Not in Retail? Consumer Habits Still Matter

August 31st, 2010

Last week, we looked at the results of Deloitte’s annual Back-to-School Shopping survey. Results indicate that, although they’re nowhere near ready for spending freely, consumers have adopted a less pessimistic attitude about their finances. Retailers were especially pleased with this news, since it indicates a fundamental increase in consumers’ willingness to spend money.

But what if you’re not in retail? While the survey results may be interesting, do they really impact you as a marketing professional? Particularly for those in B2B marketing, consumers’ retail spending habits may seem a bit irrelevant, or at least tangential to overall marketing strategy. But any marketing professional can gain insights from these results.

Marketing is about People

We all know our target markets. Your target market could be married women over 50 who own multiple cats—or it could be Fortune 500 companies that need accounting consultants. Either way, a person somewhere is responsible for making the choice to purchase your product or service. Even in the B2B marketplace, where all prospects might fall into disparate demographic categories, the targets are still all people.

Our challenge as marketing professionals is to reach those people with compelling messages that will inspire them to trust us—and ultimately to patronize our businesses. Therefore knowing about consumer habits, attitudes, and preferences makes sense, regardless of your individual industry or focus.

Lessons from Back-to-School Shopping

This year’s trends in shopping indicate not only an increased willingness to spend money, but also an increased use of multimedia to enrich and inform the shopping process. For marketers, this means it’s important to follow the ABC’s of 21st-century marketing:

  • A is for Authenticity: Customers increasingly crave transparency and authenticity from corporations. And that doesn’t mean a corporate blog. Customers want a personal connection with brands and they also want to know that their social networks recommend those brands. Consumers turn to mobile apps and social networks with more and more frequency, looking for reviews, feedback, and recommendations.
  • B is for Balance: That explosion in social media and mobile apps has led many companies into “shiny object marketing,” where they abandon traditional marketing tactics for the Next Big Thing in the marketing universe. But the most successful marketers know that they must maintain a balance of traditional and online marketing strategies if they wish to maintain brand awareness. After all, consumers still watch television, open mail, and read magazines, so it makes no sense to completely discard traditional marketing and advertising practices.
  • C is for Choices: We must always remember that every prospect—and current client—has choices, and those choices are growing ever more accessible. Illustrating point of difference—and taking steps to improve accessibility—are critical for successful marketing. Even components that may seem to have little relation to marketing can work to support marketing efforts. In other words, if you think search engine optimization is just for the IT department, think again. The right SEO and landing pages facilitate prospects’ discovering you online.

What’s your take on how the marketing landscape has changed? How do you believe it will evolve in coming years? Share your opinion with us! If you’d like to write a guest blog, please email Kristin@ballywhointeractive.com.

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Back-to-School Shopping Shows Promise for Marketers

August 24th, 2010

Students in Hillsborough County head back to school today, wearing new clothes and laden with school supplies. Each year, back-to-school shopping brings a boost to the retail market, and this year, shopper trends may indicate that consumers are ready to spend more freely. For marketers, these new consumer habits can impact marketing decisions—and provide valuable insights about new shopping trends. That’s why Deloitte conducts its annual Back-to-School Shopping Survey each summer. The 2010 results are promising, even for companies that don’t work retail.

Spending Habits

For the first time in years, consumers are exhibiting a more optimistic attitude about their finances. Fewer people intend to trim their shopping budgets this year.

  • 28% plan to spend more on back-to-school shopping than they did in 2009.
  • Only 17% said they’d spend less than they did last year.
  • In 2009, about 90% of people surveyed said that they intended to drastically reduce their back-to-school shopping budgets. This year, only 58% planned to do that.

iShopping

More and more consumers are turning to mobile applications and social networks to inform their purchasing choices.

  • 29% of consumers plan to use mobile apps while they shop: of those, 38% will look for pricing information; 33% will view retailers’ ads; and 30% will search for coupons or other discounts.
  • 29% will also turn to their online social networks before making a purchase: 64% will look for promotions and deals; 26% will read recommendations and reviews; and 42% will browse products.

Store Preferences

Although the drive for the deal still pushes most shoppers, higher-end stores are commanding a greater market share this year than they have in the recent past.

