“Marketers may not like to talk about numbers…” this from the headline in the May issue of Marketing News magazine produced by the AMA. I almost threw up.
My advice, if your marketing department isn’t focused on the numbers, fire them. Now! Any marketer, who doesn’t like to talk about the numbers, isn’t a marketer. I was just amazed when I saw this cover story, what’s the big news? Marketing has always been about metrics. It’s just that the latest and greatest in marketing have forgotten or worse yet never learned that it’s the numbers baby and your best friend better be the CFO.
Where the idea that marketers aren’t supposed to be number crunchers came from I haven’t the foggiest. As far back as I can remember and as long as I’ve been a marketer, which is a long time, it’s always been about the numbers. And, you had better crunch them as well as the finance department. You didn’t market a product unless it made sales, margin, and profit goals. And, you sure didn’t spend a nickel on promotions unless you could forecast better than breakeven results on the effort. And, then track it and find out if it really performed. That was 40 years ago. 30 years ago at Fingerhut, it was still the same story. Your “offer” (if you’re a real marketer, you should be familiar with this term) and promotional efforts better deliver sales and profits. It’s the numbers baby and if you didn’t believe it, the financial wiz kids in marketing reminded you of that every day.
So, what’s the big to do about metrics suddenly becoming important? And, where did we run off track and begin to think that marketing is primarily a creative endeavor? It’s time that marketers got back to the basics and stopped fiddling with all the glossy and exciting B.S. that passes for marketing promotion/entertainment today. Sure the new media brought to us by the technology revolution are exciting and have their place. But, marketing promotion is not about entertainment. It’s about selling something and then measuring the results. It’s always been that way. Marketers who live in a dream world of what they call creativity or artistry are so far off the mark that is no wonder there is so much bad marketing today. And, it’s no wonder that CEO’s and CFO’s are questioning the value of marketing and their marketing departments.
Perhaps the latest greatest sin of this type is the lover affair that marketers (not all), are having with social media, which for the most part is unproven when it comes to proving that it’s delivering the ultimate result, a profitable sale. Yes Dorothy, there are exceptions and I can actually envision some instances where new media is appropriate for promoting a product. Again, it is about measurement. If you can’t measure it and prove it is driving sales and profits, then don’t do it.
Frankly, I don’t care if they (the consumer) play a game, a contest, or watch our latest video, or hit our Facebook page a million times, if in the end it doesn’t generate more sales and profits. And, I don’t care if they are having a video love affair with the star of our latest commercial, if it doesn’t sell something. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, “…we are selling the brand , the company, not the product. The sales will follow once they love the brand.” There are a whole lot of brands going Chapter 7 / 11 or on the verge that might disagree with this assertion. Again, if they aren’t buying my product, I don’t care if they are in love with the brand. It’s all in the measurement, and any marketer who dares call him/herself a marketer, who isn’t interested in tracking, analyzing, and measuring results of their marketing programs, in my view, ought to be fired. It’s the basics, and it’s nothing new. It’s always been about results, the ultimate question being, “Did I sell anything today?”
