The Marketing Challenge

Marketing professionals today are faced with tremendous pressure to validate their marketing performance. According to the CMO Council, publishers of “Marketing Outlook 2007,” marketers consider measurement, improved efficiencies, and customer knowledge to be their top challenges. Over the past few years these challenges have impacted the tenure of many Chief Marketing Officers (CMO) in both B-to-B and B-to-C environments. According to a study by executive search firm Spencer Stuart, the average tenure for a CMO was down to 23 months in 2006.

The role of the CMO has also changed over the years. Their influence on an organization, as well as the expectations by other executives, is very high. The Spencer Stuart study found that nearly three-quarters of CEOs and board members consider the marketing organization “highly influential and strategic” in the enterprise, but nearly two-thirds say that their top marketers don’t provide adequate ROI with which to gauge marketing’s true performance. The report was based on interviews with more than 1,200 senior marketers, 300 CEOs and board members, and 35 corporate recruiters.

To be successful, marketing organizations need to implement more integrated marketing strategies and deploy tools that enable them to better track marketing ROI and performance. A key component to their marketing mix must be to leverage direct response initiatives. Direct response campaigns enable marketers to personalize their communications, track their effectiveness, and allow marketers to optimize programs when needed.

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