Dana VanDen Heuvel: Accountability Ranks High on Marketing Execs' Wishlists

June 8, 2004

Accountability Ranks High on Marketing Execs' Wishlists

From the " no-shit-sherlock" department, a study released today from the CMO council indicates that damn near 50% of high-ranking marketing executives in the country are dissatisfied with their MPM, or marketing performance management. This just reeks of opportunity for a few classes of folks:

1. Job seekers who get it - Go on, show em your spreadsheets...
2. Consultants who can assist in implementing these types of MPM programs
3. Ad agencies who are willing to provide this as a value added service to clients

More than half the companies surveyed do not measure performance for marketing activities surrounding branding or sales and marketing collateral, and nearly half do not measure the performance of channel marketing and market research programs. This leaves marketing organizations with a great deal of room to grow their understanding of the inner working and impact of their campaigns. "This isn't going to be a technology fix. It's a cultural, organizational, and technological challenge," Neale-May says.

No kidding it's not a technology problem. This thing starts with the people. You have to instill a culture and discipline around data and making decisions from data, and no technological wizardry can do that for you. Hell, I'd even recommend doing this sans technology, and put it in after you've built the discipline.

Other key findings from the CMO Council’s "Measures+Metrics Audit – Assessing Marketing Value+Impact" study include:

Companies that have formal performance measurement systems consistently achieved a higher level of CEO confidence in the marketing function.

Companies using MPM systems tended to outperform the market in terms of sales growth, market share and profitability.

Some 70 percent of respondents report they spend less than two percent of their marketing budget on MPM, but almost 60 percent intend to increase spending in this area within the next two years.

Measurements most frequently reported to management include qualified leads generated, revenue impact, feedback from sales and channel groups, as well as web site traffic and content viewing.

The measures rated least frequently as performance indicators were stock price, Wall Street perceptions, share-of-mind and brand equity.

Hardest-to-measure activities were results from advertising, sales and marketing collateral, and branding.

Easiest-to-measure activities were results from direct mail and e-mail campaigns, web site and Internet search engine presence and telemarketing and contact management programs.

Topping the list of weaknesses in MPM analytics were performance tracking for individual countries, automated report generation across all functions, information "drill-downs" on individual programs, competitive benchmarking, and executive dashboards of key performance indicators.

More than 72 percent of respondents reported spending more than four percent of revenue on marketing and nearly 20 percent allocated over 11 percent of revenue to marketing programs.

[via - desinationCRM - Marketing Executives Are Seeking Greater Accountability]