Harness Technology to Vitalize and Orient Marketing

The most important responsibility of the Chief of Marketing in any organization is managing marketing profitability and delivering the best return from marketing resources. Strategies and plans must deliver current and future profits to keep the organization healthy and growing. How should then he or she manage these resources; should the CMO be driven by insight from markets and customers or by the data or by relationships?

The capability to measure and manage marketing ROI is essential but it is not easy to get. Improving the ability to measure and manage marketing ROI should be at the top of the CMO’s agenda. Organizations have made efforts to find and evolve these measures but there is a lot more to be done. CMOs of organizations that are ahead in their marketing ROI capabilities reap benefits in the market place, enjoy customer preference and have better credibility with their CEOs and CFOs.

Ask yourself what you know with certainty about your own company’s marketing effectiveness — and what remains unknown. Which parts of your marketing are not delivering enough results? Are you properly accounting for lifetime value? What is the best product mix? Where do enquiries leak in the opportunity funnel? The inability to answer these questions indicates untapped potential.

CMOs can now use technology to manage marketing performance and profitability. More accessible data and more advanced technologies enable sophisticated measurements and decision support. CMOs must harness the talents of their organization and drive new strategies to generate profitable growth in both the short term and long term. In a recent survey, over 35 percent of CMOs said doing more with less was their biggest hurdle. And 37 percent said integrating and tracking multiple channels was their top most challenge, highlighting measurement challenges from organization silos. The time is right to invest in technology to close the gaps and enable the marketing department to make better informed decisions aligned to business outcomes.

T K Ramesh
Whole time Director and CEO
Micromatic Machine Tools Pvt Ltd

The views expressed by the author are personal and he can be contacted at rameshtkr@gmail.com

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