Articles on Marketing Accountability/MROI:

Give the CMO More Authority [PDF]
By Roland Bernhard

In this interview published in M&K, the leading Swiss marketing communications journal, Roland Bernhard addresses some of the most challenging topics marketers face today. Roland talks about customer experience, innovation and marketing accountability and explains how commanding these topics help marketers gain a competitive advantage, even in difficult times. (Marketing & Kommunikation, October 2009)

Ad Trends Signal Shift To Media Quality
By Fred Geyer

Recent advertising spending data has lessons that should make large and small advertisers distinctly uncomfortable, and beg the question: Do they understand their spending well enough to ensure they've shifted to the best vehicles for their business? (Marketing Daily, October 8, 2009)

Shifting to a Customer-centric Focus [PDF]
By Scott Davis

Successful companies get it: they report to the customer. But how do you effect a shift away from an out-dated operational focus to one that truly puts the customer front and center? Scott Davis explains that it doesn’t require a re-organization so much as a mind-set shift (plus visionary leadership). (Moving Ahead (American Management Association), October 2009)

Why Marketing Does a Terrible Job of Marketing Itself
By Scott Davis

Scott Davis blogs about concepts from his latest book, The Shift, and discusses the shifts marketers must undergo to become Visionary Marketers. (Bullish On Books (CNBC), October 6, 2009)

Pressure Makes Diamonds - Driving & Measuring Marketing Impact
By Michael Dunn

The pressure on marketers increases in a downturn. Michael Dunn provides insights on what needs to be done to drive superior marketing investments. Doing analytical homework before starting a marketing campaign, talking the same internal language, and understanding relevant customer segments, are a few. It sounds like basic marketing, but is still a struggle for many marketers. *Please note this article is in German. (Handelszeitung, September 9, 2009)

Are Sponsorships the Black Hole in Your Marketing Mix? [PDF]
By Chiaki Nishino and Fred Geyer

This article outlines how marketers can escape the “black hole” of sponsorships and achieve immediate and sustainable results by combining impact analysis with a well-structured, strategic approach to sponsorship selection and management. (September 2009)

A Memo to the CEO: Marketing Matters
By Michael Dunn

Michael Dunn recently spoke to Consulting about The Marketing Accountability Imperative. This interview reviews the book's tools, metrics, and anecdotes designed to help marketers navigate through this new landscape by proving ROI and communicating their mission and results more effectively with the executives in the corner offices.  (Consulting, June 2, 2009)

Making Marketing Smarter Amidst the Cuts
By Michael Dunn

Michael Dunn blogs about concepts from his latest book, "The Marketing Accountability Imperative," and discusses five tough questions in guiding how best to reduce and reallocate budgets. (Jossey-Bass on Leadership, March 23, 2009)

Achieving Accountable Marketing: Six Critical Value Levers Must Be Pulled
By Michael Dunn

Accountable marketing performance is an achievable goal. By focusing on, and unlocking the power of the six critical value levers, the marketing organization will prove out its value to the business as a whole as the creative yet rational source of future growth. (Brandchannel, April 13, 2009)

Making Marketing Smarter Amidst the Cuts [PDF]
By Chiaki Nishino and Fred Geyer

The troubled economy is forcing corporate leaders to re-evaluate their spending plans across the board and marketing is not exempt. In fact, marketing is often first in line for cuts as corporate leaders attempt to identify immediate cost reductions that may take longer to achieve in other areas. (December 2008)

Tools for Profit [PDF]
By Michael Dunn and Roland Bernhard

This article outlines how CMOs can make better marketing spend decisions and evaluate the success or failure of their decisions. They argue that marketing effectiveness can be improved by following six key levers. *Please note, this article is in German. (Absatzwirtschaft, November 2008)

Why our Automakers are Eating Competitors' Dust [PDF]
By Andrew Pierce

The U.S. automotive industry presents yet another cautionary tale of how myopic thinking can decimate, if not destroy, brand equity and financial performance, leaving an iconic sector of American business choking in competitors’ dust. (Marketing News, October 1, 2008)

Tough Times Increase Pressure To Meet the Marketing Effectiveness Imperative [PDF]
By Chiaki Nishino and Jay Milliken

Jay Milliken and Chiaki Nishino expose the notion of marketing effectiveness in times of recession, placing particular emphasis on Test and Learn.

