The genesis of Marketing for Six Sigma has its roots in Design for Six Sigma. Over the course of two years of deploying Voice of the Customer (VOC) training for Design Black Belts and marketing personnel it became clear that a large gap in marketing skills existed in many design based manufacturing companies. Why did the gap exist? It existed because of fourkey reasons:

1 Understaffed and under trained marketing personnel that did not have a true marketing background. Many staffers had come from engineering or from sales.

2 Mature organisations had migrated away from risk based projects that required marketing acumen. Consequently, they typically focused on projects that were specified by the customer.
Manufacturers only focused on loose specifications and mandated volumes. I once heard this thought process termed as, “make a little, sell a little.”

3 The apparent weakness of marketing groups to be functional with essential marketing tools was always visible. Functions like forecasting, process mapping, VOC skills, project and milestone planning, value analysis, and statistical analysis were all weak.

4 An organisational paralysis existed in some customers that made marketing an unaccountable, and untouchable organisation.
Forever blaming marketing failures on unexpected variables, uncontrollable “fuzzy” data points that cannot be measured, and a general belief that hard measures cannot realistically be created for marketing efforts.

Based on these needs I and some other “black belts” with marketing experience set out to formulate a “green belt” programme for marketers. The result was more than a “green belt” programme. It became a full black belt orientated curriculum that now stands as essential training to organisations who are deploying DFSS or who are in need of bringing marketing departments under control and focused on project based successes. Bringing together a team of people from Merck, Allied Signal and Kodak helped to create a programme that was verifiable and deployable to marketing organisations. The greatest challenge in creating such a program is not gathering the tools to teach. The greatest difficulty is in challenging marketing leadership to let go of traditional marketing fiefdoms and letting projects and data guide the marketing functions to accountability. Diligence in many of the marketing and statistical tools help marketed products to achieve new heights.

I learned many of the hard lessons previously mentioned. Years of frustration in sales and marketing roles trying to get something measurable was often a futile effort for the fear that comes with “looking bad”. Often it was better to let attributes data be the judge of marketing performance. After working for a few years with Six Sigma professionals who are now leaders in the deployment of the tools it became a goal to develop something to take marketing to a higher measured altitude.

Marketing is more than achieving the sale, or exceeding the sales goals, part of its critical functionality is the ability to outline, proactively, the marketing processes/functions (PF’s) that need to be performed, superior analysis of the data that comes from internal and external sources, and the ability to fine tune processes/functions that are out of control. Having seen too many departments unable to bring stability to these three areas a new philosophy was born to help develop structure to these departments. Market Accountability Planning (MAP) is the refined measurement system to bring governance to and under managed department. Once a governance system is in place, then traditional DMAIC projects can be commissioned to help identify critical areas of improvement, and failure modes are decreased. MAP is a system designed to break down critical processes and functions, measure the essential x’s, and scorecard back up to marketing system definition.

MAP and marketing for Six Sigma are not solely tied to cost- savings projects, but the tools also are tied to growth projects. A road map for new product development that parallels DFSS projects is given to help in uncovering the essential functions necessary for a successful product development and launch.

COR2E
Concept: Developing specification in a concept is more than engineers working on solutions from fuzzy customer data. A strong solution to this is a robust concept development process we call DesignX. DesignX allows us to move from customer voice to clear prioritised requirements to a large set of requirements based concepts to a superior solution that can be clearly specified.

Optimise: This process allows for the identification and improvement of internal marketing PF’s that need attention. Utilisng traditional DMAIC tools, PF’s are improved and brought under control.
Review & Revise: This step in the road map allows for good data analysis and market activity refinement that comes from it. Utilising a stronger understanding of analytic marketing tools the “belts” are expected to reveal a clear understanding of the evolving markets throughout the development process pre- and post-launch.
Evaluate: A new product development system is not robust unless there are structures in place to oversee the process and ensure diligence. Additionally, a launch is not a trigger to ignore the product. While not a sequential step in the process this phase is critical from the oversight perspective pre- and post launch. Using MAP as the structure the marketing programme is kept under an observed and proactive state.

Controlled marketing process (Using DMAIC) and optimised marketing performance of new product development (Using COR2E)
should be near the top of every executive team’s management concerns. Efficient and effective product/service management is critical to long term success. Successful product launches are absolutely critical to short- and long-term corporate sustainability. Marketing leaders need to have the tools and skills to optimize process and function flows. They need the governance system to identify the best opportunities and structure projects around them. They need the skills to reduce waste while focusing on top-line growth.

There are three levels of marketing operations: functional; tactical; and strategic. Functional marketing activity is rooted in things that must be done. Operational diligence, required sales activities, and channel sustaining activities are all somewhat functional in their approach. They must be done, usually with repetition, to keep the marketing process operational. Tactical marketing activity is focused on response to market. It is optimised when market responses and market failure modes are planned for. It is the way of dealing with the randomness that comes from competition, economic shifts, customer behavior shifts, and other market influences. Strategic marketing is the level of guidance and governance over the product(s) or service(s) that guide them to long-term success. It is the overseeing eye of maximising the entire portfolio of product(s) and their options in the marketplace long-term. Traditional Six Sigma philosophy talks of improved cycle-times, solving problems, and developing breakthrough solutions. Marketing for Six Sigma is about all of these things, plus it is about developing structure and governance that keeps marketing processes and functions in control and accountable.

Optimised marketing departments must deal with all the issues of other acumens in the organisation and more. They must concern themselves with capability, capacity, efficiency and they must always actively participate, and lead, in assuring sustainability and growth. Marketing ungoverned, unspecified, and unmeasured have no power over markets, nor do they have any power over predicting market behavior. Ungoverned marketing programmes merely react to market variances in a “Just in time” mentality that allows them to blame the unexplained variable for their missed targets. Placing controls and measures in place and having them achieved through tool usage is the only solution for achieving, or restoring, marketing excellence. Project focus deployed with strong Six Sigma tool sets with the requirements of clear deliverables is the method of bringing marketing processes under control.

I must give credit to Dave Antis who had the patience and vision to explore the concept of expanding the world of Six Sigma beyond manufacturing and design. He saw the value in bringing a robust and effective quality initiative to the marketing world. Marketing for Six Sigma struggles to take marketing departments out of the silo focused world of poor structure, functions, and accountability. In conclusion, we believe that Marketing for Six Sigma is the means to effectively control functional marketing, and that it is the mechanism for highly-effective tactical and strategic marketing leadership.

Contact Scott McGregor at Uniworld Consulting Inc at (US):
Tel: +1 210 798 8888, or
E-mail: scottmcgregor@sprintmail.com