01 Mar Marketing Resource Management: The Central Nervous System Of Marketing
Marketing Resource Management: The Central Nervous System Of Marketing
If you do not have an MRM system, you may be wondering if it is necessary for your organization or if you would just be adding one more piece of technology to your marketing stack.
Over the past decade, Marketing Resource Management (MRM) has emerged as a family of software applications specifically designed to make marketing more efficient. MRM technology represents a class of enterprise software that ties the various processes of marketing together in a consistent and automated fashion. Fundamentally, MRM supports marketing planning, design and production work.
MRM is a good starting point for any marketer considering an investment in marketing automation. It provides the opportunity to automate key processes to eliminate waste, decrease cycle time, ensure brand consistency and maximize the quality of marketing outputs.
Although most marketing technology investments focus on customer-facing applications, research has shown that as much as 80% of marketing resources are spent on the back-room functions that are required to create content and manage the channels of communication to the customer. Much like an iceberg that has 80% of its volume below the surface, a marketing executive understands that enormous amounts of resources are spent on operations and content production. Any effort that reduces the sub-surface volume of the iceberg or allows a portion of the marketing investment to be transitioned to customer-facing activities, can yield a huge ROI.
MRM ties the various processes of marketing together in a consistent and automated fashion.
MRM serves two fundamental purposes. First, it improves efficiency by automating the flow of marketing information through the marketing process. Secondly, it serves as a foundation for measuring all aspects of marketing performance.
It is up to each organization to determine what technology solutions would best enhance their marketing efforts. A Marketing Resource Management platform can provide a host of efficiencies for many industries, distribution models, and sizes.
This is a challenge that has continued to plague marketers, despite the promise of solutions such as customer-relationship management (CRM) and master-data management (MDM).
These solutions can help companies consolidate and streamline data, manage segmentation, organize workflow, and improve customer relationships.