Marketing Effectiveness in a Recession [PDF]
By Joseph Gelman

Joseph Gelman exposes the notion of Marketing Effectiveness in times of recession, placing particular emphasis on Test and Learn. *Please note, this article is in Spanish. (La Gaceta de los Negocios, July 18, 2008)

Test and Learn: Prove Relevance [PDF]
By Andrew Pierce

This article discusses the test-and-learn approach to marketing investment and how it helps build marketing credibility while providing a platform for continuous optimization of the overall marketing mix. (Marketing News, 12/15/2007)

The CMO Challenge: Exiting the Comfort Zone [PDF]
By Michael Dunn

In this article, Michael Dunn argues that in order to be effective, marketers need to up their game, take on the new media, and be prepared to be adventurous, extending their influence over many of the critical business growth drivers. (Argent, September 2007)

Don't Be Afraid to Plunge Into Emerging Media [PDF]
By Scott Davis

Color today’s marketers dazed and confused. It’s an understandable reaction to an environment that has become almost impossibly complex, making it difficult for them to figure out where to start (or much less how to go about) meeting management’s escalating demands for demonstrable returns. (AdAge, July 23, 2007)

The Seven Surmountable Hurdles to Marketing Effectiveness [PDF]
By Andrew Pierce

One of the most pressing challenges marketers face today is finding the balance between the art and science of marketing to create strategies and programs that meet measurable business objectives. It’s called marketing effectiveness, and achieving it is doable – once some surmountable barriers are overcome. (MarketingProfs, April 17, 2007)

Making Good on Marketing's Promise [PDF]
By Scott Davis

Despite marketing's lingering reputation in some senior management circles as the function that is more interested in spending money than bringing it in, top-level marketers increasingly understand they share the same mandate as their peers in the executive suite: To help drive profitable business growth. (Microsoft Executive Circle, March 2006)

On Track [PDF]
By Prophet

Senior management is placing increased pressure on marketers to justify their budgets, and is continually looking for the bottom-line benefit of brand-building investments. At the same time, current tracking tools offer limited value. By delving into the next generation of brand tracking, marketers can improve both business performance and ease senior management's concerns. (Marketing Management, Sept/Oct 2005)

Marketing Investment Planning - B2B Catches Up [PDF]
By Prophet

From financial services to pharma to energy, B2B companies are embracing marketing. With intense competitive pressures, they have to identify sources of profitable growth, promise a better solution to customers, and ensure efficient and effective delivery on that promise. (Market Leader, Spring 2005)

Achieving Marketing ROI in Our Lifetime [PDF]
By Prophet

A point of view on the importance of understanding what drives the financial aspects of a business in order to measure marketing ROI. (2005 Handbook of Business Strategy, October 2004)

Make Your Mark [PDF]
By Jeff Smith

Given the ever increasing scrutiny of marketing spending, this article discusses various approaches for measuring effectiveness of sponsorships. (The Marketer, October 2004)

Struggling To Find a Voice [PDF]
By Prophet

A discussion of the key observations form a survey of Financial Services Forum members on value and its role in marketing strategy. (Argent, August 2004)

Brand Metrics: Gauging and Linking Brand with Business Performance [PDF]
By Prophet

A discussion of the essential components of a brand metrics program, how it can and should be linked to business performance, and how one technology company used brand metrics to help it adjust its brand and business strategy. (Brand Management, May 2004)

Brand Metrics: Good, Bad and Don't Bother [PDF]
By Scott Davis

A perspective on the importance of linking metrics to overall business performance. (Strategy, January 2004)

What is not Measured is Not Managed: Tracking the Success of Your Brand Investment [PDF]
By Prophet

An overview of how it use metrics to measure the effectiveness of brand investments and to guide decision-making in the hotel industry. (National Hotel Executive, May 2003)

Brand Metrics Strengthen Business Health [PDF]
By Prophet

A summary of the role of brand metrics and the importance of linking brand and business strategies to select the most appropriate metrics for the your business. (Marketing News, March 2003)

Brand Metrics: Your Key to Measuring Return on Brand Investment
By Jeff Smith

this article provides practical advice on how to measure and track one of a company's most valuable assets-its brand. (MarketingProfs, January 2001)