Felixforge for Strategic Marketers

Predicting Marketing Play effectiveness

Keith's Posting : 5th Jan - Marketing Accountability has stired a huge issue. Of the three "must haves" (Predicable / measureable / auditable), before any marketing activity or marketing plays should begin, lets look at prediction. And in particlular when you have many activities to choose from and a finite budget - where should you place your bets.

Above is a simple way of prioritizing activity. I have chosen 5 factors that, I feel, impact my decision making and I have associted a level of importance to them. You will see that that for me revenue potential (RP) represents the highest importance and I give it 35% (note all add up to 100%). The chart below that is where I then answer (on a scale of 1 to 10) how each play rates against those 5 categories. I then multiply the rate by the index and then avarage and BAM I get a crude list of priorites...helps me justify my investment and as long as everyone agrees on the rates and index levels no-one can argue with the priorities...

Chris

Measuring Marketing Effectiveness

The NAACAAS model measures the progress of prospects through to satisfied customers. Included in this process are the decision stages that the prospect would go through and the promotional tools we will use to push prospects through the sales funnel. These stages include moving prospects from no awareness of the product to some recognition of its name (we expect a 4% success rate from mass marketing activity). The customer then needs to move from recalling the brand to comprehending the benefits of the product (under the category Collateral – we expect a success rate of 15%). Once the prospect has been educated they can form an opinion or attitude towards the product (either they will agree with the benefits or not). If they agree they can then chose to purchase or not (at this stage 50% of respondents could be converted to customers).

You will note that the NAACAAS model includes an S for satisfaction. Many organizations focus on customer retention and try to minimize churn. Customer satisfaction surveys could determine the satisfaction level according to predetermined thresholds.

We can also use the NAACAAS model to measure the effectiveness of each promotional component. For example – we will sample the prospect base to measure awareness levels via an awareness survey. We can then cross match that with each campaign (assuming some time lag for effective awareness levels). If it rises then the content of that campaign can be analyzed and reproduced. By doing this the organization can establish an effective ROI for each piece of promotional activity.

More to follow...

Chris.

Marketing Accountability

Something that I feel is one of the hottest topic for marketers today - is how to gain, and sometimes even restore, accountability inside business. Let me take you back in time – just one year ago - I was in a meeting, and a marketing manager expressed his desire to launch a local campaign he felt would generate significant business in a relatively short amount of time. He went through a very detailed project plan detailing a timeline and the resources required to execute the program. However, perhaps it was that I missed having my second cup of coffee that day, but I found myself perplexed by his campaign proposal. Missing in his proposal were the results he intended to generate. After all, if I’m going to spend money on something that is designed to generate business I would like to understand the ratio to investments required to meet specific targets. So I figured I’d pose the question. He was not able to provide an answer, only argued that his market analysis was enough to suggest real demand across this particular segment.

Now, back to the future – Today, one year later, after spending an exuberent amount of resources, we have yet to generate any results? Sound familiar?

I was tasked recently to discover the roots to why some of our marketing programs and campaigns have resulted in nominal results. After all, it’s not too often you see in a win/loss report a sales person citing “was outsold.” I’m curious in knowing how others seek to gain accountability inside their organizations?

Keith