Direct Link Between Integrated Marketing & Profits.

The Promotion Marketing Association today announced the top-line findings of an in-depth research study concerning the return on investment (ROI) from a brand’s commitment to an integrated marketing strategy. The study, conducted over the past year with Northwestern University and The Dudley Group, Inc., was an effort to develop best practices around how brands develop, execute and measure integrated marketing programs, as well as how they are organized to do so. The study also identified factors that impact a company’s level of integration and its financial performance.

In fact, the study results cite a strong correlation between brand management, agency management, and internal marketing, on the one hand and good financial performance on the other. Brand management is defined as the degree to which a company focuses on the brand first and links it to its strategy and tactics. Agency management and internal marketing, defined as robust internal communication of marketing objectives, the brand promise and active motivation of employees to live the brand mission, were also found to play significant roles in financial success.

Best Practices

Particularly valuable for brand marketers trying to achieve greater ROI through integrated marketing, the study identifies a number of best practices for brands that want to improve their organizational structure and process:

Organizational structure best practices include: Having senior management drive integration as a company-wide priority and elevating the importance of robust communications to partners and employees.

Best practices for the campaign development phase involve fostering long-term agency relationships and assembling a cross-functional team that includes both key internal stakeholders and key agency representatives.

The identified best practices during execution include: utilizing knowledge management and communication technology in order to improve execution and assigning a lead agency for each campaign.

Finally, evaluation and measurement best practices include: investing in the research at the outset of campaign development and creating a mechanism to share knowledge and insight throughout an organization.

For more information at http://www.pmalink.org