Marketing Resource Marketing (MRM) seems to the latest buzz acronym in the marketing world. Those familiar with basic data management principles may seem surprised about all the fuss as it seems to be covering what data professionals have known all along - that managing data effectively can add real value to an organisation. So is this just data management rehashed into another marketing acronym?
MRM, for people not familiar with this term, can be loosely defined as “the organisation and effective use of marketing resources (human and technological) so that the marketing department is able to support and help achieve overall organisational goals.”
With it come an additional four Ps that cover how to achieve optimal, effective use of marketing resources to achieve organisational goals: People, Process, Performance, Profit.
MRM also incorporates aspects of digital asset management (DAM), which is the technological system employed by an organisation to create, manage, process and distribute digital content and information. If MRM is the process, DAM is the physical soft and hardware that makes it happen.
The forgotten factor that underpins this entire process is data and the management of the data asset. As a quick critique of those four Ps reveals, is Profit not a form of performance metric? So why does this need to be separated from an organisation’s or marketing department’s key performance indicators?
What if an organisation’s goals are not profit, eg, charities, political parties, membership organisations, etc? I know this may be a bit pedantic, but if you are talking Return on Marketing Investment and comparing revenue/ benefits against costs to justify the investment, eg, cost per donor/member/customer, then you don’t need to call it something else?
Data professionals have probably already noticed that People and Process are two key elements and are aspects of providing and ensuring data that is of a high quality. I’m not stating that what has been suggested is wrong, but the concepts that have been put forward within MRM do seem to be rehashed, updated and repackaged. If marketers do feel they need a new acronym, then why not TAPP or PATT (People, Process, Technology, Analysis)?
The drive for more effective data management processes within marketing departments comes from the amount of data being dervived from online sources and a trend for moving away from cross-channel marketing to omni-channel marketing. This is about the ability of the organisation to provide a seamless customer experience across one or more digital and non-digital points of contact.
So what implications - if any - does this have for data management? With the rise of big data technologies, organisations could adopt a SOREAA data model. This stands for:
In conclusion, when marketing professionals are talking about MRM and DAM, what they are actually talking about is the more effective management and distribution of data within marketing that could be applied to the entire organisation, making it a data-centric organisation. How that data is managed will only grow in importance, not only to provide the consumer with the ideal experience across multiple devices, but also enabling staff/stakeholders/third-party contractors to be provided with the right information at the right time to produce, analyse, and distribute data and content that facilitates that experience.
Follow me on LinkedIn: @Richard B
Thank you for your input
Thank you for your feedback
DataIQ is a trading name of IQ Data Group Limited
10 York Road, London, SE1 7ND
Phone: +44 020 3821 5665
Registered in England: 9900834
Copyright © IQ Data Group Limited 2024