Marketing amid Turmoil

Faced with security turmoil, marketing in Lebanon has always been a question of controversy. As I tried to enter the marketing field in this part of the globe, the Middle East, I realized that very few research had been targeted on marketing under hostile conditions. Thus, I took the subject at heart.

First aiming to investigate the "accountability" in marketing; I seeked to read more on marketing measures. Finding it a very subjective case; I thought a practical case might be more interesting... I mean, for learning purposes!

Therefore, after specializing in a master of science in marketing, I decided my dissertation topic will be on the impact of security turmoil on marketing response. My work was to be based on a case study approach based on the Lebanese market.

Throughout my research I noticed the capacity of the Lebanese economy to stand and improve amid the recent global economic turmoil; noting a certain parallelism between security and economic turmoil. There was no question, Lebanon managed to stand undefied because of the precautions it used to face eminent risks. Could this parallelism apply on marketing response?

I'd say yes... *to be continued*

MIT Arab Business Plan Marketing Campaign

The MIT Arab Business Plan campaign was a broad regionally-spread marketing effort to incite people to participate in an entrepreneurial competition. Thus the marketing message was action-oriented: register online. The participation is free of charge, thus it eliminates the pricing factor on the measuring of campaign effectiveness.

Yet, I was shocked to realize there was only 1,241 completed applications, better yet, of which only 266 qualified for grading? OK, so if you do not live in the Middle East, I understand that you are bedazzled at my surprise. However, you must understand that this campaign ran on a top national TV for months, was featured in newspapers, it was even paralleled with a television program and was supported by direct mailing and facebook targeted advertising.

Bad marketing?...

Measuring Your Marketing Efforts

I have been reading about economics in relation to marketing. In general, the marketing effectiveness is measured as a relation between the marketing budget invested and the sales returns. The formula is simple MR=MC.

Sounds logical? Maybe, but it isn't quite so.

Marketing efficiency depends on the marketing campaign's success. A marketing budget is only relative to the marketing costs (graphic designer, medium, marketing research... etc) which in their turn change under different settings. Meaning? The same marketing budget can be translated in campaigns of different sizes, depending on the market costs. Thus, a marketing budget is irrelevant in the calculation of marketing efficiency.

Moreover, sales in $ is not representative of the response to the marketing efforts. The same amount, let's suppose $3,000 of total sales, can be a sale of 3 products of a value of $1,000 each or 300 goods costing $30 each. Moreover, the profit margin on the products can be different; thus looking at the sales profit makes things even more complicated.

The real criteria that one needs to look into are frequency and reach of the campaign...