For example, consider internal branding campaigns. With little to show other than happy employees, this initiative would fall to a second tier initiative since lead generation activities would normally be needed to calculate your ROI. As a second tier initiative it is fine. But who can afford to have that as a first tier initiative anymore if you are only judged on ROI?
What about offline advertising? We have all seen the numbers lately showing how dollars are flowing from offline to online at a double digit pace. Is this not fueled by the continuing quest to get ROI?
And what CMO would come in and do a 100% brand awareness play and expect to be able to keep his or her job at month 24? The average tenure of CMOs is 23 months, the shortest of any C-suite role. Isn't ROI driving this type of behavior too?
I exaggerate to prove the point and demonstrate the impact the drive for ROI is having on marketing. Don't get me wrong. ROI is important. But when you look only at that metric, you tend to do things that ring the cash register, rather than build your brand.
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