoring and reporting.
…and what about personal contact?
CRM focuses on creating a profile of the customer in order to target them successfully. However, Yates of Aprimo says: “CRM is often seen as very specialised and so hasn’t extended fully into marketing. The data available through the technology is highly sophisticated and often useful but very few people have the expertise to pull off specialist reports. So the information is not utilised as widely as it should be.”
Marketing, particularly in the B2B arena, relies greatly on personal relationships. People build up their own list of contacts, information about client’s preferences and the best way to contact them. Much of this should be available to colleagues, but some is rightly kept private. A good marketer might want to send semi-personal congratulations to a client for a landmark anniversary or child’s success, for example. The Data Protection Act 1998 tolerates such personal data being recorded by an individual in a semi-private capacity but certainly does not allow it to become public property on a company database.
The difficulty of entering details onto a generally-available database raises another point: the system will only work if the right information is entered and everyone is disciplined enough to key in their share of the data. Margolis of OU Business School comments: “People still tend to guard professional knowledge, seeing its disclosure as giving away an advantage which might help with their career. For the same reason they are also reluctant to enter information which doesn’t reflect well on them. And people also simply forget.”
If the company culture does not already encourage staff to be open with knowledge, information and contacts, then there is no reason to suppose that MRM will change that. In such a case its installation could mean that the company ends up with two systems; the official one using technology, which staff only use to input information which reflects well on them (and which is therefore at best incomplete and at worst not necessarily true), and the unofficial grapevine where the real state of affairs is discussed.
If this happens the system will actually lose the company time rather than the reverse. Businesses interested in installing MRM must understand that it’s not a cure-all for poor existing communication.
How to decide?
Independent advice about MRM is available. MRM assessors work out how businesses are organised, map their current state, predict and map what will happen in the future and then assess the impact of technology. Where companies decide there is a benefit, MRM can be deployed quickly: “We can capture the ‘current state’ of the organisation within the MRM tool and can usually implement it within 10-11 weeks,” says Yates of Aprimo. He adds, “training is provided and the technology is scalable depending on the size of the business.”
As marketing campaigns become ever more complex, software which automates some of the administration can be helpful. Used to its full potential, MRM provides a central source of accessible information, an accurate overview of the marketing campaign and a benchmark comparison with other campaigns. As such it can provide useful cost and time savings.
What MRM is not, is a new concept. Many marketers will have been doing something similar, perhaps manually, for years. As Yates of Aprimo says: “MRM aims to capture the template of good practice.”
Whether the development of useful software deserves the claim ‘revolutionary’ and the hype of a new TLA remains debatable.