Brand strategy training is the top priority for marketing capability, according to Gartner’s CMO Spend Survey (1), which is great to see. It is also encouraging that CMOs are focused on growing the core. This is a highly effective but often neglected driver of sustainable, profitable growth.
In this post we look at the findings from the survey. We also share insights from our own survey on online marketing course needs, that we have used to create our brandgym Academy online learning platform including our Mastering Brand Growth program.
1. Brand strategy training is top priority
Encouragingly, marketing leaders share our belief in the importance of brand strategy training. The Gartner report shows that brand strategy has “leap-frogged to the top of marketing capabilities, from its lowly position in 2019.” One-third of CMOs now place brand strategy in their top three (see below). This is great stuff.
2. Focus on growing the core
We’ve long bangied the drum about the importance of growing the core, having posted on it many times and having written one of only 2 books in the world on the subject and more recently created a short online course on the topic. So, it is great to see marketing leaders are firmly focused on growing the core (79%). This is pretty evenly split between increasing sales of existing products (34%) and core range extension (45%). A much smaller 22% are looking to stretch into new markets.
These results are in line with our brandgym survey from last year in the middle of the Covid crisis.
3. Need for practical, action oriented training
To meet the need for practical brand strategy training, we’ve developed our brandgym Academy online training platform. To help design the programs, we asked marketers what they wanted from online marketing training. We did a survey of 100 people interested in online marketing training programs, supplemented by qualitative interviews.
Since then, over 250 people have taken the flagship Mastering Band Growth program, with 98% saying they would “be more effective in their jobs” and that they had “boosted their brand growth know-how”. You can book a place on the next program by clicking here.
Practical tools
Above all, marketers want practical training. Practical tools brought to life with real-life examples came out as the top needs, above marketing theory.
The Mastering Brand Growth program includes a comprehensive 35 tool workbook, that you start using from day 1. The principles and tools are brought to life with case studies and examples from 30 years of real-life projects, our 8 books and 1,500 brandgym blog posts.
Direct 2-way interaction with your trainer was also quite important, almost the same as marketing theory. To meet this need, the Mastering Brand Growth program includes live Zoom workshops where participants can directly interact with their brandgym coach.
Action oriented
The majority of people (64%) want to end of a brand strategy training program with an action plan rather than an exam. Over the 8 weeks of The Mastering Brand Growth program, you work on tools that apply the key principles to your own brand. You finish with a comprehensive action plan, ready to use.
In conclusion, it’s great to see the commitment to invest in brand strategy training, key for long term growth, including a focus on growing the core.
If you’d like some more information on the Mastering Brand Growth program, please pop your details in the box below.
To sign up to the next program head to the brandgym Academy platform here.
For more on capability building, see these other posts:
Sources:
(1) Gartner 2020 CMO Spend Survey The survey talked to 432 marketing executives in North America, the U.K., France and Germany at companies with $500 million to $20 billion or more annual revenue.
