• by Pat LaPointe , Op-Ed Contributor, June 20, 2008

A client shared with me a copy of a solicitation email they got from an otherwise reputable marketing measurement company with a proprietary methodology for linking the value of marketing communications to shareholder value. The email reads:

Dear John -

It is at this time every year that we're asked by dozens of companies to help them justify their marketing budgets. We've been presenting our ROI measures to CEOs and CFOs for 18 years. Our work is time-tested and based on sound financial principles. It is our goal to make your CFO the biggest advocate in the company!

If you've been looking for practical, easy-to-use measures to prove the value and ROI of your efforts, [XYZ company] can help. Our metrics are quick, easy to report, easy to understand and relatively inexpensive. They will demonstrate the significance of your communications campaigns in financial terms that will generate the support of your senior management.

We are constantly evolving our metrics to meet the changing needs of businesses and market movement. Give me a call or send me an email to get a quick update on our latest measures.

Best regards,

[Name Withheld], CEO, XYZ Company

If this really appeals to the people making key decisions on marketing measurement and metrics, our marketing industry is toast.

First, we might notice the use of the words "justify" and "prove." Once "justification" becomes the goal, objectivity and credibility fly out the window. Then stalemate persists.

Second, it offers "quick, inexpensive, easy-to-use measures." I'm only surprised that it doesn't come with a suite of finely spun invisible new clothes. There are no easy-to-use solutions to measuring the value of marketing investments. The credible and financially sound approaches have all been shown to take some considerable effort and focus to properly apply and use as a stakeholder within the company.

Finally, it's good to know that the metrics are "constantly evolving." That way, we marketers can never really be held to any standard. We just change the rules of the game to suit the story.

This pitch clearly does a disservice to the entire marketing discipline. By failing to set anything close to realistic expectations, we encourage companies to become distracted by the promise of "measurement in a box," and possibly waste their constrained resources chasing an "easy" measurement fantasy instead of working methodically to build the knowledge, skills, and processes to figure out what's most meaningful and insightful to them. When you see words like "prove," "justify," "easy," and "inexpensive" used in regard to marketing measurement, run away. If any of those things were true, we wouldn't still be talking about it today.

When it comes to measurement and selecting the right metrics, caveat emptor. It's far too easy to reach for the panacea and open Pandora's box instead.