Ways to evaluate your marketing program

Nation's Restaurant News, March 23, 1998 by John R. Graham

When it comes to a company's marketing program, few executives know what to expect. "How can we evaluate our marketing program? How will our investment translate into increased sales?" Although the questions seem to hit the target, they actually miss the mark when it comes to marketing.

Marketing is not a method for increasing sales or even making sales. The primary goal of marketing is to create customers, either other business or consumers who decide that it's in their best interest to buy from you. In other words, the goal of marketing is to set the stage for making the sale.

To expand that concept further, the mission of marketing is to establish an environment in which the customer appreciates the benefits of doing business with your firm, and your company discovers how it can contribute to the customer's success.

As strange as it may seem, marketing has nothing to do with selling. Instead, it has everything to do with creating the circumstances that make the sale the next logical, appropriate step. Marketing helps to establish a climate in which the sales staff can excel in its efforts.

Within that context, what should a company expect from its marketing efforts? Here are eight tangible ways to evaluate a marketing program.

(1) The successful marketing program differentiates a company from the competition. One of the most serious criticisms that can be leveled against a business is to suggest that it looks like every company in the same industry and has no unique identity.

Stop for a moment and think like a customer. If there's no reason for selecting one supplier over another, then the lowers price becomes the reason behind a buying decision.

Far too often, companies literally steal from each other when it comes to their marketing. Their messages all sound alike, and their brochures all look alike. They use the same photos, the same words and usually even the same cover designs. In addition, they create cookie-cutter ads and clone their promotional programs from those of their competitors.

In order to get the customer's attention, your company must set itself apart from the competition. Being a "look-alike" places a company at a competitive disadvantage.

(2) An effective marketing program creates a flow of new business leads.

Management is often eager to measure the impact marketing is having on company sales. Even though that approach may seem appropriate, a much more accurate test is to evaluate the flow of leads, both currently and over an extended period of time.

Although it may seem elementary or obvious, it's necessary to remember that leads precede sales. If a sales force is busy following up on qualified leads, sales naturally will increase.

On the other hand, if the company's salespeople must spend their time trying to get through doors and locate prospects, then their time will be used prospecting and not making sales. So it isn't simplistic to suggest that the key to sales is leads. And it's leads that are the concern of marketing.

(3) An effective marketing program keeps the company in the minds of customers and prospects. It's easy to forget how the decision-making process operates at each level of every business. It goes something like this: When a need arises, whoever comes to mind first gets the order. While there are exceptions, salespeople know the role luck plays in their success.

Of course, we want to believe that our customers always think of us when they need what we sell, but if the truth were known, they're buying items or services we sell from our competitors. They fail to think of us when a buying decision is made.

A primary component in marketing is to make a serious effort to stay in the customer's mind at all times. Creating marketing activities and programs that raise your visibility and reinforce awareness is an essential element of good marketing.

(4) An effective marketing program will give the company a strong hold on the marketplace. There are several ways to express that idea of market position; being perceived as the acknowledged leader in the field is an essential requirement for attracting customers today. In order to be accurately perceived by customers and prospects, careful and thorough effort is required to plan, shape and continually foster a consistent image.

Too many firms hold the view that "doing a good job" is all that's necessary to get and keep business. If that were true, then why are so many shoddy, second-class suppliers still getting orders and taking business away from companies that can do better, more reliable work?

(5) An effective marketing program will communicate a company's expertise and knowledge. "Here's what we can do for you." The words are heard every day of the week, and almost without exception what follows is the price. Unfortunately, that approach reduces doing business to trying to balance yourself while sitting on a one-legged stool. When that one leg is price, it's easy to fall off! If all that's going for you is a sharp pencil, there are serious problems ahead.