Page 138 - Marketing Management

CONDUCTING MARKETING RESEARCH | CHAPTER 4 115

Aircraft pilots have protocols. When they are sitting on the tarmac warming their engines
waiting to take off, they are looking at certain things. When they are taxiing, they look at
others. When they are in flight, they look at still others. There is a sequence of knowing
when to pay attention to which metrics, which lets them have their cake and eat it too, in
terms of the simplicity and complexity trade-off.
London Business School’s Tim Ambler suggests that if firms think they are already measuring
marketing performance adequately, they should ask themselves five questions: 51
1. Do you routinely research consumer behavior (retention, acquisition, usage) and why con-
sumers behave that way (awareness, satisfaction, perceived quality)?
2. Do you routinely report the results of this research to the board in a format integrated with
financial marketing metrics?
3. In those reports, do you compare the results with the levels previously forecasted in the busi-
ness plans?
4. Do you also compare them with the levels achieved by your key competitor using the same
indicators?
5. Do you adjust short-term performance according to the change in your marketing-based asset(s)?
Ambler says firms must give priority to measuring and reporting marketing performance
through marketing metrics. He believes they can split evaluation into two parts: (1) short-term re-
sults and (2) changes in brand equity. Short-term results often reflect profit-and-loss concerns as
shown by sales turnover, shareholder value, or some combination of the two. Brand-equity meas-
ures could include customer awareness, attitudes, and behaviors; market share; relative price pre-
mium; number of complaints; distribution and availability; total number of customers; perceived
52
quality, and loyalty and retention.
Companies can also monitor an extensive set of internal metrics, such as innovation. For exam-
ple, 3M tracks the proportion of sales resulting from its recent innovations. Ambler also recom-
mends developing employee measures and metrics, arguing that “end users are the ultimate
customers, but your own staff are your first; you need to measure the health of the internal market.”
Table 4.3 summarizes a list of popular internal and external marketing metrics from Ambler’s
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survey in the United Kingdom.
Carefully measuring the effects of a marketing activity or program helps ensure managers
make the right decisions going forward. Seeking greater engagement with younger consumers,
Servus Credit Union in Alberta, Canada, launched its “Young & Free Alberta” program featuring a
competition to find a youth spokesperson for Alberta. To connect with young Albertans, Kelsey
MacDonald, the 2010 winner, works with Servus to create daily blogs, post entertaining and
educational videos at YoungFreeAlberta.com, and maintain a Facebook and Twitter presence.

TABLE 4.3 Sample Marketing Metrics

I. External II. Internal
Awareness Awareness of goals
Market share (volume or value) Commitment to goals
Relative price (market share value/volume) Active innovation support
Number of complaints (level of dissatisfaction) Resource adequacy
Consumer satisfaction Staffing/skill levels
Distribution/availability Desire to learn
Total number of customers Willingness to change
Perceived quality/esteem Freedom to fail
Loyalty/retention Autonomy
Relative perceived quality Relative employee satisfaction

Source: Tim Ambler, “What Does Marketing Success Look Like?” Marketing Management (Spring 2001), pp. 13–18. Reprinted with permission
from Marketing Management, published by the American Marketing Association.