 Teresa Poggenpohl
Executive Director-Global Image Accenture Chicago, Illinois
Accenture’s Teresa Poggenpohl does not believe that marketing is optional. She admits that “Marketing may feel optional for many corporations when they slash budgets in difficult times.” She, though, has kept Accenture’s marketing investment firmly in place by consistently demonstrating how great advertising, combined with intelligent measurement, creates brand strength and differentiation. A 20-year veteran of the company through its long evolution, she works to insure that her top management believes the impact of that investment. Teresa Poggenpohl knows that her CEO is Accenture’s best marketing champion.
“My advice is to clearly define what you are trying to achieve, then measure the impact of what you can achieve. Track awareness, consideration and preference. And take the results back to management. Many marketing people have a fear of measurement; however, one can always find success and opportunity,” says Poggenpohl.
In 2007, she followed her own advice. After studying 6,000 unique insights from high-performance companies, she adjusted the tagline of the well-known Accenture brand campaign from “Be a tiger” to “We know what it takes to be a tiger.” Although subtle to some, the change has make a positive difference for Accenture. According to Poggenpohl, “We help our clients become high performers, and it is my job is to drive that brand message in the marketplace. Certainly, Tiger Woods helps us bring our message to life, but we see him as metaphor for high performance, not a celebrity simply for the sake of celebrity. Senior executives at Fortune 1000 companies give us credit for innovation and creativity in that association. It gives them a flavor of who we are and tells them we would be smart to work with. And the results continue to surprise us — even in a competitive field.”
Despite the great success of the campaign, Teresa Poggenpohl understands that all global marketing comes with risk. Even with a consistent business-to-business message, she is now taking a page from the consumer marketing playbook and is adjusting for market nuances. Accenture is in 27 markets and she is looking at which global messages resonate best at the local level without fragmenting the global high performance strategy. She says, “The macro brand message is our organizing principle. The ad strategy drives through all our marketing continuity from Public Relations to the Annual Report. The brand context is absolute.”
Teresa Poggenpohl also knows that technology is an important driver today. “Business is now very fast paced, and if you don’t like change, you’re not in the right place.” Innovation matters to Accenture, particularly as one of their key consulting arenas is technology. This thinking has lead to the Accenture Interactive Network, the wall-sized, interactive touch screen that dramatically contrasts with a static billboard.
The first was installed in Chicago's O'Hare Airport’s American Airlines Terminal in May 2006, and a second was installed in June in New York’s JFK Airport’s United Terminal. The first non-US screen will be placed in India in 2008. According to Poggenpohl, “We offer an opportunity to get details on weather, news and sports, along with videos of Tiger Woods and Accenture information. Senior executives are impressed with the technology and innovation — all Accenture-built from tech labs. Our target gets wowed!”
And speaking of “wowed,” Teresa Poggenpohl continues to wow the marketing community with her unrelenting efforts at high performance. Contact: teresa.l.poggenpohl@accenture.com
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