  • 89% plan to shop for most supplies at a discount store.
  • 36% plan to shop at office supply or technology stores.
  • 33% will head to dollar stores, down from 40% in 2009.
  • Last year only 21% said they’d head to department stores, but this year 36% of consumers plan to shop there.
  • 23% will head to specialty stores, up from 17% in 2009.

Although these figures aren’t all rosy, they certainly represent an improvement in spending attitudes and habits. Next week, read how these results can help marketing professionals make the most of their opportunities, even outside the retail arena.

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But We’re the Marketing Department—Why Does Exit Strategy Matter?

August 17th, 2010

Every successful business begins with an excellent plan, and that plan generally—and should—include an exit strategy. That exit strategy outlines the end goal for the business; for example, do the owners plan to sell it and retire, or expand it to include multiple divisions? Once the exit plan is determined, every aspect of the business should align with attaining that goal.

Why Exit Strategy Matters

While the exit strategy might be easier to ascertain at self-owned or small businesses, even the largest companies are steered by some exit strategy. The marketing professional’s job is to investigate that strategy, and then find a way to support that strategy with marketing tactics. This task seems to present a challenge to marketers, who may feel more comfortable marketing products, instead of long-term plans.

But really, marketing to support the exit strategy requires thinking about what potential investors would look for if they were seeking to get involved with a business:

  • A clearly defined long-term vision, with the short- and long-term goals to accomplish that vision
  • A sense of confidence in the long-term viability of the business endeavor
  • An infrastructure that can support measured, methodical growth and can be scaled to fit that growth over time
  • A compelling product or service that anticipates and meets the needs of intended customers

Aligning Marketing with Exit Strategy

All these factors boil down to trust and reliability. In the end, that’s the same thing that consumers are looking for—and what qualified marketers work to establish every day. This also means that at every turn, the marketer isn’t only addressing potential customers, but also potential investors, using a very similar approach. The key is to approach every customer-business interaction as a potential “marketing moment.” Consider these factors as you look to align your marketing efforts with your company’s exit strategy:

  • Color and style: Colors evoke emotion, so it’s critical to make sure that you’re evoking the intended emotion. Meanwhile the style of lettering and layout should also look polished and professional. Simply rearranging elements on the page to make them “flow” better visually give a better sense of the company. Even the logo sends a message about the company.
  • Tone: From word choice to grammar, every written element of a marketing piece communicates volumes. Even punctuation contributes to overall impression. Choose words that have the right connotations, that is, words that remind readers or viewers of trust, longevity, and innovation. And stay away from too many exclamation points!
  • Focus: In this age of “shiny object marketing,” it can be easy to proceed scattershot into the realm of social marketing or the latest direct mail tactics. Investors will pick up on subtle signs of consistency, so it’s important to evaluate the best way to use any new strategy, so that it fits seamlessly and intuitively with the overall marketing plan and business objectives.

Ultimately, considering the exit strategy in all marketing decisions is simply another way of evaluating the appropriateness of any given marketing venture. It shouldn’t replace other measures of evaluation, nor dominate that process. Rather, the exit strategy represents another layer of that onion that marketing professionals must peel away as part of the campaign development process.

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What’s Your Story? Harness the Power of Marketing through Storytelling

August 9th, 2010

As marketers, we often focus on the “next big thing,” straying from the perennial principles of effective marketing to pursue the latest fads or rehash metrics. Yet virtually every new marketing strategy or platform is simply one more way to do the same thing: share a captivating story. As we increasingly seek authenticity and clarity in a cluttered world, the ability to share a story will become more important than ever.

Forget the Tall Tales

How many opportunities to you and your colleagues have each day, to talk one-on-one with current clients or prospects? And how do you use these interactions? The best approach may be to tell a story. Made to Stick authors Chip Heath and Dan Heath identify six principles for “sticky ideas”:

  • Stories
  • Simplicity
  • Unexpectedness
  • Concreteness
  • Credibility
  • Emotions

Note that the first element, stories, should really incorporate the other six in order to be effective. We crave stories that surprise us; are easy to understand; and contain believable events and characters. But marketing is no place for fairy tales or hyperbole. Over-the-top stories, à la Paul Bunyan, may be great for putting the kids to bed, but they can detract from a company’s aura of legitimacy.

Crafting Your Company Stories

Take a moment to consider your company’s history, values, and customers. Undoubtedly there are several good stories just waiting to be discovered. But just as important is the story itself is how that story is packaged and presented.

