Description:

Aligning marketing with strategic business objectives is a fairly simple concept, and certainly not a new one. But making this happen in a large and complex organisation is extremely difficult. Marketing organisations in large companies too often suffer from being overly reactive to local and tactical pressures and requests.

During the past two years, the IBM Global Services' Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) marketing team has successfully transformed itself from a reactive to a proactive team that drives business results. With a new director of marketing, the EMEA team focused on three primary missions:

• Linking marketing budgets and targets to business objectives
• Using market intelligence to drive business planning
• Emphasizing a client-centric, relationship marketing approach

This ITSMA Europe Case Study reviews the key elements of the IBM team's transformation, with special attention paid to issues of leadership, metrics, cultural change, and cross-business collaboration.