The McKinsey Quarterly

2010

• October 2010 

  Rediscovering the art of selling

  Even after researching products on their own, many customers enter stores undecided about what to buy. For retailers, that’s an opportunity to improve off-line sales in an increasingly multichannel world.

  Includes:

• April 2010 

  A new world for brand managers

  CPG companies have created fragmented, overlapping structures that prevent brand and category managers—and the companies themselves—from achieving their full potential.

  Includes:

2009

• October 2009 

  Consumer electronics gets back to basics

  Most people don’t use advanced—and expensive—new features. There may be a better way for companies and consumers alike.

• October 2009 

  Mastering sales force integration in a merger

  Companies can seize the opportunity in mergers by involving employees and customers in the integration process, retaining critical staff, generating momentum by quickly winning key accounts, and serving the right customers in the right way.

2008

• December 2008 

  The downturn’s new rules for marketers

  The old recession playbook won’t work this time around.

• August 2008  

  Rapid transformation of a sales force

  Taking a phased “university approach” to change helped one company transform its sales force—successfully—in 6 months rather than the usual 12 to 24.

2007

• December 2007 

  Refocusing the sales force to cross-sell

  Many salespeople resist cross-selling, so management must address their misgivings head on and convince them of its benefits.

• August 2007 

  Confronting proliferation: A conversation with four senior marketers

  A quartet of prominent marketing practitioners discusses the challenges and opportunities of proliferation.

• August 2007 

  The evolving role of the CMO

  Many chief marketers still have narrowly defined roles that emphasize advertising, brand management, and market research. They will have to spread their wings.

• July 2007 

  Confronting proliferation ... in retail: An interview with Wal-Mart’s John Fleming

  The giant retailer’s chief merchandising officer explains why and how it is trying to reach a wider range of consumers than it has in the past.

• June 2007 

  Confronting proliferation ... in online media: An interview with Yahoo!’s senior marketer

  Cammie Dunaway explains how she is preparing for the future by shifting the company’s marketing dollars to vehicles whose returns can be measured and by fostering intellectual curiosity.

• May 2007 

  Confronting proliferation ... in beer: An interview with Carlsberg's Alex Myers

  Carlsberg's senior vice president, Western Europe, explains what the company is doing to cope with proliferating channels, media, and customer segments and describes the benefits of its functional-excellence programs.

• May 2007 

  Confronting proliferation ... in mobile communications: An interview with Nokia's senior marketer

  Keith Pardy discusses the challenges of maintaining a strong global presence while keeping pace with the explosion of products and marketing channels.

• May 2007 

  How consumer goods companies are coping with complexity

  A recent survey suggests that the rapid pace of change in the industry is leaving some marketers behind.

2006

• November 2006 

  Escaping the middle-market trap: An interview with the CEO of Electrolux

  Hans Stråberg discusses the challenges of serving both the high and low ends of the market successfully.

• August 2006 

  Capitalizing on customer insights

  To stimulate growth in today's marketing environment, companies must identify and prioritize opportunities at points where proliferating segments, channels, and product categories intersect.

• August 2006 

  Managing a marketing and sales transformation

  Executives hoping to transform a commercial organization must tailor their change-management approach to several specific challenges posed by sales and marketing.

  Includes:

• August 2006 

  The power of a commercial operating system

  To avoid heightened complexity and a disjointed allocation of resources in a proliferating marketing environment, companies need a blueprint for consistent processes, tools, and performance-management systems.

  Includes:

• June 2006 

  Profiting from Proliferation

  An explosion of new customer segments, sales and service channels, media, and brands is challenging marketers to reinvent themselves so they can simultaneously prioritize opportunities in a more sophisticated way and increase the consistency and coordination of their marketing execution.

  Includes:

• February 2006 

  Fighting cannibalization

  Optimization techniques used to plan operations can also be applied to sales and marketing.

• February 2006 

  The ‘moment of truth’ in customer service

  Focus on the interactions that are important to customers—and on the way frontline employees handle those interactions.

2005

• November 2005 

  The vanishing middle market

  Changing customer needs are prompting a range of strategic responses.

• November 2005 

  Transforming sales and service

  Incumbents can serve the whole market—without getting stuck in the middle.

  Includes:

• August 2005 

  Mitigating channel conflict

  Some partners are more important than others.

• July 2005 

  Leading change: An interview with the CEO of P&G

  Alan G. Lafley discusses how to stretch a company's aspirations without overpromising. Second in a series of interviews with leading executives on change management.

• June 2005 

  Better B2B selling

  Although collaborative relationships with customers can be complex and time consuming, when they are done well the rewards can be substantial.

• May 2005 

  A credibility gap for marketers

  CMOs should be aware of how they are perceived within the organization and alter their approach accordingly.

• May 2005 

  Boosting returns on marketing investment

  Rules of thumb from the 1960s and '70s are losing their effectiveness. A more rigorous approach is required—one that treats marketing expenditures as investments.

  Includes:

2004

• November 2004 

  Steering customers to the right channels

  Migrating customers to a new channel can be a pain—for them, the company, and its channel partners. But the rewards can make the effort worthwhile.

2002

• November 2002 

  Keeping your sales force after the merger

  Merging companies should look to their revenues, not just their costs.

2001

• August 2001 

  Making solutions the answer

  Many companies hard-pressed to maintain their margins through products alone are turning to ’solutions.’ But to succeed, they must not only embrace competitors but also often turn away existing customers.

2000

• May 2000 

  A new way to market

  For traditional marketers, organization means structure: distinct product, channel, and customer groups. But new-style marketing organizations understand that “boxes and lines” structures can’t drive value in fast-moving environments.

1999

• February 1999 

  Think small, win big

  Companies often treat small businesses as a single segment. What’s needed is better insight into which customers you can serve most profitably. Technology and alliances can play a big role.

1998

• November 1998 

  Breadth of a salesman

  Salesforces will need to create value, not just communicate it. But even in the same industry, different customers see value very differently. Matching selling strategy to customer type.

1997

• August 1997 

  Channel conflict: When is it dangerous?

  Separating complaints from economic reality. When there is a conflict, there are effective options. Don’t overreact, but don’t get paralyzed either.

1996

• February 1996 

  Are you tough enough to manage your channels?

  Too often emotion triumphs over reason. Some improvements, like fixing incentives, can be made quickly. But emerging channels are hard to spot.

• February 1996 

  What’s wrong with the consumer goods organization?

  A new category-based structure is about to be born. Teams fixed functional silos; now there’s no one to integrate processes. The “soft stuff” matters, particularly compensation and evaluation.

1995

• February 1995 

  Salesforce Management: Packaged goods salesforces - beyond efficiency

  Up to 30 percent return on spending. The movement toward account profitability.

1994

• November 1994 

  Reinventing the marketing organization

  A field report on how leading marketers are moving beyond their traditional organizations.

1993

• May 1993 

  Marketing’s mid-life crisis

  New challenges—and a new competitive environment—mean that the marketing function must reinvent itself.