  • Strive for authenticity: Capture the character and voice of your company. Don’t tell a story that your competitor can also tell, but rather a story that illustrates your point of difference. Think about those moments where your company has truly sparkled.
  • Keep it relevant: Identify your market segment (or segments) and craft a story that appeals to each. It may be necessary to come up with a sort of “story arsenal” that includes stories for a variety of situations and clients.
  • Make it retell-able: Simplicity is key. Anyone–from the company CEO to your customer’s kindergartener–should be able to recall your story and repeat it to someone else. Why not create an opportunity for free word-of-mouth advertising?
  • Skip the predictable: If your company is already well known for working in a particular vertical, or for working with a high-profile client, go for a different angle. Explore other successes that could become great stories.

We’d love to hear your company’s story! Share it here, or on our Facebook page.

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New AMA Tampa Bay President – My Look Ahead

August 2nd, 2010

For those of you who missed it, on June 22, Colleen Chappell, the AMA Tampa Bay President and President of ChappellRoberts, passed the gavel of leadership to me.

After a year of serving with Colleen as President-Elect and several years working with the organization in other capacities, I am excited to now be President of AMA Tampa Bay, which has more than 400 members and is one of the fastest growing chapters in the United States.

I’d like to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for your ongoing support as we move into the new fiscal year. Many of you have asked me, “Do you know what you’re getting into?”

You know, it’s funny, but I totally do.

Challenges and successes

During my term as President-Elect, I had the opportunity to work with, troubleshoot, problem solve, and have a heck of a lot of fun (and wine) with one of the most dynamic and well-respected leaders in Tampa Bay — Colleen Chappell. While I learned a lot about the details, deliverables and some of the downright difficult aspects of running our chapter, the most important things I gained from her are life skills that will continue to help me not only as a professional, but also as a wife, mother and friend.

Colleen and I have shared a year full of life-changing experiences, both personal and professional. I had a baby, and she prepared her “baby” to fly away from the nest. We had moving nightmares, and business successes. Working with Colleen and AMA Tampa Bay has become an incredibly personal experience.

Without Colleen’s continued support and guidance, I would not be ready to take on this role. Knowing that she will still be here not only as Immediate Past President but as a confidante, sounding board and friend, means that this will be a year that will be full of surprises and laughter (and yes, even more wine).

Thanks, Colleen, for everything.

“Above and Beyond”

Under Colleen’s leadership, the Board of Directors shared her vision to “Keep on Growing,” and you know what, it worked! At a time when other professional organizations have found it incredibly difficult to stay afloat, AMA Tampa Bay’s membership has increased steadily. This proves just how important we are to the marketing community.

Our growth is in no small part due to our dedicated volunteers, committee members, sponsors and Board of Directors. Everyone’s worked diligently to spearhead new and exciting opportunities that have proven to be incredibly successful. With this strong foundation beneath me, I look forward to working with all of you to take our chapter “Above and Beyond.”

Now that we’ve achieved substantial growth, I am committed to a focused approach that will help us to find new ways to engage, serve and connect with our membership on an even more personal level.

This brings me to our chapter’s new President-Elect, Sean Halter.

Interesting times ahead

Sean is dedicated, passionate and funny. He has served on our Board of Directors for quite some time now, and he’s more than prepared for his new role as President-Elect. He has proven himself as a resourceful and talented leader, and I am eagerly awaiting the fresh perspective and new ideas he will surely contribute.

I don’t know if anyone can truly prepare to work with me on an almost daily basis (haha), though I made a big effort to provide Sean with the tools and resources that will help him through this year.

So my husband, Chad, gave him a book full of insults and comebacks. (Sean should enjoying using that in the coming year, I am sure.)

Together we’re better

In closing, I want to again thank everyone who has helped me on my path to chapter leadership. I am positive that this year will once again be stellar, and we will continue to serve the marketing community unlike any other professional group in Tampa Bay.

We have a truly talented Board of Directors this year, and I would like to take a moment to recognize our incoming 2010-2011 Board at this time.

