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...

No I'm Not Schizophrenic... But I NEED Help

Is being a marketeer about leadership or creativity?

Somewhere down the line between the businessman and the genius lies the successful marketeer. He is not the artist who hides from the world nor your average workaholic who disregards the external environment... But can a marketing professional get anywhere without an innovative flare and a dedication to his work?

Companies look for good communicators to put them in marketing positions. Are those people in the right place? This is the point where you need to draw the line between marketing and sales.

A marketeer should be able to conceptualize an idea without any tangible materials, understand how it fits within its market and position it in the right angle so as to guarantee interest and subsequently sales. Thus a marketeer should above all be a genius, a person who can think out of a box in a down-to-earth manner.

However, the requirements of today's organizational structures do not allow such people to prosper. Talent is not appreciated. Thus a marketeer should be a leader, one who not only believes in his ideas and is ready to fight for them, he should handle the pressure of responsibility in a risk averse and uncertain environment. He should be able to convince managers that he is comfortable with it. Even more, he should get the top of the pyramid to trust in HIS intuitions.

..But aren't these two personalities mutually exclusive?

We're asking for extremes of two different characters. Yes, extremes. Anyone who lies in the middle will not be able to get his ideas through. Thus I wonder, is any one marketeer complete?