Importance of evidence based marketing

The application of ‘Marketing Finance Analysis’ will empower marketers with a robust marketing accountability analysis leading to Evidence Based Marketing Strategy - what is known as ‘Investment Planning’, said Director, Brandscience UK and Q&E Advertising, Sam Dias at the last CIM Talking Point program on ‘How to Measure Your Marketing ROI’, at the Galadari Hotel recently.

The program was organised by The Chartered Institute of Marketing Sri Lanka Region in collaboration with The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and Q & E Advertising, sponsored by HSBC.

Dias said it is not only the growing influence by Finance and Procurement Departments that has urged marketeers to be accountable but also the need for robust evidence to develop and substantiate strategic business plans and the effects of marketing campaigns. The development of econometric tools has enabled marketeers to deploy scarce resource in an optimal manner.

Talking of the evolution of the “Marketing Finance” function, he said that the divorce of marketing and finance orientations has created a demand for professionals with marketing and finance expertise.

Paraphrasing the famous statement, “Half of my advertising spend is wasted and I don’t know which half,” Dias said with the development of several useful econometric models facilitating analysis and information based decision making, this statement is now being largely invalidated.

Taking the participants through several examples, he outlined some useful econometrics models which have enabled marketeers to ‘isolate’ and ‘quantify’ the behaviour of different marketing variables at different investment levels, thereby choosing the right marketing/communication mix at a given level of investment, he said.

The availability of data on key performance indicators at regular intervals and the management appetite for analysis and data driven marketing are prerequisites for econometric modelling in addition to technical expertise.