Financial directors should take a hard line with marketing

"It's time that South African financial directors start taking a hard line with their marketing departments. The practice of passing marketing budgets not backed by sound strategy, with clearly defined, quantifiable objectives, is no longer acceptable in a corporate environment, where the emphasis is on transparency, accountability and good governance," Webster commented.

"Contrary to the theory that some marketers continue to espouse, it is entirely possible to quantify the returns on your marketing investment. Budgets should therefore be set and awarded in accordance with quantified objectives," he maintained.

Webster said was possible to quantify the success of all forms of marketing communication, whether advertising, promotions, sales or public relations. If one accepted as a definition of marketing that "marketing is about the continual satisfaction of customer needs at a profit", then those needs should be accurately determined, and perception measurement could achieve that.

According to Webster, accurate perception measurement can tell you what the exact needs/wants of your audience are and at what point these needs will be perceived to be satisfied, enabling marketers to accurately judge the required intensity and frequency with which their marketing messages should be communicated in order to be successful.

It can also tell you the weight of awareness that your company, product or service enjoys versus its competitors, as well as the audience's perceptions of your performance against your competitors'. Lastly, it identifies the perception deficiencies or gaps between how your audience perceives your performance as opposed to how you would like to be perceived.

A marketing communications strategy that uses quantified perceptions as its starting point will have clearly defined objectives founded upon fact rather than guesswork. Critically, at the heart of this strategy will be messages based on what the audience needs to hear in order to believe your product can satisfy their needs. Lastly, it will be entirely possible to quantify the returns on your marketing investment because, by using your initial perception measurement as a benchmark, you can quantify the shifts in perceptions and/or increases in awareness achieved as a result of the marketing effort.

"In most companies the financial department is mandated with the task of ensuring good governance, and is responsible for driving standards and compliance throughout the entire organisation," said Webster. "Why is it though, that the accountants continue to exempt marketing departments from the accountability that is at the heart of good governance? There is no need to make such exceptions - the marketing department is quite capable of demonstrating the return on the company's financial investment in marketing. All that is needed is for financial directors to start insisting on it."

Objectivity has 25% BEE shareholding and was a finalist in South Africa's innovation and sustainability awards for its model of perception management and methodology.