Who Needs Marketing Anyway? Really.

by: Alain Thys This survey data was just released by the Association of National Advertisers in the US who had a chat with their members about marketing accountability: 61.5 percent of the survey respondents said it was important to them to define, measure and take concrete steps in the area of advertising accountability. 19 percent said they were satisfied with their ability to take those steps … 73 percent of respondents were not confident that they understood the effects that an advertising or marketing campaign could have on sales. And for the whopper, when asked whether they would "be able to forecast the impact on sales of a 10 percent cut in marketing spending, 63 percent said no". My recommendations to CEO's across the globe: unless your marketing director can demonstrate why you shouldn't do it, cut the marketing budget for 2006 with 10%. Then give the message that unless he/she can figure it out in the coming year 2007 will suffer the same fate. At least it focuses the conversation on the right issues. Original Post: http://alainthys.blogging.com/blog/_archives/2005/8/24/1164405.html