One Size Does Not Fill All

As I scan the Advertising Landscape it becomes very clear that different brands and products have unique needs and attributes when determining what the components of a media plan should consist of. Coming from a Sales and Finance back ground long term growth in sales, profits, and market share should be the focus of a Brand's marketing efforts.

One of the reasons that the CMO has the shortest average tenure of C level jobs is the inability to present clear and concrete results based on the marketing budget dollars available. Every other business discipline is measurable in ways that can not be challenged.

So when the CMO and the Marketing Creators/Planners brainstorm for new ideas as well as utilize the available tools to market a Brand or Product there needs to be clear cut goals and a method to measure the Return on Investment.

A perfect example of Marketing trying to sell Upper Management on value and achievement without hard measurements is Viral You Tube Videos:

Ad Week March 30th Article

In the referencing article the benchmark being used by Marketers is number of Video/Ad views on You Tube and other sites. Sales, Finance, Operations will all want proof this success equals more sales and profits. Yet while the generated buzz and views might be free to the Brand, the effort and results might be wasted with zero increase in sales or profits.

Marketing has several aspects that all together hope to equal a cohesive funnel of customers towards the final purchase. Yet at the point of purchase many factors contribute to the decision including immediate ones such as price, availability etc.

A man might still buy Trojan Condoms over Lifestyles because the price points are significant enough to sway at the point of purchase. Guitar Hero has a limited audience who might want to purchase the product but an exponential amount of non-potential purchasers might find the video hilarious and forward it on.

Yet the CMO could very well tout the volume of views as equaling a successful marketing effort.

When a Brand has clear goals vs just being given a budget and a shotgun to blast that money all over, it becomes possible for Media Plans to show clear cut ROI that is measurable and proof of success vs failure. CMO's who can accomplish this will have much longer tenure than their more inept counterparts.