For the past seven years, VisionEdge Marketing has been conducting research related to Marketing Performance Measurement and Management.  We’ve taken a look at the trends from the results since 2005.  The results show that in spite of some improvements Marketing has not made the necessary changes to become performance-driven and demonstrate its contribution to business.

Marketing professionals need to overcome four hurdles.

1.    Measuring Impact Still Eludes Us:  While participants at all levels agree that marketing makes a positive difference, we are still not measuring and documenting the value Marketing contributes to business. Marketers are not tracking key metrics that would show how Marketing contributes to growth, key market share metrics like share of preference, and key existing customer metrics like share of wallet, remain among the metrics marketers track least often.
2.    Marginally effective at measuring. Effectiveness at measuring Marketing performance remains marginal, especially in terms of demonstrating overall impact and financial contribution to business.
3.    Analytical skills still perceived as inadequate.  What more is there to say?
4.    Lack of benchmarks.  Marketing is talking the talk of high performance and best practices, but still isn't walking the walk. Marketers are showing that they share the priorities of business and that they want to improve their ability to track and measure their value and impact. However, 36-46% of marketers do not audit and benchmark their metrics regularly, which prevents them from keeping pace with best practices.

None of these hurdles are so great that marketing cannot overcome them; it is a matter of focus, discipline, and prioritization.  If you are facing any of these hurdles, we hope you have plans in to address them.