Separating the Useful from the Harmful: How the Core Competence of Filtration Drives Digital Marketing Transformation

This chapter describes how the MANN+HUMMEL Group, a leading global filtration company, separates the useful from the harmful in its digital marketing transformation and provides insights into what is associated with which category. The authors consider this separation to be a key success factor for transformation particularly in marketing, as the seemingly endless possibilities of digitization do not only have positive effects: Making the right decisions in this regard became important for MANN+HUMMEL in the context of certain developments, such as evolving customer needs, expansion through acquisitions, business potentials, limited resources, ever-increasing complexity, and IT security requirements. Therefore, it was necessary to fundamentally change the approach to digital marketing. The chapter also discusses the focus topics addressed during this transformation: collaboration of business and IT, standardization to decrease efforts and time-to-market, translators between standards and local needs, shift toward proactivity through analytics, and a target operating model. Additionally, the authors specify what proved useful in achieving the goals during the transformation and what was harmful to its success. The chapter represents an internal perspective outlining the authors’ practical and professional experiences.