Cambridge, MA September 26, 2002 Despite the sagging economy, many companies plan to invest in technology solutions to help them measure the effectiveness of their marketing efforts as a way of correlating their initiatives with business results, according to a joint study by technology consultancy Forrester Research and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA).
Nearly half of the firms surveyed in the Forrester/ANA study plan to spend more than $750,000 this year on marketing automation applications. The biggest spenders include companies in the technology, healthcare and travel industries. Marketers' focus on measurement is a notable departure from the traditional focus of marketing automation technologies on customer relationship management (CRM), Forrester said.
"Our survey of 113 ANA members revealed that marketers have their priorities in the right place," said Jim Nail, senior analyst at Forrester. "More data, processing power and analytical tools have emerged that allow marketers to monitor actual consumer behavior, not just attitudes. These tools also enable marketers to track effectiveness of media, promotion and advertising programs, and stick only to initiatives with proven results."
"In this competitive environment, marketers want to improve the efficiency of their advertising," said Barbara Bacci Mirque, senior vice president of the ANA. "Our survey revealed that more companies will increase spending on marketing technology than plan to increase their advertising budgets next year."
In its report "Mastering Marketing Measurement," Forrester suggested the following three guiding principles for creating an effective measurement platform: Identify key business, not communication, goals; re-engineer data acquisition and analysis practices; and model data and apply results to optimizing marketing performance and budget allocation.
