Much of marketing today is tactical. We build stuff we can measure to see if it impacts sales. Without measurement, how do marketers know they are any good? Measurement is the holy grail of marketing. ROI baby ROI!
When measurement isn’t going well – read, sales are flat/down/slowing – senior marketers often default to the brand value of the effort. “Well, we may not have sold as many products as we had hoped, but consumers like us more or engaged more.” The advertising industry thrived for years using this thinking.
Here’s the problem. Tactics, ungoverned by brand strategy are just random hits. To use a baseball metaphor, they are not wins. Even runs aren’t wins. I coined the term tactics-palooza a number of years ago, when Google and the web were milking ad budgets for dollars. Tactics not strategy. Follow the clicks. Better yet, follow click-to-buy.
Well, its still true. Tactics and so-called performance marketing are the realm of the day. I’m all for measurement but measurement against a brand strategy is the way to role. With an overlay of sales. On-brand tactical sales are how you build a brand. And loyalty. And sustaining businesses.
Marilyn Laurie, a great FCB strategist of yore used to say “Make deposits in the brand bank.” Not the tactical measurement bank.
Peace.