CMO Council to Unveil New MPM Model and Guidelines for Marketing Performance Measurement at CMO
200 Technology Marketers Gather to Preview Task Force Findings and Report at MPM Symposium Hosted by Cognos, Unica, Google, Biz360, and WebTrends

MONTEREY, Calif. (Oct. 8, 2004) -- A new standardized model and framework for measuring the value and ROI of marketing at a strategic business level was unveiled at a special MPM Symposium on the final day of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council’s annual CMO Summit in Monterey, Calif. held on October 7 th and 8 th .

Key findings and recommendations in the 227-page report, which can be ordered online at www.cmocouncil.org, were presented to more than 200 technology marketers attending an intensive two-day strategic retreat for CMOs at the Monterey Plaza Hotel and Spa on Cannery Row.

Entitled “Measures + Metrics: Assessing Marketing Value + Impact,” the MPM Report follows more than 12 months of research by a special CMO Council Task Force and Advisory Committee representing technology leaders like Alcatel, Documentum, EDS, Juniper Networks, Monster.com, National Semiconductor, Oracle, Pitney Bowes, Qualcomm, SAP, Siebel, Tektronix, Wipro and Xerox. Underwriters of the CMO Council program include Biz360, Cognos, Google, Unica, and WebTrends.

The MPM initiative addresses the strategic imperative for technology marketers to better identify and quantify the business value of the marketing effort, continuously adjust and optimize marketing spend, as well as justify and secure marketing budgets. More than 1,000 marketing and C-level business executives were polled in the process of creating the MPM Model and Guidelines. Over 80 percent of companies surveyed expressed dissatisfaction with their ability to benchmark their marketing programs and less than 20 percent have developed any meaningful and comprehensive measures and metrics for their marketing organizations.

“With our 1,000 members controlling over $40 billion in annual marketing spend in the tech sector, accountability – not brand or eyeballs – is the new watchword in this performance and governance-driven business environment,” noted Donovan Neale-May, the executive director of the CMO Council. “Smart CMOs are investing in a new set of tools, processes and disciplines that will give senior management better insights into the effectiveness of marketing and its contributions to overall business value creation,” he added.

According to the report’s editor-in-chief, Bill Glazier, MPM is about a process, a culture and mindset, and a set of defined expectations and outcomes, many of which involve discrete measurements of marketplace activities. “MPM is a company-wide cross-functional process that marketing must drive and build consensus around,” notes Glazier, currently a Venture Partner at Redwood Ventures and previously VP of Marketing at PlaceWare.

Glazier and his team have established a model that is built around four key strategic imperatives considered essential areas of focus and value-creation, as well as fundamental to marketing’s role, purpose and credibility in an organization. These are correlated and measured against 10 foundation elements of marketing measurement, over 45 metrics and more than 150 possible measures that form the basis for selection and customization by any technology organization.

Key Strategic Imperatives of the MPM Model include:

• Business acquisition and demand generation

(Indicators include revenue growth, market share gains, bookings, pipeline size, lead acquisition and cost, conversion times and rates, deal flow and size, RFP incidence, campaign ROI, field and channel output -- by channel, geography, business unit, market, product, etc.)

• Product innovation and market acceptance

(Indicators include imprint on product roadmaps, value propositions, lifecycle value and profitability, understanding of needs and requirements, customer value building, market adoption rates, user attachment and affinity, satisfaction, loyalty, word-of-mouth, accolades/awards, etc.)

• Corporate image and brand identity

(Indicators include growth in brand value and financial equity, awareness and recognition, relevance and vitality, emotional and pragmatic appeal, competitive differentiation and preference, retention and alignment of employees, etc.)

• Corporate vision and leadership

(Indicators include level of trust and confidence, clarity of culture and values in the organization, share of voice and discussion, level of authority leadership, effectiveness in strategic agenda setting, retention and relevance of messaging, incidence, prominence and tonality of coverage, etc.)

Other key conclusions and research findings contained in the CMO Council’s Measures+Metrics Report highlight the fact that:

• MPM is at a very early stage of development in technology companies with just 17 percent having developed any formal, comprehensive MPM system.
• Companies who have invested in MPM achieve superior financial results, have higher CEO satisfaction with the marketing function, and enjoy a better understanding of the customer.
• Major challenges in developing MPM systems are finding reliable sources of data, tools to collect and analyze data, linking data to customer behavior, and developing trust in the metrics as indicators of marketing and business performance.
  

In addition to the MPM Research and MPM Model presentation, the report also includes a comprehensive MPM System Implementers Guide:

• Methodologies and a process map for building an MPM system
• Lessons, guidelines and experiences from early MPM adopters, including five case studies
• Perspectives and insights from innovative MPM solution and service providers
• Listings and profiles of the best MPM resources and references, including a Solution Provider Directory

About The CMO Council
The CMO Council is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior marketing and brand decision-makers in the global technology industry. Based in Silicon Valley, the Council works to further the stature, credibility, influence, and understanding of the strategic marketing function among business executives, opinion leaders and critical stakeholders in the technology sector. Nearly 1,000 technology companies are currently represented on the CMO Council, accounting for well over $500 billion in aggregated annual revenues. These include top decision-makers controlling more than $40 billion in global marketing expenditures for many of the world's foremost computer systems, software, networking, communications, consumer electronics, component, distribution, and consulting brands. For more information, please visit our web site at http://www.cmocouncil.org.