Chartered CPD Programme: Members (MCIM) and Fellows (FCIM)

Reflective statements
Reflective statements are used to measure the outputs or value of learning, rather than the inputs or
content. As a professional marketer we expect you to be able to determine the usefulness of the
development you are undertaking and consider how it will enable you to improve your practice.

Unsatisfactory or incomplete
Good statements statements
Indicators of a good reflective statement are: You will need to provide further detail if:
 It is personal to you  It only includes a description of the
 It is clear how the learning relates to learning content
your role or prepares for a future role  Does not clearly link your learning to
 It outlines the content and method of your professional role
the learning activity  Does not explain how the activity
 It describes how your knowledge, added more depth to your existing
skills and attributes have developed as knowledge or skills
a result of the learning activity  Does not include reference to how you
 It identifies any further gaps or may use this knowledge in the future
learning you did not cover and how  Does not link your learning to the
you might fill these Professional Marketing Standards
 It describes how your current practice
might change as a result

We would expect each statement to be up to 350-450 words per activity. However, the content of the
reflection is more important than the length in determining the effectiveness of the activity. It may
help to use the following points to help you structure your reflection:
 What did I expect to learn?
 What did I learn?
 What will I do differently going forwards?
 Actions and next steps

Programme requirements
As a Member (MCIM) or Fellow (FCIM), in order to complete your CPD year towards achieving or
maintaining Chartered Marketer status, you are required to complete a reflective statement for at
least 4 learning and development activities that are aligned to the Professional Marketing Standards.

2 activities based Insights

on Core standards Strategy
Championing the Customer

2 activities based Brand

on Technical Integrated Marketing Communications
standards Digital Capability
Value Propositions
Monitoring and Measuring Effectiveness
Customer Experience
Channel to Market / Partnership Marketing
Reputation, Risk and Compliance

CPD: Reflective statements | CIM

Sample statements
Activity title: Brand Health Summit 2016 – Interbrand Keynote
Learning content: Digital Capability
Activity category: Formal learning
Activity type: Attending conference

What I expected to learn

Ways in which digital marketing, digital capability or digital activity have impacted brands, with a view
to avoiding some of the pitfalls that others have encountered.

What I learned
‘Brands are strategy brought to life’, and more importantly, how the power has shifted from the brand
to the consumer because of the nature of social media and digital marketing in general. (United
Airlines video mentioned as an example).

Careful and meticulous management of every action by your organisation – don’t forget behaviour
and people. Culture is a point of differentiation – think about the Apple Store – we need to create an
internal culture to ensure our potential customers don’t even think about going anywhere else.

What I’ll do differently

(First of all, knowing that the parent company is about to start on a programme to embed culture
supporting the brand we need to be ready to translate that to our sub-brand and our target
customers, and not reinvent the wheel.)

So the key learning from this as far as I’m concerned is that as power has been handed to customers
it is even more important to make sure what customers experience is positive all the way through
their journey, as they may well be the ones that communicate through social media (rather than our
marketing communications department).

It also highlights the need to monitor social media actively to pick up (in time) anything that has gone
wrong or has caused misperceptions.

Action and next steps

1. Check what the organisation is planning in terms of their culture programme and ensure
we make the most of it for our sub-brand. Introduce sessions into Team Meetings to
reinforce the message that everything we all say and do impacts on the brand.
2. Double check the customer journey map, and, as well as checking that we don’t create a
bad experience that might be shared at each touchpoint, make sure we create some
good experiences that pleasantly surprise and may prompt social media posts as well.
3. Check out social media listening tools – there are some that are ‘free’ (apart from the
cost of someone’s time to check out what is being said about us).
4. Make sure we have a clear policy and process for responding to queries and comments.

Activity title: CIM Digital Summit 2015

Learning content: Core: Championing the customer
Activity category: Formal learning
Activity type: Attending conference

Within the conference, Pete Markey (CMO, Post Office Group – ‘The realities (and opportunities) of
digital disruption’) discussed the “Six Pillars of Customer Excellence”.

CPD: Reflective statements | CIM

Despite being fairly proud as an organisation of our customer service, I realised that we actually have
quite a limited view of our customers when it comes to some of our marketing choices. Yes we put a
lot of time and effort into trying to exceed expectations, create positive experiences, and turn a poor
experience into a great one. But we are really falling short of ‘individualised attention’ through the
use of digital tools to improve personalisation and minimise the customer’s effort. We have a habit of
focusing on digital as simply an alternative channel to get our message out.

