The 'ROI' of ROI !

Ever wondered what the ROI of ROI is? What I mean by this is the net value derived from initiatives that are aimed at measuring ROI. Is it even worth measuring the ROI of every marketing activity?

Not really.

There are three key questions to ask before embarking on a marketing ROI measurement program:

1. Why is this information needed? What decisions rely on this information?
2. What is the potential value if these decisions are right? What is the potential risk if the decisions are wrong?
3. What is the degree of accuracy needed (or margin of error tolerated) from measurement?

If measuring the return from marketing activities costs more than the net value derived from doing so, then measurement is a failed exercise. If rough indicators or hypotheses will do the trick, then why waste time, money, effort in chasing 100% accuracy?

Always remember that "not everything that can be counted, counts" ! If we live by this principle, we can probably make a more critical and informed choice of which activities to formally measure, and which ones to crack open through intuition and judgement.

Marketing Crusader

Hi everyone!

Firstly, let me start by defining the vision of the blog. I think the title of the blog says a lot about the aim of this blog i.e. this blog is a crusade- a crusade to re-define 'marketing' and to re-establish marketing's position as a top-level strategic driver of the firm. The blog aims to build a community of like-minded marketing thinkers : thinkers who believe that marketing is more than just advertising, thinkers who believe that marketing impacts the bottom-line.

Having said that, I do not want to restrict this blog to any single topic or area. The idea of this blog stems from the belief that 'marketing' is an all-pervasive discipline and the more broadly marketing is defined or thought about, the closer you will be to truly understanding it. Hence, this blog will reflect my thoughts and ideas along the way, and hopefully arouse some similar thoughts and ideas from you as well.

Personally, my interests lie in commercially driven marketing practice i.e. improving the rigour of the marketing discipline and linking it to the metrics that really matter. I believe that my blog posts will ultimately reflect this mindset, and I am looking forward to making this blog a sounding board for thoughts and ideas that demonstrate the rigour and 'value' of the marketing discipline.

I look forward to sharing this journey with you!