Marketing effectiveness not a defined role in half of brands

Marketing effectiveness is undoubtedly rising up the corporate agenda, as evidenced by Marketing Week’s exclusive Language of Effectiveness Survey.

More than half (61.2%) of the 1,610 brand-side marketers surveyed say marketing effectiveness measurement has become a more prominent factor in marketing/business decisions over the past three years.

If that is the case, brands should be giving some serious thought to how marketing effectiveness is resourced within their businesses.

Yet 18.6% of marketers strongly agree with the following statement about their company: ‘Marketing effectiveness is not a defined role and rarely a priority. It may be performed on an ad-hoc basis with limited accountability of results.’ A further 32.4% of marketers surveyed slightly agree with the statement, taking the total in agreement to 51% of respondents.

Furthermore, when asked if marketing effectiveness is a well-defined function within their business, with a clear structure, detailed processes and chain of accountabilities in place, just 15.6% of marketers strongly agreed with the statement. By contrast, 17.7% of the 1,610 respondents strongly disagreed with the statement.

Less than a third of CEOs see effectiveness analysis

Just over a quarter of marketers (27%) say oversight of marketing effectiveness is one of many responsibilities carried out by an individual within the marketing/insights function. Within 25.9% of brands, analysis of marketing effectiveness is one of several responsibilities carried out by a small team within the wider structure of the marketing/insights function.

Crucially, more than a fifth of respondents (21.3%) say there are no employees within the organisation with the dedicated responsibility for carrying out marketing effectiveness.

Only 11.2% of the marketers surveyed say there is a dedicated marketing effectiveness team within their organisation with a clearly defined structure and accountability, while just 10.3% report having a dedicated marketing effectiveness position within the business.

The Language of Effectiveness data clearly shows interest in marketing effectiveness is surging, and it only looks set to grow as the inflation crisis sets in and the reality of recession looms.

Given the statistics have already revealed the extent to which CEOs and CFOs take an interest in metrics like return on investment and new customer acquisition, brands risk failing to make a robust business case for marketing by not having the necessary resources in place. The fact more than a fifth of companies have no employees with a dedicated responsibility for marketing effectiveness could be seen as a cause for concern.

Even more worrying, more than half of marketers work for brands where marketing effectiveness is not a defined role and rarely a priority. The data clearly suggests many companies are not as far along the journey towards achieving a culture of effectiveness as they may have hoped.

Marketing Week will be continuing its focus on the Language of Effectiveness data with a deep dive into the resourcing issues and a feature analysing how success is communicated with the wider business. 

To read our Language of Effectiveness content so far, click here