I intend to now focus more on customer behaviour and what influences them, perhaps with some
research of our own customer base, then use the outputs of that research to deliver more targeted
marketing messages at key points in the purchase-decision process.

There was also a strong focus on how traditional marketing has changed with the growth of digital
marketing – how this is no longer simply a channels choice but one of developing a digital
organisation. I need to stop focusing simply on digital as a channel in terms of how we actually
communicate eg. Social media, website etc, but instead look at ways in which we can make our
whole organisational strategy more digitally-driven, creating an organisation-wide focus on the
customer to drive relationship building.

I’ve found CIM’s ‘Strategic Marketing Masterclass’ course which I think might be able to help steer my
organisation towards a more customer-orientated strategy. So next I’ll be looking at the learning
outcomes for that course to see if they match my own objectives here, and if it’s all aligned, get
booked onto the course. Ideally we’ll be able to start a change initiative in the next 6 months.

Activity title: Managing change for marketing effectiveness

Learning content: Technical: Championing the customer
Activity category: Formal learning
Activity type: Attending conference

What I expected to learn

A new model or application for considering how individuals move through the change curve. With all
the hype about Agile marketing I know that the only constant is change! Time to revisit it for the
team and myself.

What I learned
Very little, in that I’ve used the Kubler-Ross grief/change curve for years to describe how people
move through change curves at different rates. However, the learning came from the session I ran,
and it was interesting that when I did introduce it to others this time it seemed to make more of an
impact.

So my learning came from reflecting on what was different, what differences did I see in the
reactions and resulting behaviour from the team, and whether it had an impact on marketing
effectiveness after the event.

 The only practical difference was that I didn’t use the original change curve image from
Kubler-Ross, instead I used an image from John M. Fisher showing images and questions
about the related stages.
 Reactions and behaviour were mixed, and discussions quite active. Everyone had something
to say, and many recognised that they were at different stages on the curve.
 It was one of the team that turned the conversation to ‘moving forward’ in terms of work
(which was great, as I didn’t have to). I was able to capitalise on the fact that the point was

CPD: Reflective statements | CIM

made and as a group we established some steps to help get there as a team and as quickly
as possible.

What I’ll do differently

Treat the team as customers (I’m always encouraging them to treat each other and other
departments as customers – I need to practise what I preach).

Use more images on presentations – these were really simple, but team responses to them.

Take the opportunity to bring the conversation back to what’s happening in the workplace as often as
possible.

Make sure agreements made in meetings are implemented back in the work place.

Action and next steps

 Look to improve team communication by personalising as much as possible
 Don’t assume that because I know something very well that it won’t be a powerful tool in
managing change within the team.
 Make sure all points/steps agreed in the meeting are put into practice in the office
 Look into courses on Agile Marketing – combining Agile Project Management with Marketing –
during the next 12 months

Activity title: CIM Brand Summit 2016

Learning content: Technical: Brand
Activity category: Formal learning
Activity type: Attending conference

Brand is a definite area of weakness for me, but I’m looking to develop our brand so I was hoping
that this summit conference would give me some good insights. My key take out from the conference
was about how brand is no longer a visual identity and value controlled by the marketing department.
It has to be an integral part of organisational strategy that drives every department across the entire
customer experience – people gravitate to your organisation based on what you represent just as
much as the products you offer.

Things I intend to do based on learnings from the conference:

- Introduce brand ambassadors outside of the marketing team. Cross-function collaboration to
manage brand throughout the customer journey.
- Support top down and bottom up collaboration on brand values – articulating them in a really
engaging way – starting by getting it onto the agenda at board level.
- Consider how to incorporate “experience” into our brand
- Work with the HR team to integrate brand more closely into people and change initiatives.
Also to integrate brand messages into staff recruitment and inductions to support internal
engagement, along with a clearly defined set of brand experience principles

Clearly this is going to need a strong focus on internal collaboration so I’ll be seeking involvement and
buy-in across the business at all levels. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get something together before the
end of the current quarter.

Also I plan to develop our brand measurement beyond the obvious, standard metrics. We need to
progress from measuring awareness to preference, and from satisfaction to perception and

CPD: Reflective statements | CIM

engagement. We also need to share the results of brand and customer performance measures
internally.

I also liked the quote within the BMW presentation – “The best way to predict the future is to create
it”. We could definitely be more proactive!

