| Marketing Made Simple – An Analytical Approach | | Print | |
| Written by Bruce Michael |
| Saturday, 20 December 2008 19:59 |
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As a long term marketing consultant, I have sat with many executives to talk about their marketing and advertising. I have personally learned a lot from their responses. The first question that I ask is a simple one; or so it may seem… “Is your marketing and advertising program working?” This is of course, a loaded question and the answer to the question is generally two fold. First, I probably would not be there if they felt as though their marketing program was completely effective. Second, in almost all cases the answer is yes, with some caveats. I have had very few executives tell me that their marketing was completely ineffective. That would be admitting failure. Their caveats generally point out that their marketing is great, but they are looking for a greater market share and a fresh approach. Fortunately, you can learn a lot more from mistakes that have been made than you will ever make from successes. In that regard, I am trying to glean information about what has NOT worked well. My second question to a “yes” answer, is “show me”. I am not sure why, but I generally get a perplexed look of “what do you mean?” Frankly, marketing and advertising should be relatively easy using marketing & advertising 101 basics. Some efforts will prove fruitful, however, others will not. More on marketing 101 later in a new article! What I have found is that good marketing is an exercise in creativity, and great marketing is an exercise in analytics. I would venture to say, that even if by trial and error, a poor marketing person will have successes and a stellar marketing executive will have failures. And by following certain 101 basics, you should be able to ultimately generate sales. So what separates the great ones? Simply, the Numbers. Getting back to my conversation with the executives, I am trying to gather whether or not they are looking at their marketing and advertising campaigns closely enough, so that they know what is working, why it is working, where it is working, and potentially when it is working or when it stopped working. Is it enough to know that globally as a company, “x” dollars were spent on marketing and advertising, and “y” dollars were generated in “x/y” return? No, but it is a start. A good marketing executive will need to know all of the facts to make educated decisions. Consequently, before you make your next marketing plan, gather the facts and KNOW your numbers. More information about generating real ROI is available on our article: “Marketing as a Science”. |
| Last Updated on Monday, 20 July 2009 20:04 |