3.39 USD

For decades, business marketers have waltzed into budgeting meetings not always being able to justify how they spent prior funds or how such spending made a difference in the marketing of the company's product. However, this did not stop them from requesting even more marketing dollars for big-ticket events and flashy television and radio ads to get the message out and build up the brand.

Now those days of blind budgeting are gone and a new mantra is quickly taking their place with accountability and measurement. With progressively sophisticated tools and piles of data, marketers have access to evidence of what is and is not working in their strategy for marketing. With this knowledge, they have the power to take a more scientific approach to finding a marketing strategy that works. These days marketers are able to find out the actual ROI of each dollar. Even better, this information is available to them not just annually, but as often as they require. The marketing methods used today are even able to provide a view of the returns that are likely on campaigns in the future. Marketing is no longer an expense or cost, it is an investment.

Top ranking executives such as board directors, CFOs and even CEOs are cutting costs anywhere they can except the marketing budget and are tired of spending money on glossy ads and television commercials that cost more and accomplish less. This is especially true during a time where consumers are spending all of their time on video games and Internet surfing. These executives know that marketing is important to the success of their business, what they are in the dark on is what kind and how much is best.

This is one of the primary reasons that more and more companies are moving their marketing dollars from print and television ads over to direct and Internet marketing. This method of marketing provides companies with fast and accurate measurements of the type of impact their marketing efforts are having on their target audience. The best part is that net and direct marketing only cost a fraction of the cost of traditional media advertising. For example, Daimler Chrysler relies on television ads in favor of events where addresses, profiles and names of prospective customers are available for tracking and collection. They also push online advertising and direct marketing where they can easily measure response rates. They are investing their money in marketing and media outlets that produce hard data to support their return.

More and more companies are becoming obsessed with measuring marketing performance. Industry giants such as Gillette, Kraft Foods and Procter & Gamble are more advanced in this practice, as they have long since chased statistics that link different types of marketing to brand awareness and sales. However, the aspiration to develop an inclusive set of performance measures, what many are calling a marketing dashboard,

is quickly extending to the marketing executives in other fields as well. Xerox utilizes Six Sigma's measurement techniques to analyze the impact of marketing on an array of measures from generated leads to the cost per sale. Home Depot uses a propriety computer model that has sophisticated algorithms to associate product sales with marketing investments.

For most businesses, the intention is to identify and nurture prospective customers and track how they respond to marketing efforts and make a purchase. Marketing return on investment may be one of the hardest things to measure because of all of the details that are involved, but doing it correctly will quickly provide a competitive advantage.

For most companies, highly effective marketing is necessary. It is impossible to be successful without sufficient marketing and sales methods. Prospective customers must know all about what your business can do for them at a price that they are willing to pay. You must know who your customers are and develop a relationship that allows you to anticipate their every need and desire.

This report intends to familiarize you with some of the strategies and concepts that many professional marketing experts use and to show you how these techniques can be adapted to help your business weed out the garbage when marketing your product.

---

Keywords: how to weed out the garbage when marketi
File Size: 127.8 MBytes