Blog 2 -"The Frugal Marketer's Guide: "The F.R.U.G.A.L Marketer Principles"

Nobody really wants to be frugal. Unless they need to be or want to be.

Throughout my career, I’ve managed marketing budgets from $100k to $200million/year with various levels of flexibility, scrutiny (and pressure!) I’ve learned and seen a lot about how these can result in amazing growth but also have seen a lot of wasted resources on expenses that Marketers “hoped “ would work.

As we begin the journey of D Frugal Marketer, my aim for this blog is to breakdown what I learned working in the cutthroat world of marketing and provide an effective and efficient way to simply grow your brand and business. When other marketers try to flex their image, frugal marketers aren't just playing. They're slaying. This is not just some textbook theory but talking experience and street smarts, backed by data and studies that'll make it make sense. Buckle up because we're about to break down the hustle of our frugal marketers – no fluff, just real talk.

In this second installment of our blog series, we delve into the principles that make for the Frugal Marketer. This strategic foundation that helps enable marketers to navigate the complexities of a more volatile, uncertain, complex and constantly changing landscape of marketing.

The “F.R.U.G.A.L” Principles of Frugal Marketing

Principle 1: Focus on your Source of Growth – The Customer

Frugal marketers ain't shooting in the dark. They're strategic, intentional and outcome driven. They know what is critical to growth and who ultimately who is boss – The Customer! At companies like P&G and Coca-Cola ; mantras like “Customer is Boss”, “Understanding the Moments of Truth” and “Unwavering Consumer Centricity” are spoken everyday and all point to the fact that the most important source of credibility and value a Marketer brings to the table is their knowledge of their consumer/customers and their ability to advocate for their needs, wants and desires so that they ultimately prefer, choose and buy your brands versus others. For the Frugal marketer - It's not just growth; it's growth with precision, and insights like a laser-guided missile locking onto its target.

Principle 2: Recognize your “Growth Drivers”

What are the growth drivers of your brand and business? Based on how mature your brand and business is, figuring out the main thing that will matter to driving sales is important to the Frugal Marketer. For a new brand and business, do your potential customers know about you and how you can help them? In a crowded and mature market you will need to gain attention and be seen as a viable product/service to be considered. How can you be differentiated and be unique? How often do you need to be considered? At Coca-Cola, we talk about the opportunity being at least 8X a day – based on the recommended daily liquid intake of at least 64oz./day based on 8oz. per serving. At Blackberry, the decision cycles for smartphones were about every 18months and the most compelling influence was the recommendation of friends and family.

In building your business model, how can marketing help make an immediate impact? Forget fancy ads and slogans. Look at the data. McKinsey spills the beans that companies going all-in on data-driven decisions are 5% more productive and 6% more profitable. Our frugal marketers aren't guessing; they're reading the room, knowing exactly which marketing investments will move the needle. It's like having a cheat code for your budget game.

Principle 3: Use the Right Tools

In a world drowning in choices, our frugal marketers aren't drowning – they're surfing the marketing ecosystem wave. According to Statista, there are more than 10,000 Martech companies out there offering their services to Marketers. The options are endless and come with different features, capabilities, price points, support and reliability. How do marketers choose which ones make sense? In building marketing capability we would often discuss, do we build, buy or borrow the tools we want to use? In selecting tools and services, the frugal marketer asks: are you buying knowledge (data)? people (to get it done) or a platform (tool)?

Principle 4: Getting the Right Results

How effective are the tools that you use? Do they give you a great ROI? Frugal marketers aren't just throwing money around; they're digging into the data, decoding the value of each marketing investment. It's about the getting “More for Less” from your investment in tools AND marketing investments! Understanding how these investments directly impact Sales and other critical KPIs is critical to the Frugal Marketer. Being able to synchronize investments to optimize outcomes is an important skill that today’s marketers must master. A clear narrative to the CEO and CFO on why ‘marketing works” and, how it drives growth efficiently is necessary. In this blog, we will cover how this can be done using data mapping, spine development and AI.

Principle 5: Adjust and Learn

With changes in marketing happening exponentially over the last 10 years, having a strategy and commitment to it no longer suffices. We need to understand the SEAM of opportunity that we can take advantage of daily while keeping the goal and destination in mind. In a published report by Tech Target’s Enterprise team only 23% of data insights are produced in real time today. This is a great opportunity for frugal marketers to be beat competition by not just focusing but being agile and, adjusting on the fly. It's like being the pilot of a fighter jet, making split-second decisions to stay ahead of the competition.

In the upcoming series of blogs, get ready for some more stories and insights on how to be F.R.U.G.A.L Marketers!

I would love to hear what you think! Reach out to me at dfrugalmarketer@gmail.com!

Always learning to get#moreforlessmarketing

Denis

About the Blog Author:

Denis Sison has 30+ years as a Marketing Executive having worked for Procter & Gamble, The Coca-Cola Company, Research in Motion, The Hershey Company and Johnson & Johnson. He holds deep experience accelerating revenue growth and productivity through innovative brand efforts focused on high growth opportunities and utilizing technology to generate immediate, sustained and transformative ROI in Brands, Business and Marketing Talent. He is currently founder of Modern Marketing Xcellence LLC - a marketing consulting firm aimed at transforming brands, businesses and people for growth and social impact.

Denis holds a bachelor’s degree in economics, cum laude from the University of the Philippines, Manila, an MBA from Harvard Business School and am Instructional Design Certificate from Georgetown University

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