I think one of the great problems in marketing academia is that we spend a lot of time thinking about our models and very little time on our data. We have increasing clear views of how things connect up but we don’t really know what it is that we are connecting up. Deciding what objective…
Category: Marketing Metrics
Metrics that Marketers Muddle
From 2016: With Charan Bagga I have just published an article in the Sloan Management Review (see the article here). We called the article — rather self-explanatorily — Metrics that Marketers Muddle. Annoying Things That Marketers Do This central message is a bit cranky. Indeed we could have titled the paper, “annoying things that marketers do”. We highlight:…
Why Gift Cards Are Interesting
In a special holiday edition I focus on why Gift cards are interesting. They are central to many retailers’ strategies and yet economic theory often seems premised on the idea that they shouldn’t exist. Why Give Gift Cards? The argument against them is that a gift card is a bit like cash, just worse. Closed loop cards, those…
What Metrics Do Managers Use?
Mintz and Currim examined what metrics do managers use? What drives metric use? And how does this tracks to performance? These are fascinating questions. The paper has two aims I’d say. Firstly, academics will be interested in the model that the authors use to try and tease out the “why” behind the metrics. Secondly, managers might…
Improving Forecasting
Philip Tetlock’s book on expert political judgment was a classic. That said, he clearly thinks that the message taken from that book was too strong. Previously he suggested that experts just aren’t that good at forecasting. He still retains that theme in his new work — but now he is more interested in improving forecasting. Improving Forecasting…
The Value Of Any Metric
The are any number of marketing metrics. (We said 50+ in the first edition of our book. That worked for us. After all, we couldn’t be bothered to count them. There are much more than 50). An obvious question is, therefore, which metrics should we bother to calculate? What is the value of any metric?…
The Problem Of Researchers Giving Advice To Managers
Translating academic research into advice for managers is a tough skill. I really don’t think we value the skill enough. We hope that researchers will effortlessly translate quality research into quality managerial advice. There seems little reason to believe this. Many otherwise excellent researchers giving advice to managers are not at their best. Researchers Giving Advice To Managers Barbara Kahn’s Global…
The Denseness of Social Networks
What can we find out from the denseness of social networks? Individual Versus Network Characteristics Researchers often study questions focused upon the individual. For example, we might want to know if a consumer has been influenced by an advertisement. Alternatively, we might assess what sort of skills are useful for a salesperson to possess? There…
Is Reliability A Good Thing?
Reliability in analysis is widely valued. Reliability is returning the same result whenever we test the same thing. I’m not against reliability. Still, it can be overrated as Scott Armstrong explains. We need to ask occasionally: Is Reliability A Good Thing? Or more accurately, how much are we willing to sacrifice at the altar of…
Implementing Marketing Analytics
Cesar Brea’s book, Marketing and Sales Analytics, is a practitioner’s take on analysis. He discussed implementing marketing analytics. Conversations With Experts Indeed, a full third just details his conversations with practitioner experts. The work has several points that are worth considering. Brea also includes elements that I would have avoided. The division of marketers into…