正如可口可樂公司一位前營銷官所說∶“我們會從跨部門或全球的角度來深度考察客戶的需求，這很有意義，而各個業(yè)務單元不用操心這件事。但是，我們真正的價值體現(xiàn)在我們有能力協(xié)調各個業(yè)務單元，把對客戶的深入洞察應用到他們各自的業(yè)務當中去，并帶來實質性的變化。”

　　這是個極大挑戰(zhàn)。對營銷集中化具有影響力的人必須清楚，有形增長是一個多方面的過程，公司文化也必須有相應改變。不同的公司在重新創(chuàng)立營銷結構時采取了不同的方法。通用電氣是獲得成功的公司。

　　通用電氣要證明，只有公司和各個業(yè)務單元的營銷人開展合作，才能夠使雙方的最佳想法發(fā)揮效力。通用電氣并沒有強制性地在11個分散的業(yè)務單元中推行公司新的品牌總戰(zhàn)略（圍繞“發(fā)揮工作中的想像”這一主題展開），而是由總公司和兩家業(yè)務單元合作試行這個新戰(zhàn)略，然后制定了戰(zhàn)略實施指南，以保證這個戰(zhàn)略對全公司都有意義。這種合作取得了豐厚的回報∶外界對通用電氣公司的看法有了很大提升，公司的創(chuàng)新形象人氣提升了35%，業(yè)內活躍程度提升了50%。

　　企業(yè)不僅認識到品牌和營銷對組織轉型的巨大影響力，還認識到要發(fā)掘這種力量，必須建立恰當?shù)慕M織結構（并由有能力的合適人員支持）。也就是說，公司要通力合作，協(xié)調、整合兩股力量—總部和各業(yè)務單元的最佳營銷團隊—建立能夠最好地支持業(yè)務模式和戰(zhàn)略的組織結構。

 　　(王欣紅　譯)

　　In 2000, an overwhelming 95 percent of respondents to a

　　 Marketing Leadership Council survey said they anticipated centralizing aspects of their marketing functions. Five years later, progress against this objective is spotty. While some businesses have achieved noteworthy transformations, many are still struggling to take the first steps.

　　The appeal of a centralized approach to marketing has its basis in two critical needs: to gain greater consistency across the organization, and to better leverage marketing"s initiatives and the power of the brand. And the pressure to achieve both is only intensifying.

　　Megamergers mean megaorganizations, creating overlap and confusion in roles, responsibilities, processes and systems. Brand portfolios are growing larger, more complex and more difficult to manage. Customers are increasingly demanding in their expectations of the brand and the business behind it.

　　So what’s holding back true progress? Many companies jumped too fast into centralized marketing without evaluating how its power could be coupled with a strong business unit marketing force to deliver value.

　　At issue is the need to weigh an enterprise marketing structure against the total needs of the business and identify where best to deploy resources to deliver on brand and business objectives. The end goal? Creation of a structure that serves the overall business as well as its brands.

　　The process begins at the top. Senior management needs to articulate to all parties the company’s overall business goals and the strategies to achieve them. With that in hand, a centralized, corporate marketing team, with its companywide perspective, can take on the challenge of identifying which strategies are best implemented across brands or markets and how to get there and evaluate progress.

　　The business units also have a critical role to play. They must develop a strategy and growth agenda for their individual businesses while integrating with a broader corporate agenda. They must also identify unit-or brand-specific growth drivers, determine what success looks like for the unit and find the best marketing tactics to achieve it.

　　Corporate marketing must take on a consultative role that keeps it above the fray. Part of the strategic value corporate marketing brings to the organization is its objectivity and ability to generate opportunities across the company that are usually blocked from the individual business units’ view. Marketing also has considerable resources to help fuel collaborative efforts.

　　As a former corporate marketer with Coca-Cola recalled: °∞When we came through with customer insights on a cross-unit or global basis, it was great-it was one less thing the business units had to worry about. But where we really proved ourselves was in the ability to collaborate with them to apply these insights to their specific business and make a material difference.°±

　　The challenge is getting to this point. Those who are effecting this shift must understand tangible growth is a multifaceted process that requires culture change. Different companies have taken different paths toward reinventing their marketing organizations. One that has achieved success is General Electric.

　　GE needed to demonstrate how collaboration between corporate and business unit marketers could result in the best thinking of both being put into play. Rather than force-feeding GE’s 11 disparate business units with the new corporate brand strategy (positioned around °∞Imagination at Work°±), corporate and two of the units partnered in test-driving the initiative, working out the kinks and ensuring that the effort would be meaningful across the organization. This collaboration paid off in substantial improvements in external perceptions of GE as an innovator (up 35 percent) and as a dynamic industry presence (up 50 percent).

　　As businesses recognize the power of brand and marketing to transform an organization, they also realize the ability to tap into that power requires the right structure (supported by the right people with the right capabilities) to be in place. To do that takes a collaborative effort to leverage and integrate the best of both marketing worlds-at center and at the business units-with a structure that best supports the business model and strategy.