Best Kept Secret of US Business is the ROI of Marketing is Zero or Less

According to best selling author and consultant Kevin J. Clancy, Ph.D, 84% of marketing programs disappoint the creators and that the Marketing Science Institute found that advertising had to be doubled to increase revenue by 1%. Dr. Clancy spoke to the annual joint meeting of Boston chapters of SCIP and the Association of Strategic Planning on March 26, 2008.

Why are marketing returns so low? “Decision making based on intuition—a habit that dies hard.” Also, “using competitors to guide decisions.” While these two reasons may appear to be contradictory, they both result from poor use of information.

Since intuition is by my definition the unconscious processing of information, the user does not understand the value or the limits of intuition. If intuition is based on extensive experience in the field, it could very likely to result in a good decision, but intuition results from the comments made by one customer the previous week, it can lead in the wrong direction.

All businesses should use competitive information in their decision-making, but they need to do it in the context of their own strategy and the strategies employed by rivals. A firm should not copy the competitor’s marketing program without understanding how it supports, or conversely does not support, the rival’s strategy, and how it would correspond with your employer’s strategy.

Dr. Clancy ended his presentation by reminding us to be more clear headed and analytical about marketing. Then a marketing campaign can increase sales 20% or more and truly be transformational for the company—and its competitors.

For more information on Dr. Clancy, please contact Copernicus Marketing (www.copernicusmarketing.com).

Comments

[David Daniels]

Great information. I carried your post on the Launch Clinic blog to share with our readers, and with a link back to you. How many times has the CEOs "gut feel" been all that was needed to fund a big marketing intiative?

It's hard to fight when very successful guys like Bob Parsons at GoDaddy hit one out of the park with an ad during the Super Bowl. But I can't imagine Bob made that decision on "gut feel" alone.