Marketers with ROI Discipline Pull Ahead while Data Access and Measurement Abilities Hold Others Back

Lenskold Group & Kneebone release 2008 Marketing ROI & Measurements Study with insights into the influence of data, intelligence, metrics and measurement abilities on marketing effectiveness and efficiency.

For Immediate Release

Manasquan, NJ, June 23, 2008 - Companies with highly effective and efficient marketing report higher use of ROI and profitability metrics, greater strengths in the ability to measure marketing performance, and better access to critical information for marketing analysis. And these high performance companies are much more likely to be outgrowing their competition. The fourth annual Marketing ROI and Measurements study conducted by Lenskold Group and sponsored by Kneebone also indicates that the marketing community generally perceives more weaknesses than strengths in terms of measurement abilities.

More marketers provided negative ratings on the measurement abilities examined than positive ratings. This included basic capabilities such as their ability to measure the incremental impact of marketing (32% positive ratings, 35% negative ratings with the balance remaining neutral) and the ability to diagnose performance gaps (26% positive vs. 44% negative). Companies with highly effective and efficient marketing positively rated their measurement abilities at two to three times the levels of the overall marketing community.

Perceptions on their ability to access critical information were more positive than measurement abilities, with the exception of data that tended to be under marketing’s control. Surprisingly, marketers reported having better access to information such as sales and financial data than for detailed information on marketing spend, contact history, and marketing response/lead data. Clearly marketing is holding its own performance back with its lack of automation and discipline to capture information that can be analyzed to measure and improve performance. Access to these forms of marketing data was rated much more highly by companies that have highly effective and efficient marketing.

Other key findings from the Lenskold Group/Kneebone 2008 Marketing ROI & Measurements Study include:

• While overall adoption may be slow, commitment to ROI and measurement capabilities remain high as 75% of all marketers indicate that their company has made at least some progress. Roughly a third (36%) have improved their measurements of marketing impact on sales and 29% have applied measurements to improve the profitability of marketing.

• Companies using marketing ROI and profitability metrics to assess their marketing performance were more likely to report having somewhat or highly effective and efficient marketing (79%) compared to those companies using just non-financial, traditional marketing metrics (42%).

• Over half of those companies with highly effective and efficient marketing use ROI and profitability metrics to assess the effectiveness of their marketing (53% vs. the overall rate of 26%).

• The most common approach to planning and budgeting was through top-down objectives, targets, and annual budget allocation, used by 38% overall. Companies using ROI and profitability metrics had a much higher use of rolling plans continuously updated with current forecasts and marketing adjustments. Companies using only traditional metrics and those growing slower than their competitors were more likely to use planning and budget allocations based on slight modifications to prior year plans.

• More than half (52%) of marketers report that their marketing budget is below the level necessary to achieve their goals. Companies with highly effective and efficient marketing were less likely to report having insufficient budget (34%).

• Companies that have initiated modeling/analytics with outsourced partners showed much higher positive ratings on their ability to measure the incremental impact of marketing (51% vs. 29% overall) and diagnosing performance gaps (43% vs. 25% overall).

“High performance marketing organizations are demonstrating the benefits of good measurements, ROI analyses, and insights,” said Jim Lenskold. “They are more effective, more efficient, and outgrowing their competitors. This type of progress raises the credibility and value of marketing overall.”

The full 45-page report with detailed findings and recommendations is available at www.lenskold.com/trendstudy. The report also includes a sponsor commentary from Kneebone (www.kneebone.com), a company specializing in providing marketing organizations with improved financial effectiveness. In addition, a special section of the research survey was conducted with B2B marketers on the topic of lead generation marketing. The B2B Lead Generation ROI and Performance Evaluation report with those results, prepared by Lenskold Group for MarketingProfs, will be released separately at www.marketingprofs.com.

for more info click on the title