Sean Halter, President-Elect
Colleen Chappell, Immediate Past President
Thryth Hillary-Navarro, Secretary
Greg Millman, Treasurer
Susan Follick, VP Communications & Branding
Vince Bailey, VP Research
Shanna Kurpe, VP of Programming, Co-chair
Jeff Young, VP of Programming, Co-chair
Will Rose, VP Sponsorship
Doug Engel, VP Collegiate Relations
Jeremy Dixon, VP Human Resources
Jennie M. Jordan, VP Volunteers
Tracy Beck Clouser, Director of Public & Media Relations
Jennifer McCafferty, Director of Programming Development
Andrea Gorder, Director of Event Management
Shelly Bramm, Director of Membership Retention

Thanks to all of you for agreeing to take this journey with me.

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Building a Reputation as a Thought Leader: Penetrating the Speaker Circuit

July 27th, 2010

A few weeks ago we looked at strategies to get your name in print. This week, we’ll look at another key component of thought leadership: breaking into the speaker circuit. Although public speaking ranks as the number-one fear in the United States, it garners considerable advantages for those who can swallow their anxieties and share a compelling story. Speaking engagements require little financial investment, but can generate countless leads.

Find the Right Crowd

Getting involved in public speaking doesn’t have to be difficult. The key is to carefully target your audience–and work to build relationships that can turn into opportunities for speaking engagements.

  • Avoid “preaching to the choir”: People within your industry won’t need to hire you. Get outside your own industry, and reach out to groups and organizations where ideal clients would be members. In other words, look for a complementary crowd, whose businesses might need your expertise.
  • Remember that no crowd is too small: Don’t expect your first speaking engagement to be in front of hundreds of people. Ease into it, with groups of 20 to 40. These will also be easier to book; you could probably even fill a room with your own professional contacts relatively easily.
  • Get creative with presentation style: Still absolutely mortified of all those eyes, just staring at you? Start out with a webcast, where the only audience is a camera, and you have as many retakes as you’d like. Push out the webcast through your company’s social media channels.
  • Radiate warmth and humor: Great speakers are able to make others feel at ease, even from behind the podium. Maintain that same charisma during every interaction, and people will be more eager to hear your ideas.

Keep the Momentum Going

Once you’ve gotten a few speaking engagements under your belt, it will get less intimidating to get up in front of an audience. Meanwhile, after several successful engagements, you can step it up and start going after larger audiences.

  • Whip that pitch deck into shape: Be sure that as your presentations generate leads, you have a firecracker set of marketing materials to back them up. The pitch deck can also come in handy when you apply for more prestigious speaking engagements, which often require that, along with a sample presentation, for consideration.
  • Keep the presentation fresh: It’s always possible that people might end up in the audience twice, especially as you build a reputation as an excellent speaker. To that end, avoid giving the same presentation twice. Consider the audience, and tailor each presentation accordingly.
  • Tell a great story: What makes a great presentation? An extraordinary story. Approach your presentation like it’s story time for adults, rather than a lecture. Include vignettes that illustrate your points. Pare stories down so they include compelling, relevant details and clearly match your message.
  • Give the crowd stitches: Keep the audience laughing, and you’ll be sure to book more engagements. Stick to safe topics—self-deprecating humor always works as an ice breaker. Steer clear of politics or really strong sarcasm, as these can turn off some people. Remain positive and energetic.

Thought leadership pays when it comes to building a brand and generating referrals. Sharing your perspective as an expert in the field begins with putting your expertise center stage as a public speaker.

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A Quick Q & A with Dana Williams

July 20th, 2010

Dana Williams, Director of Marketing and Communications for Southwest Airlines, shared her insights with us this past Friday. Williams explained the strategy behind Southwest’s “Bags Fly Free” campaign and shared the company’s innovative approach to marketing in the 21st century. We caught up with Dana after the presentation to get more of her thoughts.

Q: What’s your personal marketing philosophy?001489-AMA_7_22_010

A: Know your Customer and build value for your Customer.

Q:  How has that influenced Southwest’s marketing?

A: We are in the Customer service business, we just happen to fly planes!  Our mission statement is about Customer Service and says nothing about flying people from point A to point B. I attached mission statement below.

Q: Why do you think Southwest’s brand resonates so well with people?

A: We have great value and we give our people the freedom to have fun and be themselves. Our people are our brand essence at Southwest Airlines, so everything centers on delivering great Customer Service through our people.

Q: How have Southwest’s marketing objectives and approach evolved in recent years? What precipitated those changes?

A: We have gone from brand awareness to strategically creating brand preference.  Competition with other airlines was the driving force behind that shift.

