Over the past decade, the complexity and sophistication of the marketing function has grown by leaps and bounds. And, the pressure on the Chief Marketing Officer has never been greater – a recent study conducted by Spencer Stuart reported that the average tenure of CMOs at the top 100 branded companies is just 22.9 months compared to CEOs who are in their positions for an average of 53.8 months.
Today, more than ever, marketers are placing greater emphasis on integrated campaigns that leverage traditional off-line media, on-line activities, public relations, promotions, “social”, placed-based media, and now — emerging mobile applications. (No doubt, the list will continue to grow!)
The myriad set of marketing objectives and investment choices demands a new approach to measurement. The old decentralized approach relied on each marketing function or vendor to deliver relevant metrics typically used to justify maintaining or increasing the respective line-item budget. Stacks of independently created spreadsheets or reports were reviewed, but making solid fact-based investment decisions remained a struggle. Each activity had different measures: impressions, open-rates, re-tweets, conversions … some measures with direct attribution to sales and others without.
Our solution: “Follow the money.”
Simply, we integrate the disparate data into an integrated analysis-oriented database that normalizes resource inputs as dollars. For example, that “it doesn’t cost us a thing” social media campaign may consume 3.8 full-time equivalent staffers at an average fully-loaded salary basis of $xx,xxx per person. We do the math and end up with a standardized measure of inputs and outputs in dollars. We then use a flexible suite of data mining and modeling tools to identify the statistical relationships between all of the marketing activities … individually and in combinations … and the sales that result. A Matrix Oriented Analytical Approach (MOAA) identifies how various marketing activities impact sales across channels, across customer segments, across product lines. This insight enables you to make investment decisions holistically – based on total effectiveness to the organization.
Finding, collecting and organizing the data can appear to be a daunting task. And quite frankly, it can often be tedious and time consuming. But after all, “It’s just work.” And the combination of our tools, processes and partnership with IMTS provides a tremendous value in getting this critical step completed.
Senior executives with both client marketing and advertising agency management experience direct the Return-on-Marketing-Investment (ROMI) analyses, including development of “What-if Simulators” and dashboards when appropriate.
Cost and timing parameters vary. The key drivers are the amount and condition of data, and the number of products or channels to include in your analysis. The best way to get started is to conduct a data audit. If we move forward with ROMI project, the $4,500 fee will be applied to the project. If we find that a ROMI project is not possible for some reason, we will document our data audit findings and provide recommendations so that you will be ready to conduct one in the future.
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