Measuring Brand-Building Efforts

Viewpoint by Larry Lucas, Associate Partner

Marketing is an investment, not an optional expense.  Regardless of the category you participate in, the consumer landscape and competitive environment will continue to evolve and change.  To win, your marketing dollars must work harder than the competition and should provide a positive return on investment.  Marketing needs to be aligned to your business objectives, whether that’s to increase penetration or your share of requirements among current users.  If it doesn’t support your overall business goals, don’t do it!

Unfortunately, we’ve seen too many times companies that fall into the trap of duplicating the marketing they’ve done before, even when they don’t have the appropriate metrics to measure success.  Marketing is about experimentation and testing alternative approaches.  To win, you need to break through the increasing clutter and anticipate what efforts will drive trial or increase loyalty.  Remaining flexible and developing lead markets to test and importantly measure new ideas is critical.  Your marketing activities will not always be successful, but then again, if they were, you’re not trying hard enough.