A response curve has two purposes, forecasting responses and evaluating a campaign’s performance while the campaign is active, referred to as Projection Model or Project to Final. 

Forecasting

As the diagram illustrates below, a response curve is a critical element in forecasting because it derives when responses come in over the life-cycle of a campaign given the expected responses. 

Using a granular forecast (by day), a business is able to plan and staff to meet demand.  Forecasting helps a company optimize operations by helping answering the following questions:

• How much staff does a call center need on hand?
• How many calls will a call center get on day X?
• How many widgets d ... Read More »
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We maintain a great deal of data and have cool charting capabilities, giving Upper Quadrant the ability to create numerous dashboard charts and elements.   But, we have learned that less is sometimes better. 

A good marketing dashboard is not measured by the number of charts or cool usability; it is measured by the insight provided.  A good marketing dashboard should provide a timely and accurate snapshot that answers four critical questions:

1. What is broken?
2. How am I doing?
3. What are the best and worst performers?
4. Where am I heading?

By answering these questions, everyone from marketing operations to executive management can impact marketing performance and shift attention from data gathering and analysis to focusing on the big issues that will drive value for their company or client. 

I ... Read More »

This posting is a comment I added to Eric Kintz’s Marketing Excellence blog posting, Is process a bad word in marketing? 

As marketing starts to use more of the left-side of the brain, process is a critical component and gives you the power to be more creative.  A lot of times, creative concepts are squashed in a conference room because people say they are too creative or risqué, but if you ... Read More »

"54% of voters think the idea proposed by Wal-mart and other marketers to build an eBay-based system for auctioning some non-upfront TV inventory is a good one.  But 46% say they believe such a system would have a negative effect of the market." - AdAge, May 22, 2006.

As consumers shift from linear to non-linear media, like video on demand (VOD), wireless phones, IPODs or IPTV, what does this mean to advertising?

I think it represents a significant shift is what advertisers buy and how advertising is measured.  The shift is not just from linear to non-linear but to buying consumers, not spots. 

Advertising buyers will buy ind ... Read More »

A Georgetown faculty member sparked the idea of a marketing performance management spectrum, thanks Ken. I took the concept and personalized it based on my client experience.

In working with and talking with companies, I hear models a great deal. Models and marketing mix models are great and I am a big believer in models. I even have SPSS on my laptop. But, there is one big challenge with models, they require data. Data from multiple sources and large amounts of data.

My goal with my marketing performance management spectrum is to convey how to get to marketing mix modeling. So, go ahead and take the first step to move up the spectrum.

Levels of Enterprise Marketing Performance Management

6. Marketing spend to sales
• Marketing is measured at a 40,000 foot level by using a barometric measurement to eva ... Read More »

Drag in marketing measurement referrers to lagging sales from a campaign. Basically, sales that are traceable to a campaign, e.g. 800#, that are posted well after the initial campaign drop or impression, typically 4 weeks.

When does drag end?
Depending on whom you ask and the campaign’s marketing channel, sales are classified as drag that occur four weeks or four months after the initial drop or impression. I know this is a big range but if you can track the sale, marketing wants credit.

For one of my clients, we had a four month drag rule for direct response campaigns, things like ValPak and Parade, which translated means sales that occur four months after the initial drop got bucketed as miscellaneous sales. The four month rule made sense initially but when preparing presentations, the client questioned why so many sales were miscellaneous. The client bought in to the four month rule upfront but when they were not getting credit for ... Read More »

"A catch-22 is at work. Advertisers won't get deep into VOD until Big Cable provides more metrics. And the cable companies are loath to divulge information about individual viewers for fear of violating privacy regulations that predate the Internet. "We want to generate additional revenue," says David Porter, director of new media business development at Cox Media, "but not at the cost of annoying our customers." - Business Week

VOD Research:

• 70% of advertisers believe that digital video recorders (DVRs) and video-on-demand (VOD) will reduce or destroy the effectiveness of traditional 30-second commercials.
• 78% of advertisers said television advertising has become less effective over the past two years.
• When DVR usage reaches 30 million households in the U.S., expected within three years, almost 60% of advertisers will spend less on conventional TV advertising; of those, 24% will cut their TV budgets by at least 25%.
• 80% of advertisers will spend more on Web advertising, and 68% will use search engine marketing.
• Advertisers are also looking at alternatives to traditional TV advertising and will spend more of their ad budgets on branded entertainment within TV programs (61%), TV program sponsorships (55%), interactive advertising during TV programs (48%), online video ads (45%) and product placement (44%) ... Read More »
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It goes without saying that having a unique 800 number is the most effective tracking mechanism when you are selling direct. What do you do when you do not sell direct?

It can be as simple as Zip Code. When you execute a campaign, you know at least the number of impressions or circulation at a DMA or zip code level. DMA is a made up of zip codes and ValPak for example, tracks circulation at Zip+4. By tracking all impressions, mail drops and circulations at a zip code level, you can link campaigns to sales at the zip code level, providing a mechanism for tracking the effectiveness of campaigns.

You already have indirect sales by zip and date but may not know it.

• Retail Sales – Sell-through or point-of-sale information has zip code and date
• Telesales – Orders have zip code but did you know you can get the zip code with out having an order or even asking a prospect. Email me and I will share the secret source. ... Read More »
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