10 Ways to Rate Your Firm's Marketing Assessment System
by Tim Ambler
Adapted from"Marketing and the Bottom Line, Second Edition", FT-Prentice Hall.

In the research I've done over the years, I find that most companies do not have a clear picture of their own marketing performance which may be why they cannot assess it.

They prefer to fumble around in the dark.

It's easy to see why: fumbling has a lot going for it. More adventure, more creativity, more surprises and more fantasies are all possible.

But you may not like what you see when the lights do go on.

Clarity of goals and metrics is what separates the professional firm from the amateur. Professional marketers quantify results against intentions to keep raising the bar. Professional athletes do the same.

So how do you evaluate your firms metrics system? How do you know if your marketing assessment system is good enough?

Here are ten questions to ask yourself. Check the most appropriate answer for your company, then score and rate your company to find out where you stand.

The 10 Questions

1. Does the senior executive team regularly and formally assess marketing performance?
(a) Yearly
(b) Six-monthly
(c) Quarterly
(d) More often
(e) Rarely
(f) Never

2. What does the senior executive team understand by 'customer value'?
(a) Don't know. We are not clear about this
(b) Value of the customer to the business (as in 'customer lifetime value')
(c) Value of what the company provides for the customers' point of view
(d) Sometimes one, sometimes the other

3. How much time does the senior executive team give to marketing issues?
.............%

4. Does the business/marketing plan show the non-financial corporate goals and link them to market goals?
(a) No/no plan
(b) Corporate no, market yes
(c) Yes to both

5. Does the plan show the comparison of your marketing performance with competitors or the market as a whole?
(a) No/no plan
(b) Yes, clearly
(c) In between

6. What is your main marketing asset called?
(a) Brand equity
(b) Reputation
(c) Other term
(d) We have no term

7. Does the senior executive team's performance review involve a quantified view of the main marketing asset and how it has changed?
(a) Yes to both
(b) Yes but only financially (brand valuation)
(c) Not really

8. Has the senior executive team quantified what 'success' would look like five or ten years form now?
(a) No
(b) Yes
(c) Don't know

9. Does your strategy have quantified milestones to indicate progress towards that sucess?
(a) No
(b) Yes
(c) What strategy?

10. Are the marketing performance indicators seen by the senior executive team aligned with these milestones?
(a) No
(b) Yes, external (customers and competitors)
(c) Yes, internal, (employees and innovativeness)
(d) Yes, both

Scoring

Score yourself according to the scale below.

- If your total is greater than 90 percent, perhaps you'd care to write an article or two for this site.

- If your total is 70-90 percent, congratulate yourself and keep at it.

- More than 50 percent is good.

- Less than 30 percent means what you think it means.

1. Does the senior executive team regularly and formally assess marketing performance?
(a) Yearly - 10
(b) Six-monthly - 10
(c) Quarterly - 5
(d) More often - 0
(e) Rarely - 0
(f) Never - 0

2. What does the senior executive team understand by 'customer value'?
(a) Don't know. We are not clear about this - 0
(b) Value of the customer to the business (as in 'customer lifetime value') - 5
(c) Value of what the company provides for the customers' point of view - 10
(d) Sometimes one, sometimes the other - 10

3. How much time does the senior executive team give to marketing issues?
.............% >30% = 10; 20-30% = 6; 10-20% = 4; < 10% = 0

4. Does the business/marketing plan show the non-financial corporate goals and link them to market goals?
(a) No/no plan - 0
(b) Corporate no, market yes - 5
(c) Yes to both - 10

5. Does the plan show the comparison of your marketing performance with competitors or the market as a whole?
(a) No/no plan - 0
(b) Yes, clearly - 10
(c) In between - 5

6. What is your main marketing asset called?
(a) Brand equity - 10
(b) Reputation - 10
(c) Other term - 5
(d) We have no term - 0

7. Does the senior executive team's performance review involve a quantified view of the main marketing asset and how it has changed?
(a) Yes to both - 10
(b) Yes but only financially (brand valuation) - 5
(c) Not really - 0

8. Has the senior executive team quantified what 'success' would look like five or ten years form now?
(a) No - 0
(b) Yes - 10
(c) Don't know - 0

9. Does your strategy have quantified milestones to indicate progress towards that sucess?
(a) No - 0
(b) Yes - 10
(c) What strategy? - 0

10. Are the marketing performance indicators seen by the senior executive team aligned with these milestones?
(a) No - 0
(b) Yes, external (customers and competitors) - 7
(c) Yes, internal, (employees and innovativeness) - 5
(d) Yes, both - 10

As author, educator and speaker, Tim Ambler shares the insights of over 30 years frontline experience in the business world and a successful academic career through his research at London Business School where he is a Senior Fellow. His areas of expertise include:
· brand equity
· measuring marketing performance (marketing metrics)
· how advertising works
· measuring the effectiveness of advertising
· international marketing
· doing business in Greater China

Ambler also serves on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Marketing.

Prior to his academic career, Ambler spent many years at IDV (International Distillers and Vintners) in the UK and held various senior marketing posts including Marketing Director, where he was responsible for significant brands such as Smirnoff Vodka and Bailey's Irish Cream. More recently he held overall international marketing responsibility for IDV and worked extensively in the USA, Canada, Africa and emerging markets.

Publications include: Marketing and the Bottom Line: Health Drives Wealth (FT/Prentice Hall, 2nd ed., 2003); Doing Business in China (with Morgen Witzel, Routledge, 2nd ed., 2003); The SILK Road to International Marketing (with Chris Styles, FT/Prentice Hall 2000); Marketing from Advertising to Zen (Financial Times Guide, FT/Pitman, 1996); and articles on advertising effectiveness.