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1. What is
the confidence we have that this campaign will
work before we start to run this campaign?
This all
comes down to pretesting research. There are a
number of techniques that can be used and as CEO
you may or may not be able to evaluate those.
That said, knowing there is a plan and that
enough time has been budgeted to do pretesting
is probably the best take away you should get at
this stage. We see too many brands that race to
meet deadlines and get a campaign up and
running, even when that campaign is not
effective. That might make people feel good but
it is not helping the business.
There are number of options for creative
pretesting (one hint is that ad recall is not one
of the good options) before it runs. One of the
great myths in agencies is that research will
kill a good idea. Badly done research can do
that but good research doesn’t kill effective
advertising. But thankfully, it can identify and
kill bad advertising.
If your agency resists, then you might like to
look at how do you incentivize your agency, or
your marketing team. We’ve found that those who
are resistant to evaluation might need to be
“encouraged” to do so. You can pick the proper
motivation to get it right.
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2. How soon
will we know that the campaign is working? And
do we have a plan B?
As noted
above, the number one question should be, "Is the
campaign working." After that, a best-of-breed
marketer will have the measurement metrics in
place to determine quickly that a campaign is
working and begin to identify elements that can
be changed.
There are a number of brands that if they don’t
read the results quickly disaster can strike and
worse yet, no one knows it. We had one study
with a product that did 40+% of its sales
between Thanksgiving and end of the year. Any
learning they gained at the end of the campaign
could possibly get used in next year’s campaign
but generally the opportunity to capitalize on
learning was gone.
Having the band play on after the ship has hit
an iceberg might calm everyone but the
inevitable sinking is still occurring.
The big issue here is, "What’s the agreed to plan
B if things don’t go right with plan A?" Agreed
to action plans upfront stops the
finger-pointing that is common in advertising
and keeps the focus on what the brand is doing
to improve their advertising. |
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3. What is
the Marketing R&D budget for this year?
As a percent
of budget, we have seen that 10% is a good
number to start. What’s critical here though is
not so much the percent as that there is a
commitment to innovation and a clear path for
determining what works and what doesn’t. Finding
those nuggets of fresh ideas that really work
can be extremely valuable.
We had one advertiser that tried a new approach
to online advertising that ultimately allowed
them to reach 50% of their target in one day and
do that with 10 times the cost effectiveness of
their TV plan. If this brand had not one, tried
it and two measured it, then they never would
have a powerful new weapon in their arsenal that
their competition doesn’t.
While the above is extraordinary, we suggest
that CEO's should encourage their marketing
group to find new ideas that are effective first
and see if they can work to make them cost
effective. That provides a maximum benefit from
Marketing R&D.
One note for CEO’s though is that means you as
the leader have to stop an environment of fear
and encourage your teams to seek a better
approach, which by default means they will be
wrong. If you don’t set the tone that failures
are, like the Japanese say, a treasure to learn
from then marketing innovation will be limited. |
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4. What is
the cost to change a customer’s attitude about
our brand? What is the cost of each sale? By
each medium?
"Without this
data, how can we know that advertising is
worthwhile or what benchmarks we have to measure
against to know that we improving performance of
our advertising?" This commitment to measurement
is what separates the average marketers from the
top marketers.
You may hear that this is not possible to assess
but it is. It can be expensive for sure but the
cost of advertising that fails is even more
costly, putting products and even companies at
risk.
Again, management needs to support the time,
resources and funding it takes to get at data.
Without your support it likely will not happen. |
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5. What is
the real cost of incentives, like Couponing,
etc.?
Many have
said, and they are right, that incentive offers,
such as coupons, have become like Crack to
marketing organizations. Marketers use them
because they provide some predictability and
tracking into marketing efforts.
This can be accomplished without using
incentives. In fact, for one of the automotive
studies conducted we found that “cash on the
hood” incentives could be reduced to 50% of
competitors offers and sales would still grow.
This is real taking it to the bank insight that
has major value to a brand.
The data also suggests that the incentives don’t
accomplish what marketers think, or hope, they
do. Consumers that use coupons, which are viewed
as trial drivers, are most likely not new
customers but are repeat customers. This begs
the question, how do we get new customers?
Advertising is usually the best and yet our lack
of concrete data doesn’t equip marketers to make
quality decisions that sell more products to
more consumers for less cost. |
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