"Sometimes the situation is only a problem because it is looked at in a certain way. Looked at in another way, the right course of action may be so obvious that the problem no longer exists."
Edward de Bono
Maltese Physician, Author, Inventor
Maltese Physician, Author, Inventor
Do you know the story of the blind men examining an elephant? Each touches a different part reaching different conclusions as to what it is based on what they touched.
We are all "blind" regarding the future and not just during these difficult times. Always. We all "see" different "parts" of what will likely be.
Seeing things differently is not the problem. Not looking at all or simply waiting, being reactive rather than proactive, that's the problem.
Which are you personally? What about your company?
We are all "blind" regarding the future and not just during these difficult times. Always. We all "see" different "parts" of what will likely be.
Seeing things differently is not the problem. Not looking at all or simply waiting, being reactive rather than proactive, that's the problem.
Which are you personally? What about your company?
This reminds me of how different eye witness accounts to the same crime can be. Is it any wonder we in business see the same thing in different ways?
ReplyDeleteAs you said, that's not a problem but being insistent that only our interpretation is correct, is.
Very little in life is black or white but many business people like to think otherwise, finance and accounting types in particular.
ReplyDeletePropose $10 million in advertising and they want to know the ROI and they aren't talking about what we think it will be; they want to know what it will be.
Who knows? I'm in charge of marketing and I know I don't. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't do anything unless we know for certain what the outcome will be.
If we do that I can say with a high degree of certainty that we do know what will happen and it won't be good.
Marketing Guy, are you saying marketing expense should not be measured or just that it can not be done with precision?
ReplyDeleteNo I am not saying not measured, just that the hard measurement possible with a piece of warehouse equipment is not possible with marketing expense.
ReplyDeleteBut go tell that to my CFO and our CEO with a finance MBA.
i don't think you have to be a finance or accounting guy to want a reasonable answer to the question of what is the return on a $10 million investment - it doesn't matter if the investment is for an advertising campaign, IT purchase, employee training, etc.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you're not prepared to give a reasonably thought out response, you have no business asking for the money in the first place.
There is a huge difference between a "reasonably thought out response" and a real ROI. When I present the plan along with the expected ROI I have to use language like "we can reasonably expect", "our best projections indicate", etc.; however they don't want projections, reasonable or not. They want promises and I won't do that when talking about things I don't control.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I am open to suggestions. If any of you can tell me how I can guarantee the ROI on a $10 million advertising buy, particularly in this economy, I'm ready to listen.
And to those who say "If you can't guarantee success you shouldn't spend the money", please tell me how we continue to market our product without spending money; I'll be happy to listed to that as well.
The conceept of "real ROI" strikes me as an oxymoron. ROI is based fundamentally on a set of assumptions e.g. if I make a certain type of investment, I should expect a certain level of return over a certain period of time. I obviously can't speak to the people you report to that "want promises" but either they're misguided or are perhaps trying to determine your level of conviction and research into whatever it is that you're proposing?
ReplyDeleteWhile I would love it, I don't think it's possible to "guarantee" success on an investment and if someone tried, I would obviously be quite skeptical. But as a manager that has to allocate limited financial resources, I need some framework to be able to make those investment decisions. So while I intuitively understand that products and services have to be marketed, hopefully my marketing person would be able to provide some meaningful answers to questions like:
- should the advertising spend be $1 million or $10 million? why?
- should i advertise on the billboard off the freeway or take a more targeted/direct approach?
- should we just reallocate the dollars towards expanding our sales force?
I understand that these items are not mutually exclusive but you get my point.
Is this unreasonable?
Not unreasonable at all and I bet Marketing Guy would be happy with your approach.
ReplyDeleteI once worked for a CEO who accepted my marketing expenditure ROI's but later would want to know why my assumptions were wrong when things didn't go as we expected.
I had no problem doing the post mortem and in fact think that is a good idea to hopefully minimize future mistakes. But my CEO approached it from the standpoint of "How could you not have known that?", seeming to forget that we all signed off on the plan before we took action.
I feel your pain Marketing Guy.