Holistic Perspective

I recently was gabbing with a few of my marketing peers and we were complaining about how companies (clients) blame everything wrong with their organization on marketing and advertising. If you are in the marketing industry you are shaking your head going, "yeah, we are." And if you are a business owner you are thinking to yourself, "well, of course its marketing's fault - they didn't do it right." In today economy (I'm really starting to get tired of hearing and saying that but it is what it is) many organizations are watching every dime and holding marketing departments and initiatives even more accountable for marketing ROI.

As an industry we are being held accountable for all decisions and actions. I remember the days when I could make the excuse that certain marketing and branding decisions are, "just not directly measurable but it is a good thing to do for the brand." Those days are long gone and many companies and organizations are blaming its marketing departments for poor sales. What's a marketing professional to do?

I can tell you what we're doing at B&A. When we meet with a client we talk with them about all their operations, especially customer service, and give recommendations for improving the customer experience and business options along with our marketing planning. We do this because if that client is going to hold us accountable for how well their business is doing based on sales we are going to make sure another department doesn't sabotage our ROI.

Marketing professionals - what you doing to measure ROI on your campaigns? Business owners - what are you looking to get from your marketing department or firm? I'm a researcher at heart and want to know how everyone is combating this problem.