‘Marketers failing to convert activity into increased sales’
The vast majority of marketers failed to convert investment in marketing into quantifiable results such as increased sales or market share gains in 2013, according to a report.
Fournaise Marketing Group, a marketing effectiveness consultancy, says 79 per cent of marketers failed to prove their marketing spend delivered the commercial uplift their management demanded in 2013.
Fournaise claimed too many marketers were distracted by what they believed were the buzz “game changers” such as marketing automation, omnichannel executions and big data management and not enough time on marketing basics such as tracking effectiveness.
The majority of marketers (71 per cent) are also spending too much time focusing time and energy understanding new digital media platforms such as mobile, social and digital.
Jerome Fontaine, global CEO and chief tracker of Fournaise, says: “One of the diseases in the marketing industry is that marketers too often forget new media, marketing automation, omnichannel, big data and the likes are only tools used to best deliver, analyse and/or optimise the message. Those marketers who made the tools the core of their strategies got it wrong in 2013. In the tyre industry they say that power is nothing without control.
“In the marketing industry, form is nothing without the right content.”
The report was based on interviews with 1,200 CEOs, “management and marketing decision-makers” globally.
A 2012 report by Fournaise found the majority (70 per cent) of CEOs had lost trust in marketers’ ability to deliver growth after becoming frustrated by what they see as an inability to prove ROI on campaigns.
