The Four Pillars of Profit-Driven Marketing: How to Maximize Creativity, Accountability, and ROI

Book excerpt: Each year, billions of dollars are spent on marketing endeavors. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the money disappears into thin air, and marketing executives are left wondering if any of it came back in the form of ROI. Why? Because until now there has been no proven system for measuring marketing ROI. But as budgets tighten, marketing managers are feeling the pressure to come up with quantifiable results for every dollar spent. The ability to determine marketing ROI has long been desirable; now, it is critical. The Four Pillars of Profit-Driven Marketing is the first book to offer a practical, proven framework that helps marketers capture the metrics essential to determining ROI and use them to develop an overall marketing strategy based on accurate ROI figures. Inside, two marketing strategy executives at Booz & Company, Leslie Moeller and Edward Landry, reveal the “4 pillars of marketing," which help track ROI at every point in the ever-expanding and increasingly complex world of media platforms. You'll learn how to: Understand, classify, and choose Analytics Put the analytics to work with the right decision-support Systems & Tools Establish Processes that integrate the analytics and tools into operations Use Organizational Alignment to assure company-wide acceptance and execution of the system To help get your marketing ROI initiative off to a strong start, the authors provide a simple six-step process you can follow, which is illustrated with a case study of the Kellogg Company. By successfully integrating analytic firepower, decision support, processes, and people development, you will optimize your marketing dollars, better connect with customers, and watch your returns grow dramatically. Finally, the mystery of marketing ROI is solved.