Next steps for me with regard to brand – I’d like to attend the Brand Masterclass training course at
CIM to learn more strategies for expanding the consideration for brand internally – I have already
enquired with CIM about this and hopefully I’ll be able to get on their next scheduled date. In the
meantime I have identified some good online articles about more collaborative approaches to
branding which I intend to cover over the next few months.

Activity title: New approach to strategic planning

Learning content: Core: Strategy
Activity category: Self-directed learning
Activity type: General reading

What I expected to learn

I bought the book back in 2011, and although I had looked at various sections of it, I hadn’t really
used the principles. This year I wanted to use a different approach (from SOSTAC) to see if it
generated new thinking when putting together a strategy for growth for the business, and, in turn to
develop the Value Proposition.

What I learned
So much – where do I start? Having found 6 webinars and 34 short videos in the Strategyzer series
to support the book and its case studies, there were so many thoughts and ideas. In this reflection, I
have focused on the three key things that ‘jumped out’ from the overall process –

1. Because it is not set out in a linear format it ‘disrupts’ normal thought processes, and the
impact of each section on the others is easily identified. It encourages experimentation – by
changing one section slightly you can move on to measure the impact on costs and revenue
streams, so exploring lots of different ideas quickly and safely.
2. While in the past I’ve always started with a situational analysis (or marketing audit and
market analysis – outside in), the Business Model Canvas encourages experimentation. By all
means map out your existing model, but then look at many others from ‘free’ to ‘premium’.
Only once you have worked through this process do you look at the environment for which
you’re planning.
3. Check out your ideas with future customers – it’s all very well asking current customers what
they like and don’t like, and what should be changed, but tomorrow’s customers may
disagree.

Finally, don’t work with an unchanged model for years – make sure it evolves with the market (but
keep a record of how it has evolved, so you can look back and have a record of mistakes and
successes.

What I’ll do differently

 Involve the management team in developing a range of business models for the company.
 Look at market forces, trends and the opportunities and threats identified – adapt the models
to identify the optimum in terms of competitive advantage.
 Check out new ideas with prospective customers.
 Share the plan with the rest of the team and answer questions to ensure it is implemented
effectively.

CPD: Reflective statements | CIM

Action and next steps
1. Run a short introductory session on Business Planning for Managers and Team Leaders.
2. Set up the 6 initial short videos from Strategyzer for all of the management team to watch.
3. Print off half a dozen ‘blown up’ blank canvases.
4. Run a hands-on Workshop with the team to create versions of the business to compare.
5. Look at the external ‘uncontrollable’ factors and adapt the model.
6. Check out any new elements with prospective and current customers.
7. Select the model we’ll work with.
8. Introduce the plan to the rest of the team, explaining what differences in practices it will
involve.

Reflect again on these stages and adapt before the next review of activities and performance.

Activity title: Catalyst magazine – issue 3

Learning content: Core: Insights
Activity category: Self-directed learning
Activity type: General reading

We have a history of being very risk averse as an organisation. For a while now, our competitors have
been making significant advances, and yet we stick to what we know for fear of failure, not realising
that in itself is a big risk. I have recently expanded my role to incorporate a greater focus on
customer insight and innovation and am keen to learn how I can encourage the organisation as a
whole to have a more forward-thinking approach.

Reading the articles within Catalyst magazine, particularly the article by Robert Bain, has given me a
lot of food for thought. The article was really useful in supporting a move to becoming a more
innovative organisation, with some really reassuring examples and great tips on how to reduce not
only the hazards associated but also the resistance from within the team.

With the support of the various insights in this edition of Catalyst, I am hoping to be able to put in
place a company-wide strategy focusing on insights and innovation, including offering rewards for
employees who take calculated insight-driven risks, regardless of the outcome, and a more open
culture to support the idea of learning from our failures and embracing change. Quite ambitious, and
likely to take some time, but I’ve already discussed it with the CEO and have formed an enthusiastic
team to start looking at next steps.

I have since discovered a CIM webinar entitled ‘Innovation through Insight’ which I’m hoping will
reinforce some of the messages and help me start making some changes.

Further support
Additional details on the Professional Marketing Standards can be found at www.cim.co.uk/standards

For more information on the CPD programme, visit www.cim.co.uk/cpd

For further guidance on completing your submission or using the MyCPD platform, call +44 (0)1628
427120 or email [email protected]

CPD: Reflective statements | CIM