Survey and Webcast on Marketing Operations

According to a 2007 marketing study, nearly half of all companies surveyed recognize the need to have a marketing operations function to quantify and measure the effectiveness and worth of marketing. They ranked the need for this marketing operations (MO) function as the top challenge that their organizations face for 2008.

Companies that participated in the 2007 Marketing Outlook survey, conducted by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, identified the top challenges for 2008 as follows:

(1) 43.8% were concerned with "challenges in quantifying and measuring the value of marketing programs and measurement";

(2) 38.7% were concerned with "challenges in improving efficiency and effectiveness of the marketing function"; and,

(3) 28.4% were concerned with "issues with improving the allocation and ROI of marketing spend".

The study concluded that, as marketing continues to expand its role and influence to corporations and its contributions to strategic direction, MO will be the ideal catalyst for this transition. MO professionals, after all, carry the mandate of "optimizing the marketing machine", as stated by eMO, a leading marketing operations service provider.

Meanwhile, in recognition of the growing need to operate efficient MO, the American Marketing Association released a webcast in 2007 on the topic "Marketing Operations - More Important Than Ever."

The webcast covers three basic areas of MO:


its opportunities and challenges;
creating a collaborative framework that encompasses all marketing activities and ensuring effectiveness and synergy under the umbrella of MO;
and, putting in place the technology that makes all this possible.

The survey, the webcast, and other recent MO activities all help bring attention to critical need for marketing to deliver results and value to the business. How do you plan to integrate MO into your business?