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As part of a global study, a team of researchers at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) unveiled the most popular metrics for marketing, with satisfaction ranked as the top metric on their list.
The study, led by Ofer Mintz, Associated Head of the Marketing Department at UTS, scoured through 4,384 managerial decisions associated with 1,600 firms. All in all, 16 countries, including Australia, China, Russia, and US, took part in the research.
For the study, released online in the Journal of International Business Studies, researchers focused on what drives metric use and the most efficient ones used by metrics managers today.
“We wanted to know what metrics managers are using globally, what drives metric use, including cultural influences, and how many metrics managers are using,” Mintz said. “In today’s digital technology-intensive and data-rich environment, it is important for managers to know which metrics count.”
As emphasized in the findings, 84 marketing metrics were unveiled to be in constant use by managers. Satisfaction, a measure of a client’s pleasure with a product or service, was labeled as the most popular metric for marketing decisions, having been used in 53% of marketing plans, globally.
Among the second and third most popular metrics were Awareness and Return on Investment (ROI). Awareness, a measure of the volume of people who recognize a company, brand or service, was observed in 45% of plans. ROI, a measure of revenue made per dollar spent on marketing, was used in 43% of plans.
Likeability, Net Profit, and Target Volume, are among other popular metrics used by managers, the findings showed.
“Metrics provide information to help managers diagnose, coordinate, and monitor their actions. They also quantify trends or outcomes, reveal current relationships, and help predict the results of future actions,” Mintz explained.
“We found the greater a manager’s overall use of quantitative information or metrics when making decisions, the better the performance, accuracy, and overall quality of decisions. It also leads to greater CEO satisfaction, and increased profits and shareholder value.”
“It’s important for managers to understand the different drivers for metric use, both cultural and organisational. It is also useful to know what metrics other managers are using, and how many they are using, as it provides a benchmark for their own marketing-mix.”
Mintz concluded: “Our results enable multinational executives to better understand and increase managerial metric use across different cultures and settings.”