Will Six Sigma Kill Marketing?

Six Sigma has reached the world of sales and marketing with full force.  Everywhere you turn, you will find books, articles, conferences and seminars focused on implementing Six Sigma in sales and marketing.  It may be easy for marketing leaders to read the press and consider Six Sigma as the "savior" for marketing effectiveness and efficiency.  However, as a marketer and process excellence practitioner, I firmly believe marketing leaders should approach the Six Sigma bandwagon with a healthy dose of pragmatism about what it can and cannot do for marketing.

Let's explore some of the characteristics of Six Sigma:

First, marketers should understand that Six Sigma was created and exists as a process improvement methodology designed to reduce variation and defects in existing processes.  This may be highly applicable to higher volume, repeating processes in CRM, lead management, customer data management, or some e-business processes.  But, it is probably an over-engineered method for improving PR, advertising or other marketing communications.

Second, Six Sigma has heavy utilization of enumerative statistics to assess variation in processes.  Market researchers are often experts in enumerative statistics - things like ANOVA, t-tests, descriptive stats, etc.  The purpose of enumerative studies is to provide an estimation of the results (i.e. significant or not significant).  The problem is that marketers must make predictions about the future and enumerative statistics provide no degree of belief about prediction of future performance.  Marketers must use information as a rational basis for decisions and actions.  Enumerative studies focus on the judgment of results.  On the other hand, analytic studies are designed to support decision around actions to be taken on a system or process to improve performance.  Enumerative studies are not predictive, analytic studies are predictive.  It is the difference between analyzing a pond vs analyzing a roaring river.  I venture to guess most of our businesses are dynamic like roaring rivers, not static like ponds.

Third, the DMAIC project roadmap is often deployed as a linear approach to process improvement.  Many of the challenges marketers face could be considered "wicked problems" (check out this excellent paper on wicked problems by Jeff Conklin).  With "wicked problems", attempts to create a solution changes the understanding of the problem.  The complexity of finding & tapping new markets, creating new channels of customer interaction, and bringing innovative products to life are great examples of "wicked problems".  A linear approach will ultimately deliver suboptimal results because the solution is based on the original problem definition (it does now allow for altering the definition based on new knowledge).  What marketers need is a more "multi-lateral" approach that utilizes constant feedback, learning, and small-scale testing that improves the probability that changes or innovations will result in improvement and incremental value.

Now, will Six Sigma kill marketing?  Given the primary purpose for Six Sigma, it has the potential to squelch innovation and creativity if it is applied legalistically and as the "silver bullet" solution to solve marketing's problems.  As with any methodology, Six Sigma is only as good as its ability deliver the same or better results with greater efficiency.   The bottom line is the potential exist for Six Sigma, or any methodology, to reduce the effectiveness of marketing.  To reduce this potential, marketing leaders should ensure any process improvement methodology:

• Improves the ability to achieve desired outcomes without creating extra burden for getting work done.
• Supports and integrates with the culture of your company and marketing organization.
• Provides the appropriate information to make predictions about the future and a rational basis for action.
• Becomes a sustainable way of doing business that helps to grow the company and create new value.

Here are some warning signs to watch for when implementing Six Sigma in marketing:

• Are you measuring people trained vs. growth outcomes (i.e. revenue, profitability, market penetration, customer acquisition & retention, product innovation, etc.)
• Are marketers complaining about the new method being "too burdensome or too heavy"?  Does it get in their way of doing their work?
• Have your marketers become too internally focused and less focused on markets and customers?
• Have you created a "shadow management" structure to track and report on the outcome of Six Sigma projects?  In other words, shouldn't improvement be part of your ongoing operating model?

Marketing as a discipline was effective before Six Sigma and will be effective after Six Sigma goes to the methodology graveyard.  As a marketing leader, the question you will need to answer is "how can I use the appropriate elements of Six Sigma to improve the ability to create value for our customers and my company?"

Comments

[Tedel]

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