The Pressure to Prove Marketing Performance Persists

There is a lot of pressure when you delve 100 miles or so below the Earth’s surface. The weight of the overlying rock combined with the high temperature, enables carbon atoms to bond and create diamonds. Some natural diamonds are as old as the Earth, having formed billions of years ago. These diamonds rise to the surface whenever volcanoes erupt. Only a few of the diamonds can survive the journey from the upper mantle to the surface, making them rare and valuable. Similarly, this is also true for Marketing organizations that survive the performance journey needed to prove Marketing’s worth and demonstrate excellence. These organizations are rare and valuable.

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How Best-in-Class Organizations Survive the Marketing Performance Journey

Our research of nearly 2 decades continued to reveal the same piece of data again and again. Other Marketing accountability studies have corroborated our findings, such as the one by the Forbes CMO Practice, which found that, “despite years of management, focus, and advances in marketing analytics, most Chief Marketing Officers still struggle to communicate, quantify, and optimize the value marketing creates to their leadership, peers, and partners.”

Like the carbon atoms deep within the earth, Marketing executives remain under significant pressure to show how the rising investments in marketing assets, media, and technology are generating results in terms of growing sales, profits, and value. Hence, the focus on the performance journey.

While all diamonds are crystals, not all crystals are diamonds. This is also true of Marketing. While Marketing organizations may employ many of the same tactics and tools, some organizations excel while others don’t. In our study, the consistent range is 20%-25%, which is 1 in 4 or 5 Marketing organizations that are transformed into “diamonds”. It’s not an easy journey, but it is a doable one. Here’s what we know about this exceptional group. They understand that there is a direct connection between customer experience and market leadership. In their pursuit of excellence on their performance journey, they employ these 5 Marketing accountability best practices:

Business people first, marketers second. For this group, it’s not only about being exceptional Marketers it’s about knowing the business, its customers, the market, and the competition.
Connect the dots. These Marketing leaders and professionals know how to connect the dots between what they do and what the company is trying to achieve. There is a clear line-of-sight between the work they perform and the results they produce.
Measure what matters. With all the data and tools available today, every company is rich in measures and metrics. You are probably familiar with the existence of Fool’s Gold or pyrite, which looks like real gold but has no value. Selecting the right measures and metrics takes more than clicking on dashboard buttons on your various tools. Selecting the right measures and metrics requires clearly understanding what success is for your organization and how Marketing helps achieve it. As a result, they know how to establish and achieve the right performance targets.
Data is the means, not the end. This group of Marketers realizes that data is an essential ingredient. For them, data is the means, not the end. They have the analytical prowess necessary to effectively capture, manage, and transform data into customer, market, and business intelligence.
Track and report on performance. These marketers do more than keep a scorecard on how brand and demand gen efforts are performing. They create dashboards that are actionable, meaningful, and relevant to C-Suite. They leverage these to facilitate decisions, both strategic and tactical, make course adjustments, mitigate risk, and to understand the underlying factors or drivers that need to be addressed to improve results.

If you’re willing to undergo the pressure and make the performance journey, your organization can be a diamond. And we’re here to help.

FAQ:

(written by Penn of Sintra.ai)

Q1: Why can patterns in data lead you in the wrong direction?
A: Because humans are wired to find patterns—even in randomness (apophenia). Analytics can surface patterns, but as data volume grows, so does noise. Without the skills to separate signal from noise, it is easy to “see” patterns that are not meaningful and take action that misdirects strategy, investment, and execution.

Q2: What two assumptions must be true for this discussion to be useful?
A: First, you have quality data (complete, consistent, accurate, valid, and up to date). Second, you have the capability—internally or through partners—to analyze the data effectively. Without both, the priority should be an initiative to improve data quality and analytics capability, because data without analytics is raw material, not insight.

Q3: What is a practical method for determining whether a pattern is a true signal?
A: Statistical Process Control (SPC). SPC helps you detect meaningful signals within variation over time by separating routine variation from exceptional variation. Data within control limits suggests the process is operating as expected; data outside control limits signals something is out of control and needs attention.

Q4: What does “out of control” mean—and why does it matter?
A: An out-of-control pattern indicates non-random variation with a definite, specific cause—an “assignable cause.” These patterns are worthy of action because they point to an issue that should be removed or corrected. The goal is to return the process to an in-control condition (or use industry benchmarks if you cannot establish control limits yet).

Q5: What kind of data is best for detecting signals?
A: Variable data—characteristics, numbers, or quantities that can be measured or counted. Examples include:

Customer data (e.g., number of products purchased, purchase frequency)
Market data (e.g., number of companies in a segment, segment growth rate)
Experience data (e.g., number of complaints, returns)
Variable data generally provides higher-quality information for distinguishing signals from noise.

Q6: What do you need operationally to use SPC well?
A: A measurement system that produces consistent results over time for the same sample. After collecting data, create subgroups to capture variation and establish control limits. Those limits help identify patterns that suggest the process or condition is out of control.

Q7: How can you apply this thinking outside manufacturing?
A: While SPC originated in manufacturing quality control, the logic applies to any process—especially those affecting customer experience, churn, and satisfaction. The point is to avoid overreacting to “interesting” patterns that are actually noise and to focus on signals that warrant corrective action.

Q8: How do you ensure the action you take from a pattern moves you in the right direction?
A: Scrutinize the course of action against five criteria. The action should:

Align with your overall strategy
Focus on areas that create customer value and/or improve business performance
Enrich what you know about customers and the market
Uncover opportunities for innovation and/or competitive advantage
Help mitigate risk
These criteria help ensure pattern-driven decisions are strategic, customer-centric, and performance-relevant—not reactive.