brand purpose and sales efficiency in the digital age

behind the scene, in many marketing & communication departments, lots of debates and sometimes internal “battles” are taking place when it comes to choose KPIs and measuring performance of digital investments, especially on the social media activities (impacts, targets, contents and volumes) with often some unclear and questionable ways to interpret and calculate ROI.

most companies have increased their digital Investment over tenfold in less than three years without bringing together as one the sales, marketing, market insights/surveys teams, let alone build effective predictive measure and expected KPIs. As it proves hard (sometimes even harder and harder) for their digital investment to explicit their direct impact on sales, market shares increase, margins etc., most brands are now using exposure, engagement, ROA, ROE, ROI, and others to explain the impact of digital investments.

Still often operating in silos, separated from the rest of the company, digital departments gather quantitative analysis that are rarely measurable or crossed with long-term brands’ objectives, customers profiles, market shares or even sales performance. This leaves a lot of companies with a restricted ability to make arbitrage and furthermore marketers and sales teams, let alone CEOs face tremendous difficulties to align and leverage contents.

Once the relevant organization/processes, measurement and tools are in place, we need to look for the leader to carry/protect the brand’s vision/positioning, to remain audacious throughout the inevitable storms and to implement the content/channels strategies without having preconceived ideas on any efficiency lever. He will need to partner with loyal correspondents throughout the organization from IT, to sales, market surveys, finance, media planning and content production.

When the production cost versus media buy ratio offers an apparent advantage to the digital supporters… pushing them to ever increasing production levels at apparent cheaper levels vs TV…, the search for financial performance and impact on sales/brand – therefore on the right volumes and contents as much as the right channels – proves yet a most crucial challenge for brands who want to maximize the financial impact of their digital production and investments whilst growing brand equity with adapted and sustainable brand positioning and global on/off media strategy.

At the same time, amongst the predicted durable trends on social media, the Z-generation values brands who defend a cause, and carry strong values such as authenticity, engagement, solidarity etc.

This is where commercial efficiency meets brand equity and content!