Chart of the Day: BCG’s pathway to digital marketing maturity model

You probably know of Boston Consulting Group for their classic market prioritization matrix which we feature in our essential marketing models guide.

Well, they still continue as a consulting group and naturally work on digital transformation projects for which they share strategies via their blog. The latest, which I thought sharing is a simple assessment of digital marketing maturity based on organizational structure.

Most suited for larger organizations it shows the typical pattern from an ad hoc approach to digital marketing across a business characterised by innovation, but also inefficiency and wastage due to overlap or inexperience. To control digital marketing activities a centralized approach is then recommended, but as I have seen in many cases this then results in digital marketing silos with poor integration between digital marketing, marketing, corporate communications, product and brand marketing. Once this realization occurs then decentralization occurs to assist integration of digital marketing for the business. This is where many more mature digital organizations are today – they have created a CoE, either a digital marketing CoE or perhaps more appropriate a Marketing Centre of Excellence to manage central

The article then goes on to describe a series of pre-requisites for organizational design which are a useful checklist for a digital marketing CoE. Our guide to creating a Coe

Customer-Centric. They focus all aspects of the business on customer needs and wishes.

They focus all aspects of the business on customer needs and wishes. Agile. They adhere to short response and implementation times in both decision making and resource allocation.

They adhere to short response and implementation times in both decision making and resource allocation. Experimental. Digital organizations’ business models foster experimentation; they are built to try, fail quickly, and improve. When something works, they scale up fast.

Digital organizations’ business models foster experimentation; they are built to try, fail quickly, and improve. When something works, they scale up fast. Lean, Simple, and Standard. They aspire to have standardized structures, units, and processes as well as clear roles and responsibilities. Simplicity is a central consideration in decision making.

They aspire to have standardized structures, units, and processes as well as clear roles and responsibilities. Simplicity is a central consideration in decision making. Focused on Operational Excellence. Digital organizations champion efficiency, lean techniques, competitive cost structures, and continuous improvement. They maintain a high degree of organizational discipline.

Digital organizations champion efficiency, lean techniques, competitive cost structures, and continuous improvement. They maintain a high degree of organizational discipline. Empowered and Accountable. They empower managers to take action; they monitor performance and hold managers accountable; and they focus on a small number of simple and clear KPIs.

They empower managers to take action; they monitor performance and hold managers accountable; and they focus on a small number of simple and clear KPIs. Cross-Functional. Their teams purposefully combine all relevant types of expertise, both digital and business-specific. Digital organizations avoid functional silos so that ideas, expertise, and data can be easily shared and acted on.

Our members guide to best practices for creating a Digital Marketing CoE explains how to review which digital marketing activities should be reviewed centrally and which locally.

Members may also be interested in our digital marketing maturity visuals which help you score your current approach to digital marketing across our RACE planning framework.