Hierarchies are important to marketing because they create a mapping between planning, forecasting, execution and actual performance. Supporting a common marketing hierarchy is the core to enable cross-channel reporting. 

A hierarchy is composed of levels and level items. Think of it as a directory structure where the same file can live in more than one folder or an organization chart where a person reports to one person or many people. In the illustration below, the products are unique but the channels and sub channels are shared across products.  

Hierarchies empower organizations to look across all marketing functions or organizational units through the same lenses. 

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Marketing Spill or Client Number 9? By Scott Rakestraw on 4/8/2008 9:57 AM Did you ever wonder how terms take on a meaning? I am always amazed at how a concept gets a word and multiple people from multiple companies know it. If you were asked are you, "Master of Your Domain?" you would most likely know what that means. I hope one day to coin a term that gets adoption and to be master of my domain. This takes me to the term at hand, Marketing Spill, which is used to represent responses or sales to a program that occur in geographical areas outside of the circulation areas. For example, a direct mail campaign has sales but no circulation in zip code 20191, the sales in 20190 are considered spill, hence the term Marketing Spill. Marketing Spill occurs for several reasons; someone could receive the mail piece at home and call or stop by a store near the office. As a follow-up blog, I will highlight some techniques we are using to allocate spill sales to the geographical area that received circulation ... Read More » Comments (0)

Newspapers are Innovating to survive By Scott Rakestraw on 4/2/2008 11:08 AM I recently attended the DMA Insert Days and learned what the Tribune Newspaper is doing to be more competitive. They have a new service offering, Direct Plus that allows them to compete for direct mail dollars because they can target at a sub-zip level to areas that match the desired demographics. Also, unlike direct mail the insert is wrapped around the paper inside the plastic, forcing it to be noticed. In addition to the sub-zip delivery, they have a very unique targeting capability where they will match a prospect/customer list or demographics profiles against their subscriber database, allowing for great targeting. They can also guarantee in home dates, something direct mail is lacking. I applaud the Tribunes effort to innovate. Comments (0)

Applying Geo Analysis to Insert and Print media, no Jedi mind trick… By Scott Rakestraw on 3/16/2008 3:30 PM The last few of months I have been heads down working with our development team and clients to develop UQube Geo™, a web-based application for allowing marketers to visualize performance for geo targeted media (ValPak, Advo, Money Mailer, etc) at the market level daily. One of our objectives is to eliminate ad-hoc analysis that takes week, empowering clients with actionable insight to impact every media buy. Market level is the evolution of media optimization for insert and print media. Once you are settled on your mix of marketing channels (direct response/alt media, direct mail, tv, and online), media categories (inserts, FSIs, circular, etc), and programs (Advo, Money Mailer, ValPak, SmartSource, New Movers), the next logically step is to optimize the programs at the market level. Read More » Comments (1) Geo Analsysis

Join us at the DMA Insert Media Day (Table #19) By Scott Rakestraw on 3/15/2008 8:07 PM 5th Annual DMA Insert Media Days April 1, 2008 McGraw Hill Conference Center Table #19 Learn more at http://www.the-dma.org/conferences/dmainsertday/ Read More » Comments (0)

Here are 5 reasons why to tighten the focus of your Geo Targeted Media with ongoing DMA Geo analysis in 2008. By Scott Rakestraw on 3/12/2008 7:42 AM You can increase the performance of your 2008 Geo Targeted media with magnified visibility into their performance by DMA, ZIP and carrier route. If you spend over $2 million on programs such as ValPak, Advo, Circulars, Mailsouth and Direct Mail, pinpoint the markets and media programs that perform best. Read More » Comments (0) Geo Analsysis

It doesn’t stop at do not call By Scott Rakestraw on 2/20/2008 10:14 AM In Maryland, state delegate Tanya Shewell is proposing a consumer protection bill (House Bill 357) that could affect direct response vehicles like newspapers, circulars and mass-coop mailings.   The bill would require publishers to include a phone number where consumers could opt out of delivery.  Ironically, the bill is not intended to stop political flyers. The bill can be found at http://mlis.state.md.us/2008rs/billfile/HB0357.htm MD House Bill 357 Synopsis: Prohibiting a publisher from delivering, or causing to be delivered, an unsolicited print publication to a residential address in the State unless the publication contains a specified notice; prohibiting a publisher from delivering, or causing to be delivered an unsolicited print publication after receiving notice from a resi ... Read More » Comments (0)

In a recession, metrics and measurment drive marketing By Scott Rakestraw on 1/30/2008 11:34 AM When Starbucks is advertising, you know things are tough. In good years, the average life of a CMO is two years but add recession, then you have pressure.  As I read through my Advertising Age today (January 28th issue), I keep looking for the falling sky. Below are some of the glooming storylines. The writers’ strike has made Johnson and Johnson skip last year’s TV upfront selling period. How Banks can Boost Image in Chaotic Times CMOs, Get Ready for a rocky ride Strike driving $100M in ads from TV biz to big screen In tough times, marketing is under a great deal of pressure to do more with less, making measurement and metrics king in 2008. Smart marketers will not spend money on unproven or non-measureable media, failure is not an option in a bad economy.&nb ... Read More » Comments (0)

The Mighties: Proving marketing’s value with a marketing dashboard By Scott Rakestraw on 9/14/2007 10:11 AM   According to the CMO Council™ Marketing Outlook 2007, quantifying and measuring the value of marketing programs is the top challenge facing marketers in 2007.  To quantify marketing performance, many of those surveyed (43.8 percent) are looking to implement automated marketing dashboards.  Building the dashboard is the simple part, automating the data feeds to deliver timely and accurate marketing insight is the challenge.  Let’s assume you are a marketer who spends over $25 million on marketing annually and people can buy your product via retail, web or telesales channels.   If you have a $25 million budget, then you are using multi ... Read More » Comments (0)