Bruce Clark reviewed the history of marketing performance measures in 1999. He saw three main themes. “[T]he movement from financial to non-financial output measures, the expansion from measuring only marketing outputs to measuring marketing inputs as well, and the evolution from unidimensional to multidimensional measures of performance” (Clark, 1999, page 711). This raised the challenge of not so simple marketing performance measures.
Changing Marketing Performance Measures
I was working in accounting in the 1990s. It is interesting for me to see how marketing was changing back then. Clearly pure financial metrics were not going to do a perfect job. They are not sufficient to assess marketing. As such it is fascinating to see how the non-financial measures we know so well today came into usage.
The measurement of inputs and outputs remains a challenge. Clark discusses the idea of the marketing audit. I wonder how widespread they were. To be honest I still wonder on this point. I believe firms could benefit from regular reviews. Is the marketing doing what it is supposed to do?
Not So Simple Marketing Performance Measures
My favourite element was his discussion of not so simple marketing measures. Performance measures that are interesting but very complex.
“The trend towards multidimensional measures has arguably been wonderful for researchers and horrible for practitioners. Psychometrically and theoretically researchers know that a multidimensional model of marketing performance is likely to be more ‘true’ in that it will capture more facets of performance than any single dimensions can. Unfortunately, successively more complicated schemes dramatically increase the burden on managers attempting to measure performance” (Clark, 1999, page 720).
As Clark points out complexity is a problem. There can often be a trade off. How much with a change help? You shouldn’t add details that confuse more than they enlighten.
Too Many Metrics
It is this problem of being overwhelmed by the sheer number of measures that motivates Clark. He calls for a manageable set of measures to be developed. I would say we are still some way off this. Still, I appreciate the motivation behind the call. I hope we can get simple metrics. I hope we can get valid metrics. Still, I really hope we can get both.
For more on marketing performance measurement see my popular marketing metrics section, here.
Read: Bruce Clark (1999) Marketing Performance Measures: History and Interrelationships, Journal of Marketing Management, 15, 711-732