• by adam.m , Michael Deibert , July 11, 2005

Nearly half of senior-level marketers are dissatisfied with their ability to establish a standard definition of return on investment (ROI) and to build consensus on how to measure and define the results of advertising and marketing efforts across their companies, according to new research from the Association of National Advertisers, MMA and Forrester Research.

The survey of 141 senior marketing executives, which was conducted jointly by MMA, Forrester, and the ANA, found that 51 percent of marketers expressed dissatisfaction with their ability to quantify ROI. Although the study will not be made public until July 20, when it is presented at an ANA Marketing Accountability Forum in New York City, MediaDailyNews got a sneak peak at some of the key findings last week, including:

· While some 60 percent of senior-level marketers surveyed said that defining, measuring, and taking action on ROI is important, only about 20 percent reported being satisfied with their ability to do so.

· Only one in three marketers said they built marketing budgets based on knowledge of the spending required to meet corporate goals.

· Only 13 percent of senior marketers felt confident in their ability to forecast the sales impact of their marketing programs. Faced with a 10 percent budget cut, only two in five marketers felt they could predict the impact of sales.

"The industry recognizes it has a problem," said John Nardone, MMA's chief client officer. "Part of the difficulty is that while companies are expending a lot of effort on accountability, the work isn't organized from senior management on down and integrated within a company, but siloed within an individual department."

One of Nardone's colleagues concurred, and said that increased accountability and management could help alleviate some of the frustration the marketers feel.

"What it also indicates is measurement alone is not the silver bullet--marketing organizations need to establish a roadmap to address the people, process, technology, data, and measurement issues required to improve marketing accountability," said Douglas Brooks, director of product development, marketing and user experience at MMA.