For any decision-maker working with a marketing insight platform, the returns are self-evident. Automation of marketing and insights workflows mean faster decisions, while easy access to insights, when those decisions are being made make them more effective because they are customer-centric. Insights ROI leads to an immediate business impact. Over the last few years, Market Logic Software has worked with lead customers to measure ROI on their investments in marketing insights platforms. That meant uncovering the numbers behind a whole range of efficiencies, from reducing the time spent on knowledge searches, to building a knowledge asset, and ensuring the same work isn’t done twice. But these stories, once quantified, often went unheard. When you know your insights platform can reduce duplication of research projects by 10-25%, how do you make sure those savings are directed to fresh insights instead of losing budget?
Times are changing. Widespread industry disruption, investor activism and the explosion of consumer data mean many executives today expect to see the business impact of their insights spend. Why? CMOs are under more pressure than ever to find direct ways to boost revenues, as well as shape the company’s brand. This new landscape raises new questions. How do insights support top-line growth with successful innovations and effective communications? One thing is for sure, insights have an impact:
Customer-centric companies growing revenue faster than their competitors use insights in 73% of decisions, while underperformers use insights in only 31% of decisions. (Kantar Vermeer, 2017)
In innovation, where new product success rates range from 10% and 20%, 80% of key success factors are related to insights such as market understanding, effective campaigns, and forecasting. (Greenbook, 2010)
In communications, where the average sales impact of a TV campaign ranges from 2% to 15%, insights-driven creative can lift sales impact to 36%. (Nielsen, 2017)
Insights are typically considered an internal investment, part of the “non-working spend,” rather than part of direct consumer engagement, or the “working spend.” At a recent meeting, Market Logic’s Customer Advisory Board agreed that every CMO is looking to split their marketing budget evenly between these two categories and gain insights ROI.At the same time, all of them plan to move toward a 90:10 ratio in favour of the working spend, to boost effectiveness and cut costs. Not only are CMOs under pressure to perform, they need to do more with less. “It’s time,” concluded the board, “to prove that insights drive growth.”
