Making accountable marketing decisions to improve the efficiency of spending. A short book review of Michael Dunn’s new book co-authored with Chris Halsall.

Review written by Michael Leander

I had the pleasure of meeting Prophet’s CEO Michael Dunn when we both spoke at the CMO Conference in Zürich in 2008. Interestingly his publiscist send me his new book some months ago asking me to review it.

I regret that I didn’t read it sooner. I’ve been a proponent for marketing accountability and/or measuring the Return on Marketing Investment for years. Speaking about ROMI, talking to CMO’s about accountability makes not for an easy conversation. In fact, most CMO’s have given up before they even consider diving their noses into the whole accountability, ROMI arena.

So I was positively surprised after reading Michael Dunn’s book.  In this article you will find a few of my comments on this highly recommendable book. It is indeed a book all Chief Marketing Officer’s should buy. At the bottom of the page, you will find a short video showing a tiny fraction of Michael’s speech in Zürich.

Background
In The Marketing Accountability Imperative, Prophet CEO Michael Dunn teams up with marketing effectiveness expert Chris Halsall to help marketing managers and CMOs make better marketing spending decisions and better evaluate the success or failure of these decisions.

They show how to sort through the clutter of metrics, measurement, and analytic options, and provide the practical information needed to help establish the marketing accountability imperative–highlighting the critical need for more effective stewardship of marketing spending.

From the inside flap
Today’s thorny marketing environment is characterized by media choice proliferation, audience fragmentation, marketing stagflation, and a daunting measurability divide. All of which has only exacerbated the age-old question-which, if any, of our marketing investments are contributing to long-term profitable growth?

The Marketing Accountability Imperative offers a hands-on guide for CEOs, CFOs, and marketing executives who must grapple with these complexities. This groundbreaking marketing book establishes the imperative for effective stewardship of marketing spending and the significant prize that awaits marketers and firms who pursue greater accountability.

The book identifies critical factors that define a program of effective marketing accountability and shows how to sort through the clutter of metrics, measurement, and analytic options. As the authors explain, recent technology and analytic advances have made it more practical to use a combination of historical modeling and go-forward experimentation to build an effective set of measurements that capture both the short-term sales response and the medium-term brand equity impact of any given investment.

But whereas most discussions have stopped at the issue of measurement, the authors push on to focus on the ultimate prize-how to apply the insights from more holistic measurement systems to drive better continuous decision making and improved in-market performance across the marketing value chain. They highlight how decisions made at each critical value lever-from strategy and content to marketing vehicles and investment levels-either enable or impede efficient and effective marketing deployment. They describe the virtuous cycle that results from the situation where insightful analytics drives great strategy that informs inspired creative development and efficient in-market execution.

Step by step, the authors offer practical guidance on how to move your organization through the three horizons of marketing accountability improvement. In addition, the book includes a wealth of charts, frameworks, and data that will help you diagnose and plan a long-term marketing accountability program.

Written for marketers and nonmarketers alike, The Marketing Accountability Imperative is filled with the tools needed to build a sustainable marketing accountability program-right now!

Michael Leander’s opinion in summary
It took me a while to finish Michael Dunn’s book. But I am glad I did. It consists of over 400 pages of well written background and advice into the area of marketing accountability. In fact, it is more of a guide book or DIY - Do It Yourself - Guide to marketing accountability than anything else. Michael and his co-author Chris Halsall have managed to make marketing accountability accessible to even novice Chief Marketing Officer’s. The topic is indeed a difficult one in most corporations - and so far most books covering this topic haven’t exactly been encouraging to CMO’s. But this book delivers it’s message in a way that even the most unexperienced marketers can comprehend.

I especially liked the concrete actionable advice on how to get started down the road of marketing accountability. In chapter eight, for instance, the book provides tangible insight on how to determine your company’s current state of play, designing the diagnostics that makes sense and distilling your findings into a compelling three year road map.

You want to buy this book to learn more about marketing accountability and how to measure the return on your marketing investments (ROMI). It provides lots of examples, realistic recommendations and overall is a fine book for anyone whom are interested in learning more about marketing accountability.

Here is the video I promised showing Michael Dunn speaking at the CMO Conference in Zürich (quality is poor, I know - it was shot with my digital camera)