Is My Brand Working?

It is a mistake to measure the impact and effectiveness of marketing and branding on the bottom line. There are far too many facets of the success equation, that are not instantaneous, to reduce the final assessment to that alone.

The value of reputation, relationships, brand awareness and consumer attitudes, related to your business, are impossible to measure based solely on financial returns.

A thorough evaluation of where your business is now, and the identification of the next most important goal, is a good place to start.

Other measures of ROI are:

• number of leads generated
• total sales revenue generated
• change in awareness of your brand – buzz in the marketplace
• change in market share
• change in buying pattern re products, days etc.
• change in intent to buy
• increase in incremental sales revenue
• customer retention

The alignment of marketing and business strategy is recognition of the importance of marketing to overall business success. Funds are no longer being taken from marketing departments as a first remedy to a shortfall elsewhere . All of that has resulted in an increased expectation of accountability for results.

Look for ways to track your progress keeping the end in mind. It is all about prioritizing, identifying and sorting the important factors from the insignficant details, that are crucial to your success.

It may feel more productive to be doing, but it is more constructive to be planning. The odds of achieving marketing success increases exponentially if you are aware of what has succeeded and failed in the past. Typically 80 to 90% of efforts are well spent on identification, planning and determining the success metrics, with the balance on execution and assessment.

The owner of a successful business or product is often reported as saying, “It seemed to develop a life of it’s own and just take off.” It could be a lucky break, but often, it’s the result of years of thought and experience finally translated into action.

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