Q: What’s the greatest challenge in building a successful marketing campaign? How do you overcome that challenge?

A: Getting everyone on the same page and then keeping the message consistent in all channels. We developed Star teams for integrating all communication.

Q: Southwest takes a different approach to advertising than other airlines, namely humor.  Why did you go for this approach?

A: We take our business seriously but not ourselves.

Q: Do you target business travelers through social media? If so, how?

A: Yes, we use targeted media buys.

Q: What has been Southwest’s most unique and successful strategy for increasing its online following? It’s a mixture of several things, not just one thing.  We focus on bringing folks to our site only instead of selling our seats on aggregators.  With this philosophy, we are able to provide excellent Customer service and a great value for our Customers.  We also developed some new tools like "Click and Save," creating a way for our Customers to sign up for the latest sales. 

Q: How has Southwest’s social media program helped the company leverage customer loyalty?

A: Our customers carry our message as much as our marketing campaign, so it is very important to provide our Customer fans with as much information as we can as quickly as we can through our various social channels (Twitter; YouTube; Flickr; Facebook; and our blog, Nuts about Southwest).

Check out Southwest Airlines online, and be sure to check back soon for more information about AMA Tampa Bay’s upcoming events!

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Building a Reputation as a Thought Leader: Get Your Name in Print!

July 13th, 2010

Establishing oneself as an industry thought leader makes marketing and sales a much easier task. For marketing executives, especially those who specialize in marketing for a specific vertical, gaining a following as a though leader can significantly improve one’s ability to reach target prospects. Although the process of asserting oneself as a true leader can seem a daunting task, it can be accomplished with a dual-pronged approach. The first step is to get published, and the second is to gain a following as a speaker or presenter. Today we’ll focus on the first step, getting published.

Four Steps to Seeing Your Name in Print

Contrary to popular opinion, getting published is hardly impossible. Many editors of trade magazines and other industry-specific publications truly appreciate story ideas and articles from professionals who are “in the trenches.” The key: ensure that articles fit within your overall marketing strategy.

1. Choose topics that fit with your business goals. Which products and services do you want to emphasize? Which area of expertise is most important to establish? Come up with interesting angles on these services, and select articles that will solve problems your clients may have.

2. Identify key publications for target prospects. The next time you call on a client or prospect, take note of the magazines in their waiting area. Some business owners even ask clients what magazines and journals they subscribe to. You’ll want to choose industry-related publications that key decision makers read. Contact editors at those publications to pitch your story ideas.

3. Be ambitious. Go beyond local publications. Although the city’s business journal is a great source for local business, expand your reach to include regional and national publications. The best approach includes publishing at multiple levels, from the company’s blog to national trade magazines.

4. Edit, edit, edit. Even the most desperate editor will be happier to get a clean draft. Ask a trusted colleague to look over your draft and make revisions—not only to grammar and punctuation, but also to style and tone. Articles should reflect the overall message and tone of other corporate materials, such as the website and sales kit.

Benefits of Publishing as a Marketing Tool

So now you have the clips…but what to do with them? Make them part of your sales machine, naturally! Perhaps the greatest benefit of publishing is that it provides relevant, authentic marketing collateral. Clips can complement the sales kit or speaker kit. Some executives even include a link to their latest article in their email signatures.

Ultimately consistent publication builds credibility and opens the door for speaking engagements. Savvy marketing executives can take advantage of these opportunities not only for themselves, but also for key members of their organizations. The pay-off: increased visibility, which generally also increases sales.

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Marketing Metrics: How to Make Them Matter (Part Two)

July 6th, 2010

The task of building reliable and meaningful marketing metrics presents a significant challenge. David W. Stewart, professor at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, offers a timely perspective on how to make marketing metrics relevant. Last week we looked at his first six guidelines for metrics. This week, we’ll address the last six.

1. Measures of effort cannot be confused with measures of efficacy: Often marketing departments look to number of phone calls, frequency of contact and other numbers to measure their progress. Although these numbers should help inform decision making, they shouldn’t stand alone as indicators of marketing success or failure. There must be some indication of outcome, either directly or indirectly tied to financial performance.

2. Metrics must cross geographic and political boundaries: As more companies enter the global economy and manage an increasingly diverse portfolio of products and services, metrics must be adapted to be more universally meaningful. All stakeholders, from CEO’s to shareholders, should be able to understand the application of marketing metrics and use them to compare performance across industries or demographics.

