Welcome to the Strategic Marketing Forum

The Strategic Marketing Forum (SMF) delivers thought leadership through academic experts and is strongly linked to practice.

Overview

Cranfield School of Management is ranked by the Economist as one of the world's top ten business schools and our Strategic Marketing MSc is a top-ranked marketing MSc.  We believe in the power of marketing which is key to all organisations.  Whether business to business or business to consumer, government to consumer or peer to peer, your product offer, the pricing models used, methods of promotion and access to your goods and services, are key decisions.

The Strategic Marketing Forum (SMF) is a community that delivers thought leadership through academic experts and is strongly linked to practice.  We share the latest marketing insights and best practice, enabling marketing leaders to stay ahead.  

The SMF addresses key areas:

  • The role of marketing in the organisation
  • Pressing issues for retailers in post-Covid environment
  • Marketing and sales collaboration
  • Account-based marketing
  • Understanding the evolving MarTech landscape
  • Pivoting to customer centricity
  • Delivering customer value
  • Managing customer touchpoints
  • Digital transformation strategies

Who is it for?

Marketing and commercial directors, senior and aspiring marketing professionals, and those in management roles who are curious about marketing and keen to enhance or share their own practice.

Membership benefits

  • Our members can gain access to, and participate in, a wide range of marketing research to create and sustain a competitive advantage
  • Learn about new marketing concepts and applications
  • Opportunity to learn from other organisations' experience
  • Access a dedicated membership website, and developing knowledge base, comprising all past presentations and faculty publications and reports
  • Corporate discounts across Cranfield School of Management Executive Doctorate in Business Administration, Executive Masters programme and Executive Development programmes.

Future events

Thursday 18th April 2024

SpeakerProfessor Stan Maklan
Theme:  Show me the Money! Building the business case for investing in technology-enabled marketing

Find out more and register


Past events

Wednesday 24th January 2024

SpeakerDr Matt Wilkinson
Theme:  Supercharge your ABM: How AI is creating opportunities in sales and marketing

Tuesday 21st November 2023

Speaker:  Professor Kevin Morrell
Theme:  Strategy, Stories and Purpose: How do the stories of your organisation help or hinder?

Wednesday 27th September 2023

Speaker:  Dr Tina Papadopoulou
Theme: Strategic Communications for Senior Stakeholders: Marketing Insights to get Financial Analysts on Side

Wednesday 14th June 2023

Speaker:  Dr Aisling Kennan
Theme:  Employee Brand Advocacy: why credible online stories shared by staff have an impact on sales

Thursday 27 April 2023

Speaker:  Professor Sarah Turnbull
Theme: Modern Advertising: How Brand Communications are Transforming Social & Cultural Behaviours
Blog: Modern Advertising

Wednesday 22 March 2023

Speaker:  Pavlos A. Vlachos
Theme:  Greenwashing - how “dirty” firms are given an unspoken social license to pollute and to lie about it
Blog: Greenwashing

Tuesday 24 January 2023

Speaker:  Dr Karen Jones 
Theme:  Critical customer service: How to manage seriously unhappy customers online

Wednesday 9 November 2022

SpeakerDr Jan Breitsohl 
Theme:  Toxic Interactions on Social Media Brand Channels: How Brands can Address Triggers, Consequences & Solutions
Blog:  Toxic interactions on social media brand channels

Thursday 22 September 2022

Speaker:  Dr Javier Marcos Cuevas
Theme:  Negotiating in business: addressing biases to create and capture value
Blog:  Negotiating in Business: Addressing biases to create and capture value

Wednesday 8 June 2022

Speaker:  Professor Vasilis Theoharakis
Theme:  In the age of agile, is there room for Strategic Marketing Planning?
Blog:  Do marketing plans still matter in our agile world?

Tuesday 10 May 2022

Speaker:  Dr Tamira King
Theme:  Deshopping: An insight into fraudulent returns behaviours from the consumer and retail perspective
Blog:  Deshopping: the rise of fraudulent returns


Membership

Membership is open to directors, senior and aspiring marketing professionals, and those in management roles who are curious about marketing and keen to enhance or share their own practice.

Membership is subject to approval, please apply via email to smforum@cranfield.ac.uk