Marketing Profs

Marketing effectiveness—achieving it—requires an organization with the resources and know-how to achieve the fine balance between art and science that it takes to create marketing programs that meet measurable business objectives.

And these days, that's a mandate—not an option.

In a just-completed study on marketing effectiveness by Prophet, 60% of respondents reported their marketing budgets as flat or down for 2007. Spending, then, must be more effective and more efficient—go farther and work harder.

And to that point, over 75% of the survey participants rated improved marketing effectiveness as one of the top three priorities of their companies.

Getting there is challenging, but achievable. Here are seven hurdles to overcome:

1. Understanding what "marketing effectiveness" is

Once marketers get that it's deeper and broader than just getting the media mix right or running the right ad to generate awareness, they're well on their way.

Marketing effectiveness is really about making an ongoing, concerted effort to understand the tradeoffs—both short term (return on investment or market share) and long term (brand equity or shareholder value)—between investing in all elements of the marketing mix.

From there, it's about putting that learning into action by investing in ways that drive both short- and long-term business impact.

2. Aligning investments with business objectives and customer priorities

For marketing to be truly effective, marketers need to do a better job of understanding the links among business, brand, and marketing strategies. They need to ensure their investments are in sync with key company objectives as well as with what matters most to customers.

For example, if the business objective is to broaden the base of new customers versus deepening share of wallet with current ones, investment might be directed toward tactics like advertising and promotions instead of enhanced customer-service measures, loyalty programs, and the like.