Why Can't Marketing and Finance Be Friends?
Jonathan Knowles, CEO and Founder, Type 2 Consulting
Two world views are common in business. One (that predominates in the finance department) considers the principle of rational economic maximization to be an accurate description of human decision making. The other (that predominates in the marketing department) sees human decision making as a function of a more complex set of considerations, involving a range of function, emotional and psychological factors.
The challenge for marketers is that the first world view has become the norm in the C-suite because of the finance department’s facility for speaking in terms of shareholder value, the de facto language of the boardroom. The relative innumeracy of marketers has led to the marginalization of marketing and to a lack of appreciation of its role in business strategy.
The goal of this presentation is to help marketers become more fluent in how to express the business case for marketing in financial terms. It also identifies the major sources of conflict between marketing and finance and how this tension can be turned to productive ends.
Biography: Jonathan Knowles
Jonathan Knowles is the Founder and CEO of Type 2 Consulting – a consultancy that specializes in the brand dimension of business strategy.
Jonathan has a background in finance (Bank of England), strategy consulting (Marakon Associates), creative brand strategy (Wolff Olins), brand equity measurement (Stern Stewart/Y&R's BrandEconomics), and brand valuation (Brand Finance).
This hybrid background has given Jonathan an unusual facility for integrating the marketing and financial perspectives on branding, leading BusinessWeek to describe him as “one of those rare financial guys who understands and appreciates marketing” and MarketingNPV to call him “brand strategist extraordinaire with an unusual fluency in Finance.” Jonathan just thinks of himself as being in the business of using branding to make companies more successful.
Jonathan is the co-author of Vulcans, Earthlings and Marketing ROI and was the principal contributor to Brands: Visions & Values. He is working on a new book – Sibling Rivals – about improving the dialogue between marketing and finance.
His articles have appeared in the AMA's Marketing Management, Harvard Business Review, Intellectual Asset Management, the MIT Sloan Management Review, Professional Investor and The Wall Street Journal
Organization Profile: Type 2 Consulting
Type 2 Consulting advises companies on how to use branding to enhance their overall business performance. We specialize on the initial stages of branding assignments – when the analytical “heavy lifting” is being done to establish the fact base on which to build the brand strategy and brand positioning.
The output of our work is a clearly defined “brand platform” that articulates the key foundational, internal and external components of the brand and that serves as the creative brief for the brand expression and communication work. We partner with other brand and design agencies for these phases of the work.
We specialize in brand strategy for corporate and service brands, and have particular expertise in working with privately-held businesses. Type 2 Consulting is based in New York and has a subsidiary in Toronto.
Be sure to see Jonathan Knowles' page on the REMIX conference site where you will find content, discussion, news, networking, and groups tackling important issues with the power of collaborative design.
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