GfK-Marketing Intelligence Review, 7(1), Editorial and pages 8-15, 2015
Short Article
Abstract:
A recent study by researchers Germann, Lilien and Rangaswamy showed that companies who deploy marketing analytics obtain 21 % more Return on Assets (ROA) in competitive industries. Unfortunately, few companies appear able to deliver on this promise. In the absence of smarter organic growth, they tend to focus on mergers and acquisitions, which yield high risk and questionable returns (as detailed in Donald Lehmann’s article, p. 16). Marketing accountability is essential for sustained organic growth, but the challenges to it loom large. In my experience across categories and continents, the major steps in truly accountable marketing include defining the right results, using the right metrics and finally acting on the collected insights. As Peter Drucker put it back in 1967, “The question we must ask is not, ‘How many figures can I get?’ but ‘What figures do I need? In what form? When and how?’ We must refuse to look at anything else.”
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