Growth-The Only Metric that Counts

We now know that marketers are the best bus drivers.  ANA’s recent marketing organization study (phase 3 by the way of this ongoing effort) definitively demonstrates that when marketers are driving company strategic priorities and leading development of brands, products and new businesses, revenue and profits are likely to be 20% greater.  This is a significant finding.

The issue is, that in only about 9% of the time are marketers in a position to actually do the driving.  They often lack the “street cred” to gain the respect of the CEO and CFO to be put in the driver’s seat.  So what do you do if you want to be the strategic growth driver in your company?  You gain your “street cred” through metrics and insight.

When asked “can you tell your CFO what effect a 10% budget cut will have on your revenue and profits?” over 64% of marketers said no.  How then can we expect to gain any credulity when the rest of the organization will resoundingly answer this question with a very loud “YES”.

What do you have to do to get your metrics house in order?  Start by defining the role of marketing, then figure out how to measure whether in fact your are delivering on that role.  Start by tracking those things that you can – sales by product, channel, geography; customers tracked by value, frequency, product mix; awareness, trial, repeat, intentions.  Then move up the ladder, tracking more predictive measures so you can determine not just where you’ve been, but whether a particular action will help you achieve the goal you have in mind.

Comments

[Eric Kintz]

Michael,

Thought you would enjoy my follow up post that describes the key characteristics of "Growth Champions" - http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/kintz/archive/2006/06/12/1159.html
Eric

[Bill Kelm]

I agree, Michael, that "..when marketers are driving company strategic priorities and leading development of brands, products and new businesses, revenue and profits are likely to be 20% greater." So, here is a crucial suggestion that, I believe, will help all the marketers of the entire ANA membership gain the respect of their CEO's and CFO's, if they all agree with and promote involvement in the general concept. I'll start by posing a similar question to yours.

If there is a 10% budget increase to keep the exact same marketing plan in place, what effect will that have on a national advertiser's revenue and profits? I ask this because if legislation is passed without Net Neutrality in it, the added costs that will be passed on by the search engines and content providers could be as much as, or more than, 10% to the ANA marketers, in my opinion.

Please don't take my opinion alone for it. But, please do be "..a leading industry voice before federal, state and local governments,.." as this can act as a "tax on advertising" = http://www.ana.net/govt/govt.htm .

Here are two good articles. One is on background information ("No Tolls on The Internet" - 6/8/06, Washington Post), and the other is on recent legislative updates ("House Rejects Net Neutrality" - 6/9/06, The Nation)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060702108.html?nav=rss_technology/personaltech

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=90090