Q&A with Arun Sinha (Former CMO - Pitney Bowes)

 

Pitney Bowes Inc., an industry leader in integrated mail and document management for more than 80 years, has become the brand name for on-site postal meters. But what you probably didn't know is that Pitney Bowes also processes statements for nine of the 10 largest banks and does much more to bring in its $4.6 billion in revenue that's unrelated to the company's heritage as a mechanical device manufacturer.

MarketingNPV Journal talked with Arun Sinha, former president of services and solutions and CMO of the Fortune 500 company, about PBI's marketing scorecard and beginning to measure the financial effect of changing brand perceptions.

MarketingNPV (MNPV): How did you settle on what to put on your marketing scorecard?

Arun Sinha: Our goal is to change C-level executives' perception of PBI from a mail equipment manufacturer to a consultative, ROI-generating provider in the emerging space of "mail and document management." Our strategic measurement architecture puts the focus on three elements: What is the customer value? What is the shareholder value? What is the employee value? Within each we have measurements going through 2006.

We started a brand-tracking study prior to launching our new ad campaign so we could benchmark our brand equity perceptions. Based on that, our goals were to change key attribute perception by 20%. We actually achieved 130%. Our other goal was to increase awareness of non-postage meter solutions 10%, and we achieved 42%.

We then created a roadmap both externally and internally, including a Wall Street perspective (what should our market capital and valuation be if we were really a business solutions provider?) and how our employees should think and feel about our brand and our company.

MNPV: How did you get started?

Sinha: When you start something fresh, it's hard. It's hard to assess your objectives and how you are going to measure them. We went through it in a very methodical way. We thought, "If we want to achieve these goals by 2006, what do we need to do to get there?"

So first we got agreement on the long-term goals, then on the strategic architecture. We then got the company aligned behind them, and worked backwards. If you have the long-term vision, you can get there.

MNPV: How do you link the perceptual dimensions of the brand equity back to financial value?

Sinha: In some of our research, we have found that advertising alone has negligible impact on the stock price. However, we do recognize that positive changes in perception of our brand among our target will lead to more familiarity and, eventually, more sales.

MNPV: What improvements have you made to your scorecard over time and what insights prompted them?

Sinha: We did find that in employee brand understanding we needed to differentiate between "claimed" understanding (three-quarters of our employees say they understand our brand) from "proven" understanding (only about one-third could articulate its meaning). As a result, our internal communication program has become more focused on delivering a few specific themes rather than generalities.

We have also moved from advertising designed to generate C-level awareness to demonstrating various ways Pitney Bowes is working with clients.

MNPV: When do you expect to see some concrete results?

Sinha: We have an understanding among our management that significant changes in perception for our brand will require some time and that positive changes in our perception will likely not follow a steady linear model, but will gain momentum as we become better established and prove our value over time.

To get a look at Pitney Bowes' marketing scorecard, click here.