Marketing Metrics
Marketing Metrics
At the beginning of The Balanced Scorecard, a book on the new generation of performance metrics, authors-Dr. Robert Kaplan and Dr. David Norton present an analogy to drive home their case. They ask you to imagine entering an airline jet cockpit, and in front of the pilot, you see just one gauge.
You ask the pilot, "What's that gauge measure?"
"Altitude", you're told.
"What about the other gauges?"
"We won't be using them this flight. I'm just focusing on altitude."
"How about air speed?"
"No, that's the gauge I was using last flight. I wanted to try something different this one."
"Compass?"
"Not this time"
"Fuel gauge?"
"Nope!"
The idea is, of course, that you need a balanced set of measures to accurately monitor business performance.
If You Don't Measure It, You Can't Manage It
Every business operates and has always operated in an ever changing and dynamic environment. And for successful entrepreneurs change has always meant opportunity. History of enterprise tells us that only those firms have succeeded in the long run which could adapt and change. What is common to the successful firms is that they not only do right things (strategy) but also do things right (implementation). For right implementation control function becomes very important. Fundamental to the control function is the concept of metrics which help the management as well as the stockholders to keep a track of the business. Use of metrics not only tells where we are headed but also indicates the need to change the direction if needed. Therefore it is very important to use metrics to measure the performance of marketing function as a whole and also the impact, efficiency and effectiveness of specific marketing mix components.
Both successful marketers and academicians hold the view that working without metrics is working blind. You do not know where you are headed. In fact in the absence of metrics it is extremely difficult to assess whether a course of
At the beginning of The Balanced Scorecard, a book on the new generation of performance metrics, authors-Dr. Robert Kaplan and Dr. David Norton present an analogy to drive home their case. They ask you to imagine entering an airline jet cockpit, and in front of the pilot, you see just one gauge.
You ask the pilot, "What's that gauge measure?"
"Altitude", you're told.
"What about the other gauges?"
"We won't be using them this flight. I'm just focusing on altitude."
"How about air speed?"
"No, that's the gauge I was using last flight. I wanted to try something different this one."
"Compass?"
"Not this time"
"Fuel gauge?"
"Nope!"
The idea is, of course, that you need a balanced set of measures to accurately monitor business performance.
If You Don't Measure It, You Can't Manage It
Every business operates and has always operated in an ever changing and dynamic environment. And for successful entrepreneurs change has always meant opportunity. History of enterprise tells us that only those firms have succeeded in the long run which could adapt and change. What is common to the successful firms is that they not only do right things (strategy) but also do things right (implementation). For right implementation control function becomes very important. Fundamental to the control function is the concept of metrics which help the management as well as the stockholders to keep a track of the business. Use of metrics not only tells where we are headed but also indicates the need to change the direction if needed. Therefore it is very important to use metrics to measure the performance of marketing function as a whole and also the impact, efficiency and effectiveness of specific marketing mix components.
Both successful marketers and academicians hold the view that working without metrics is working blind. You do not know where you are headed. In fact in the absence of metrics it is extremely difficult to assess whether a course of