Lecture 9: Sales Forecasting and Brand Performance analysis Flashcards
why measure marketing?
Effectiveness in advertising is about achieving the agreed objectives, particularly sales of market share or profits
–> profitable growth –> leads to better financial performance
what are the different types of metrics
- Financial performance
- Brand health
- Customer service/engagement
describe brand health
“A system of interrelated perceptual and behavioural elements that paints a comprehensive picture of the brand’s state of physical, mental, and social wellbeing.
what is the challenge with regards to measuring?
finding the brand health metrics that drive profitable growth
what are some general brand metrics
soft:
- brand awareness
- brand salience
- brand satisfaction
- brand attitude/likeability
- brand performance
- brand imagery/associations
- willingness to recommend a brand or product
- brand loyalty (behavioural/attitudinal)
- perceived product quality
- consideration set
- buying intentions
hard:
- net profit
- ROI
- ROS
- ROMI
- stock prices/returns
- customer lifetime value
what are some traditional advertising metrics?
soft
- ad impressions
- ad reach
- brand recall
hard
-cost per thousand impressions
what are some online advertising metrics
soft
- ad impressions
- hits/visits/page views
- click-through rate
hard
- lead generation
- cost per click
- conversion rate
what are some direct mail metrics
soft
- reach
- number of campaign responses
- new customer retention rate
hard
- cost per customer acquired
- conversion rate
- lead generation
what are some social media metrics
soft
- hits/visits/page views
- number of followers/tags
- volume of media coverage
hard
- lead generation
- cost per exposure
- total costs
what are some PR/sponsoring
soft
- volume of media coverage
- reach
- brand recall
hard
- lead generation
- cost per exposure
what are the inputs and results (soft and hard) that you look at when measuring marketing?
input: brand communication
Result:
- soft: brand health
- hard: brand performance
what are the 4 different types of brand health metrics?
- Physiological measures (e.g., heart rate, eye movements)
- Implicit measures (e.g., implicit association tests, fMRI)
- Verbal measures (e.g., recall, attitude)
- Behavioural measures (purchase intentions, WoM)
T or F: different brands should use different metrics
true
“No two companies are alike. Each has its own strategy and
positioning which should determine the relevant metrics. Just as positioning requires differentiation, so their metrics should differ too. Only when they know exactly what they are trying to achieve can they choose the measures that matter”
what is a brand metric
A system of measures that helps to quantify particular brand characteristics
what characterises a good brand metric?
- Credible, reliable, valid
- Self-conscious; balanced
- Diagnostic, actionable, predictive
describe being self-conscious/aware as a metric
Every metric has blind spots.
Know what a metric measures and what it doesn’t.
what are some obstacles to being self-conscious as a metic
- measurability
- -> need to choose metrics that reflect the brand, not just that are acceptable
- -> avoiding vanity metrics
- short-termism
- ->some metrics demonstrate short term ideas
- lack of understanding
- ->any metric which becomes a target loses its value as a metric
descibre being balanced as a metirc
If you measure multiple different metrics, then you
account for the shortcomings of individual metrics.
–> In science that’s called: triangulation
what is an obstacle to being balances with metrics
use of single metrics
- No metric can predict brand performance on its own.
- Single metrics do not meet the criteria of good measurement.
- “Rosser Reeves fallacy“
describe being predictive in brand metrics
Can a soft brand health metric predict hard business
results?
Advanced statistical techniques allow marketers to calculate the predictive ability of a variable.
describe being diagnostic and actionable as a metric
A good metric identifies the cause of a strategic problem and enables the brand to change something concrete in their communication.
Hard performance metrics (e.g.,. market share) measure the problem itself and therefore are not diagnostic.
what are some obstacles to having diagnostic and actionable metrics
- no follow-up actions determined
- -> for 25 years, we measured an awful lot, but we never actually did something with those metrics - digital metrics (overload)
- metrics are brand too
- -> problems with net promoter score
- off-the-shelf solutions aren’t useful
what is the biggest problem with brands when measuring
Being seen doing the right thing is often more important than doing the right thing
–> marketing managers often only hold their position for a short time, so they focus on short term tactics to be visible, which is problematic
building a brand metric dashboard first rule
Different objectives, different
metrics
describe the different metrics and how they are useful
Online behaviour metrics explain sales (relevant for short-term tactical planning)
brand health metrics predict sales (relevant for long-term strategic planning)
what does the the journey to select the metrics that matter look like?
discovery phase:
- what are your brand questions?
- what are your follow-up actions?
- what do you need to measure?
confirmation phase:
- narrowing down: finding BPPs
- distinguishing BPP and leading BPPs
- maintenance and guidance
- continuous measurement
brand performance predictors characteristics
- key brand drivers
- aligned with brand strategy
- few in number
why is this journey of picking good brand metrics so hard?
- Short-termism; tactical mindset; channel vs brand-specific
- No alignment on KPIs across entire organisation and stakeholders
- Effectiveness is a shared responsibility, but very difficult to bring about (leadership, break silos, integrated, credible metric
what are some questions to do with effectiveness challenges
- How do we bring together long and short?
- How do we agree upfront which metrics to measure?
- How do we develop an effective ‘way of working’?
