This is not a generic poke at all of you, but you know who you are. Yes, You do, so NO EXCUSES.
I continually hear the following:
- "We can't measure our brand advertising?"
- "What is our brand worth?"
- "If we only could measure the brand and it's value?"
- "I wonder what the brand contributes in sales?"
Before I go Gordon Ramsey on you, know that I am only interested in helping you - the marketing executive, understand that ROI is attainable. You must, understand the following for marketing. And it Applies to ALL Marketing:
[important color=red title=Key Point]If there is no way to measure something, come up with the BEST possible way to measure it. Bring in experts, colleagues and financial experts to help you be rational, sound and present something that is realistic.[/important]
Those around you will say:
- "They will shoot it down?"
- "They will not accept it?"
- "They will say it is not realistic"
And you will say:
"So help me make it realistic, this is a substantial measure we must track to determine if, how, when and where we need to allocate the budget. It would be irresponsible of you and me to ignore this opportunity."
We can go on, but essentially as a Marketing Executive start developing the measure.
I've sat and discussed marketing and branding with representatives (CMO, EVPs, CEOs); Sponsorship, Media, etc.. Often, even at the large companies (EG: a major international overnight shipper and a nation-wide pizza delivery franchise to name a few) about their tactics on measuring impact.
Their response is a surprising: "We don't know but we have FAITH that it is working" or "We can't measure it"
Where does their faith come from: Belief in a strong sustainable brand. Many marketers do not have the luxury to rely on a brand with high equity.
So if the "Big Boys" are not tracking the impact, do you have to? Should you?
Yes, of course. Why? Because you want to be GREAT at your position and the measurement is there, you may need to be creative.
Real World Example: A major beer organization did not know whether their brand sponsorship during a sports event was effective. How would you measure it? They didn't know for a long time, then they decided they needed to identify a connection and they found it. Simple enough it was the local sales of the beer during the sponsorship. Sure they found national consumption increased by a little, but local and regional shot up. Purchases increase right before and extended weeks after the event.
That seems easy right? Thinking about it they probably took the annual/seasonal average and then subtracted that from the event timed sales to get their increase... There might be "perception and identity" or "awareness" changes they could measure as well. Sure, that would take some additional time and money to measure, but it's there.
But usually it all comes down to amount sold, revenue generated.
This may seem elementary, but it is important to track the measures back to the key performance metrics of your organization. Revenue, Profit, Churn, Share of Wallet, etc... This makes it, your branding campaign and spend, meaningful.
The problem some marketers run into is they try to solve for everything. In the beer scenario, they were solving for revenue and profit increases in a region. Maybe also churn or penetration, but you can't hit it all with brand. There is not always a one-to-one ratio. One dollar out One Dollar in! Tangible and intangibles are affected.
Which is important! Because different brand, response, direct, etc.. types of campaigns are to impact your key areas of responsibility and portions of the marketing consideration and buying cycle.
Therefore, identifying the KPIs brand affects, starts to open the holes in your measurement game. Again good, and you can find other means to round out the measures that are important to your organization.
Sometimes you have to be happy with something a little generic. But you shall not default to approach. It is irresponsible and general.
For example: If you secure a product placement in a movie, there is a way to identify the actual cost of spending to reach the audience through the media. This in itself, if the placement is FREE or there is a cost.... You can identify if it was worth it and if it should be pursued in the future.
Therefore if the movie reached 80 million people, avg CPM is $20, value is $1.6 million in reach. Realistic, and rational.
However, this is not always best and is not directly attributable to revenue (unless you make the argument that you saved the company the difference, but you haven't proved an increase in sales? and then we say SO WHAT!). You can not ignore $1.6 million worth of exposure, but remember - it's not advertising. It's not necessarily a commercial where you can control the message. There are some holes in this approach when you say "are we really getting what we want, what we need".
You may need to start out with: " Here's what we would have spent to get this..." in the first phase, but develop the ability or reporting to track the impact. If it is media placement - what happened during the media or the exposure to the media over time? Did website hits/visits go up/down? Leads up/down? Where, how why? Do we find more of our salespeople are finding our customers know us through the sponsorship or media event?
Start Guessing. Start thinking what could have happened? Then you need to go find it, test it and re-test it.
Who said marketing was NOT a science? I have said and will continually say: Marketing brings all the aspects of life, psychology, behavior, math and science plus creativity into one department. Marketing is a true multifaceted discipline.