3. The purpose, form, and scope of metrics should be transparent: Companies use an arsenal of tools to measure their financial performance. Although the tools may vary by industry, the meaning and application of each tool is clear to all parties. Necessary marketing metrics may also vary, but it is important that they clearly serve the stated purpose, be consistently applied and have specifically delineated applications and limitations.

4. Marketing departments must thoroughly document details: Any knowledgeable user should be able to examine a firm’s metrics and understand three things: precisely what is being measured; how the metric works; and how the data can be compared to comparable information from other companies. The last component tends to be overlooked, as marketing departments concentrate on specific internal measures of success.

5. Like any other measure, marketing metrics are subject to standards of development and validation: Just as scientists must follow certain procedures and validate their data by using standard methodology, marketing professionals must adhere to rigorous guidelines for measurement. Following industry standards for best practices lends validity to marketing metrics. This standard probably represents the most challenging one for the marketing community, since no consensus yet exists for effective measurement techniques in each marketing platform.

6. Marketing metrics must be viewed as an investment: Ultimately marketing metrics should serve as a tool to support sound decision making, improve accountability and reinforce continuous improvement efforts. Thoughtfully, thoroughly applied metrics give marketing professionals the evidence they need to create and fulfill goals—both short- and long-term.

Dr. Stewart’s academic approach to marketing certainly gives marketing professionals high benchmarks for implementing effective metrics. Yet the community tends to lose sight of the vast applications of accurate measurement. How have you put metrics to work in your marketing firm or department?

David W. Stewart is a professor at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and current editor of the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Dr. Stewart is also past editor of the Journal of Marketing.

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Marketing Metrics: How to Make Them Matter (Part One)

June 28th, 2010

Marketing has always been a difficult area to measure, yet remains undeniably indispensible to virtually every business.  As more tools become available, many marketing professionals find themselves surrounded by data.  Yet there are currently no real standards for determining which data are actually important; indeed many refer to marketing as the “dark science” because it is so difficult to quantify accurately. 

 After all, it’s not that marketing professionals disagree on which units of measurement to use (eg, yards v meters), but rather that they have not reached a consensus on what to measure in the first place.  Certainly the profession pays close attention to trends in metrics, but standardization has yet to emerge.  In the meantime, companies come up with proprietary tools and claim to offer definitive metrics.  In the short term, these companies may enjoy a competitive advantage.  But they’re actually short-selling the industry in a way that could ultimately undermine the credibility of marketing as a profession. 

 David W. Stewart, Robert E. Brooker Professor of Marketing and Chair of the Marketing Department in the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, suggests twelve ways that marketing can adopt and standardize its metrics. This week we’ll examine the first six.

 1.   Metrics must first be financial: The most comprehensible measurement across all segments of a company is return on investment (ROI).  This measure puts marketing in the context of clear economic gains that everyone can understand. Furthermore, this is the only information that is useful to managers as they plan and execute budgets.

2.   Marketing accountability must be measured the same as in other departments: Factors such as risk, capital investment, return, and the time value of money are crucial for determining budget and strategy.  Before a marketing team can pitch a new or risky marketing strategy, the team must place it in the context of these factors.

3.   Any measure of marketing activities should both impact future decisions and provide retrospective proof of its efficacy: In other words, marketing activities should demonstrate inherent value and become part of a company’s comprehensive business plan.  The metrics should also help companies to decide between different marketing activities, based on specific goals and budget.

4.   Effective measurement cannot be short- or long-term only: Every marketing effort has both immediate and long-lasting effects.  The best metrics systems take both of these into account—and acknowledge that the two may not be congruous with one another. 

5.   Metrics must illustrate the difference between marginal return on investment and total return on investment: Eventually any marketing strategy will fall prey to the law of diminishing returns.  This is especially true in today’s climate, where the array of marketing tools seems to increase exponentially.  Marketing metrics must track the incremental return, so that strategies and campaigns can be abandoned when they are no longer effective.

6.   Marketing metrics should account for the fact that different products produce different rates of return: Many variables impact the potential return on investment, including size, profit margin and rate of growth.  Marketing metrics must take this into account.  This component is especially important when marketers must promote a variety of products or services. 

So what metrics work using Stewart’s model?  How have you implemented metrics effectively in your marketing practice?

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