ROI Is a Marketing Problem -- and a Brand Problem Too†

Lee Jeans Embraces Cross-Functional Analytics

Advertising Age, October 6, 2009 — For all the focus on marketing ROI, some companies miss the forest for the trees, because improvements won't happen through tactics alone. They need a new approach, applying marketing analytics to business decisions — call it return on brand — that can more than double marketing ROI through a cross-functional implementation of integrated business analytics.

A Meeting of the Minds†

How to Get CMOs and CFOs on the Same Page When It Comes to Digital Spending

Advertising Age, August 31, 2009 — I hear versions of the same conversations almost weekly. While they're not necessarily new conversations, the tenor of them has grown considerably tenser as a result of the struggling global economy. The conversations run something like this:

The chief financial officer says: "Before I spend any money in this environment, I need to know the impact of this investment. I need to see an ROI."

The CMO responds with: "It's not about ROI; it's about creating awareness. Having people understand our brand will create engagement, which will lead to revenue."

Only P&G, Reckitt Convey Value of Marketing in Annual Reports†

Global Survey Shows Most Top Marketers Need to Do More to Connect Brand to Bottom Line

Advertising Age, August 14, 2009 — Only two companies, Procter & Gamble and Reckitt Benckiser, have figured out how to communicate the importance of brand to the bottom line in their annual reports, according to a survey of these documents from major marketers.

The lesson: If marketers want to win the battle for company resources, they must work harder to promote their contribution to the bottom line in annual reports, according to a new global survey by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising in the U.K.

Facebook and MySpace: Beware Of The Mommy Bloggers

MediaPost Publications, July 29, 2009 — was reading the write-ups of last week's BlogHer conference in Chicago secretly jealous that even though I'm a mommy and a blogger, this junket was simply not in the cards for me.

But it wasn't just jealousy that drove my interest, it was how the mommy bloggers inadvertently, perhaps, uncovered a central truth about social media marketing: it isn't at all about carefully targeted display ads, or search ads, but about relationship-building. Unfortunately, that isn't something the Facebooks and MySpaces of the world have learned to monetize very well yet. So, while the discovery of the mommy bloggers is great for advertisers, it's not so great for those who are trying to be the broker that connects the bloggers with the marketers. That connection is already... continue reading

A Memo to the CEO: Marketing Matters

Prophet, June 2, 2009 — Michael Dunn recently spoke to Consulting about The Marketing Accountability Imperative. This interview reviews the book's tools, metrics, and anecdotes designed to help marketers navigate through this new landscape by proving ROI and communicating their mission and results more effectively with the executives in the corner offices.

CMO Survey: Traditional Branding is ‘Broken’

Marketing Charts, March 4, 2009 — An overwhelming majority (87%) of US CMOs and marketing managers believe that branding initiatives need to be more flexible today than in the past, and 63% think traditional brand positioning and advertising are losing their effectiveness and are “broken,” according to a survey from the Verse Group and Jupiter Research.

General Mills Thrives on Increased Marketing Spending†

Boosting TV Ads Hiked Cereal Sales, But Digital ROI Even Higher

Advertising Age, February 17, 2009 — General Mills, one of the package-food industry's top performers, laid out a number of recent marketing successes at the Consumer Analysts Group of New York conference this morning, and offered a preview of the rest of its fiscal year.

The company has staunchly supported consumer-marketing spending increases — 19% in the first half of fiscal 2009, which began in June — while competitors, including Kellogg and Kraft, have begun to scale back on the heady marketing outlays of 2008, instead preaching bundling and greater return on investment. General Mills estimates that its consumer-marketing spending will be up by "double digits" for the full fiscal year.

Kellogg Bolsters Digital ROI as Online Push Continues†

Hires Online Firm Pure Visibility to Track Marketer's Web Efforts

Advertising Age, November 13, 2008 — Kellogg Co. has hired Pure Visibility, an internet marketing firm out of Ann Arbor, Mich., to apply Google Analytics to its websites. The package-food company has emphasized that digital will be a bigger piece of its advertising strategy in 2009.

Kellogg: Digital ROI Surpasses That of TV†

After Success With Special K, Marketer to Shift More Spending Online

Advertising Age, September 4, 2008 — The digital divide is narrowing for Kellogg Co., which today said its return on online investment for the Special K brand has surpassed that of broadcast TV over the past 18 months.

"It's still relatively early in our learning," Mark Baynes, chief marketing officer at the Battle Creek, Mich., company told the Lehman Bros. Back to School Consumer Conference during a discussion on how Kellogg is trying to increase advertising and marketing efficacy. "But analysis of the Special K initiative of the last 18 months showed digital media exceeding that of broadcast ROI."

Survey Finds CFOs Skeptical of Their Own Firms' ROI Claims†

ANA Confronts Lack of Confidence at Marketing Accountability Conference

Advertising Age, July 15, 2008 — Financial executives don't think there's much truth in advertising.

According to a new study, six in 10 financial executives believe their companies' marketing departments have an inadequate understanding of financial controls, and seven in 10 said their companies don't use marketing inputs and forecasts in financial guidance to Wall Street or in public disclosures.