News  How Powerful is Your Marketing Department? What type of marketer are you? How powerful is your marketing department? A recent report gives an idea of the many different faces of marketers and the various roles they play. See if your profile fits the mold. According to a recent study by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and Booz Allen Hamilton, reveals that more marketing departments and divisions are taking bolder, more advanced roles in their companies. The study found that marketing organizations can be classified into six basic categories – but only one category correlates with better performance: “Growth Champions.” Marketing departments in this category are 20 percent more likely to exhibit superior revenue growth and profitability than those in the other five categories. However, only 9 percent of marketers fell under the Growth Champion category. What is a “Growth Champion?” The report states that Growth Champions take on various roles, including holding primary authority over large strategic investments, leading innovation activities and spearheading growth initiatives with their company’s CEO. The study found several distinctive characteristics of Growth Champion marketers, including: • Seventy-five percent indicated they helped the CEO develop the strategic growth agenda, versus 38 percent of all respondents. • Eighty-one percent presided over product innovation and business development, compared with just 10 percent of the rest. In fact, half of the respondents in the other categories overall reported no involvement in these activities. • Over 80 percent approve large, growth-oriented investments such as market-entry or product launches while less than 10 percent in the more traditional categories had this same authority. • Eighty-seven percent make major strategic positioning, channel strategy, pricing, and communications decisions, and 98 percent lead other functions such as sales and finance on growth initiatives. Along with Growth Champions, the data revealed five additional marketing organizational models, each uniquely associated with firm growth: Marketing Masters (38 percent of respondents): Develop and lead large company-wide marketing efforts, help set company priorities, and may be highly regarded for their marketing skill sets. Senior Counselors (17 percent): Serve as primary advisors to the CEO and business units on marketing strategy but rarely step up to become involved in product innovation or new business development. Best Practices Advisors (9 percent): Marketers work with individual business units to bring “best practices” to advertising, promotion, and public relations activities. While all but 5 percent of the companies following this model are profitable, their levels are not as high as those of the Marketing Masters or Growth Champions. Brand Builders (12 percent): Provide marketing services such as communications strategy, creative output and campaign execution. The marketing organization’s role in leadership and strategy are negligible, and only garner revenue growth and profits on a par with industry averages. Service Providers (15 percent): Offer advertising, promotional and public relations services, responding to brand and product teams. Companies that fell into this category had the highest correlation with below-average revenue growth.