Marketing must grasp new technology to overcome credibility gap
Aprimo to unveil new report at TFM 2007
Wokingham, UK – 21 December, 2006: While the emergence of next generation interactive marketing channels and technology is driving real marketing innovation today, marketing’s credibility within the boardroom is being damaged because of difficulties in demonstrating its true value according to a new report to be unveiled at Technology for Marketing (TFM) 2007, 6-7 February, 2007.
The new report, ‘The Marketing Credibility Gap’, which is based on a survey of over 100 marketers conducted by Aprimo, the global leader in Enterprise Marketing Management (EMM) technology, reveals that 59 per cent feel marketing is perceived as average or poor within their organisations. And the number one challenge they pointed to was the issue of measurement and reporting which stops them demonstrating the value they are delivering to the board. The report incorporates advice and case studies on how marketers can use EMM to become more accountable and help raise their profile in the boardroom.
“This is a really exciting time for marketing, with the emergence of leading edge marketing techniques and tools, the social networking revolution, sophisticated customer analysis tools as well as process automation technology to help streamline the marketing activity. But the rest of the business is failing recognising the wide ranging impact that marketing is having in areas such as driving sales, creating brand value and retaining customers. Perception can sometimes be all powerful and marketers must get to grips with this issue,” said Andrew Yates, EMEA Managing Director of Aprimo, which is the sole event sponsor at TFM 2007.
“Our report illustrates how some marketers are addressing these challenges by embracing the latest tools in the form of Enterprise Marketing Management systems. These provide a holistic platform, streamlining activities, improving efficiency and supporting measurement and reporting by linking every aspect of marketing from planning and forecasting, production management and workflow, campaign management to supplier management and customer databases.”
To aid measurement and reporting, EMM can provide the marketing director with a single location from which he or she can perform an online search to track all forecasted, committed and actual spend from all marketing activities. It can identify how funds are allocated, which funds are already committed, as well as tracking spend by supplier and reconciling estimates with invoices.
In tandem with its report, Aprimo will host an educational keynote, The Marketing Credibility Gap, in the CRM Theatre at 2pm on the first day of the event. Presented by Andrew Yates, managing director, EMEA, at Aprimo, and Rob Moss, Dealer Marketing Manager, Honda UK, the keynote will examine the challenges faced by modern marketers such as the need to justify their activities and strategies. The session will include a case study from Honda, illustrating how they have optimised the use of internal/external marketing resources to improve marketing effectiveness within a measurable framework.
“Aprimo has given Honda a unique marketing advantage – transparency to the board,” said Robert Moss, Honda’s UK Dealer Marketing Manager. “Historically, Honda’s network of 200 dealers executed individual marketing campaigns totally separate from the company’s core programme, risking brand dilution and confusion. Today, dealers are able to use the Aprimo portal to mirror the national campaign in their marketing, driving consistent messaging at a regional level and enhancing overall brand recall.”
“Since implementing the Aprimo system, we’ve seen a marked increase in brand consistency, particularly on a local level. As the brand moves in a premium direction we now have a key business tool which will allow us to deliver that locally. Since the Q4 campaign went live 242 consistent assets have been utilised.” added Moss.
Aprimo, which was named as a “Visionary” in IT industry analyst, Gartner’s first-ever Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Marketing Management, will have a stand on the show floor (B46) in addition to being the overall event sponsors.
Technology for Marketing (TFM) is the ’s no.1 event dedicated to showcasing the cutting-edge of both marketing-related & CRM technology, including interactive advertising solutions. The event takes place on the 6-7 February 2007 at London, Olympia .
Filed under: Aprimo
