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Overemphasis on inquiries devalues B2B ad results

Guest post by: Neil Mahoney

Article Overview: 1. Inquiries are only the tip of the iceberg 2. Measuring only inquiries cause their value to degrade 3. Lower quality discourages Sales follow up

Overemphasis on inquiries devalues B2B ad results

B2B advertising & promotion is like an iceberg. 90% of the mass is underwater so management doesn't see it and doesn't bother to measure it. The bottom part of the iceberg is called Brand Awareness & Preference, and it can be measured to a large degree.

It's called "Goodwill" and it's right on the balance sheet staring everyone in the face.

Brand Awareness & Preference and Goodwill are not synonymous, but the figure on the balance sheet is still a pretty good indicator.

Because the Brand's value doesn't stick out like a sore thumb everybody focuses on just the inquiries to measure the value of the company's MarComm investment. Because inquiries have been made the main measure of the value of the investment Ad Managers, Ad Agencies, Magazine Publishers -- everybody -- does everything they can to hype them -- legitimately and illegitimately.

As a consequence, the overall quality of the inquiries goes down. MarComm hands these degraded inquiries to Sales. Sales sees that a large percent are junk, so Sales doesn't do a thorough job of qualifying them.

Everybody loses because inquiries are both an incomplete and misleading measurement of MarComm effectiveness. Management can help correct this if they'll start looking at the whole iceberg -- and put more emphasis on the most-important part: Brand Awareness & Preference.

If the Goodwill figure on the balance sheet doesn't tell you what you want to know about the value of your Brand Awareness & Preference, conduct your own survey among your customers and prospects. Make sure the survey is unbiased and complete -- measure everything that impacts your company's reputation:

A. Your MarComm program

B. Your Sales Force & Customer Service operation

C . Your product quality and performance

D. Your Delivery, your reliability

E. Your after-sale service

F. Your reputation for Prompt Response to Needs & Requests

And for gosh sake: Stop calling it "Branding" as though you can buy it by the pound at your local supermarket. It's "Brand Awareness & Preference" that really sells your product -- and it's hard, never-ending work.

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Article Tags: amp, b2b advertising, balance sheet, brand awareness, consequence, customer service operation, goodwill, hype, inquiries, job, magazine publishers, marcomm, measurement, nbsp, preference, product quality, prospects, reliability, reputation, sore thumb



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