Marketing Tactegy

The long term value of advertising

I put together a white paper on the long term value of advertising.  It was kind of interesting, because it represents some of the software we have used to determine the real value of marketing.
The key question to ask in refining this paper is:  ‘What is the incremental or decremental, long term effect of advertising if advertising were halved or advertising were doubled?’  Here is the link:

Click now:  Long Term Value of Advertising.pdf

The paper differentiates between short, medium, long and very long term effects of advertising but focuses on the medium and long term value.  The key items in determining the long term value of advertising is broken down into:

1. Purchase funnel and emotional effects (e.g., awareness, consideration and purchase intent)
2. Brand imagery – the value of the brand attributes in the minds of the consumer
3. The ‘memory of the web’ (e.g., cross-links that drive SEO and social media clouds)
4. Brand equity – e.g., any advertising this year drives value in the following years
5. Customer equity – a newly won customer is more likely to re-purchase from you than a non-customer
6. Consumer preferences – the education of the consumer that leads to higher preferences for certain brand and functional attributes
7. Creative concept – there are some great creative concepts (“Two scoops of raisins in a box of…”- Kellogg’s Raisin Bran or ‘I’d like to teach the world to sing..” – Coca Cola)

The definitions are currently defined for consumer packaged goods, but can be applied to just about any industry.  I will be writing a separate paper including the differences in the long term value of advertising between consumer and business-to-business marketing.

If you get a chance, let me know your feedback.  If there is anything I left out of the framework to analyze the long term effects of advertising, please let me know.

MarketingProfs B2B Forum 2009

I just got back to my desk after a week of vacation and 2 days of conferencing at the MarketingProfs B2B Forum and I must say, the conference was one of the best I've been to. I haven't figured out what the underlying reasons were for this reaction, but it was nevertheless a great opportunity to network and change the way you think.

Top events at the MarketingProfs B2B Forum

Here are a few things that absolutely stood out:

1. Sandy Carter's talk (from IBM) on the actions they are taking in the social media space. What a great set of examples. (http://www.booksbysandy.com/)
2. Amy Africa's website optimization 'family feud'. The format was put on as a family feud instead of the typical PowerPoint and speech with case studies. It was filled with facts and ideas that might not even fit into Santa's gift bag. What a great, invigorating way to get key concepts across.  (http://www.eightbyeight.com/)
3. The 20 minute one-on-ones put on by experts in different fields. These included web usability, SEO, social networking and others. These were free and certainly give you some great ideas to get you out of your rut.
4. he keynotes were great.  Steven Johnson certainly made clear how he has been successful at social media and the effects of being of the cover of Time magazine.  Barry Schwartz had some interesting points about bringing forth a new moral order.

Key B2B marketing problems

But the interesting question was the difficulty B2B marketers have in determining marketing effectiveness.  Especially since they are trying to improve their marketing mixes, deliver better on corporate objectives and finally prove marketing’s contribution to sales. The key areas still looking for answers include:

• Last touch attribution
• Objectives-based budgeting v. media-based budgeting
• Sales and marketing alignment and collaboration
• The definition of a lead
• An inward-looking view of marketing as opposed to a consumer-centered approach

I’m sure there are many others.  If you have any thoughts, I would love to hear from you.