Marketing is far from an exact science, which ultimately leaves us making more assumptions than we would prefer.  Effective marketing involves constant monitoring of market trends, membership demographics, new product availability, promotion results, and outside environmental factors.  The day we fall victim to the ‘We’ve always done it this way’ marketing syndrome is the same day we hand over members to our competitors.

Rex Briggs and Greg Stuart, founders of the marketing research firm, Marketing Evolution, explain in their recent book, What Sticks, that nearly $112 billion in advertising is wasted each year.  Even the most renowned marketing departments in the world, those of Proctor & Gamble, McDonalds, and Coca-Cola, fall victim to these ‘marketing assumptions’.  One of the easiest methods to prevent wasted marketing dollars is through what they term ‘storehouses’.

A storehouse in its simplest form is a collection of information about every marketing effort you complete – from single ads to full marketing campaigns.  More than measuring just ROI, a storehouse is documentation of everything that impacted your promotion.  From the marketing mediums you used and any demographics you targeted to the offers of competitors and outside environmental changes.

One of the biggest factors in effective marketing is to know what worked and what didn’t – and most importantly, why.  We assume our marketing is sound and our methods are successful – perhaps they are or perhaps we are completely limiting our true potential.  Until you try different approaches of marketing to your members, document your results, and measure trends, you may never know.

A prime example of how documenting environmental factors was a benefit to several Credit Unions came this past year as gas prices soared.  Most lenders turned their focus toward other loan products as the common assumption was vehicle sales were dropping as a result of the high fuel prices.  Those CUs who had been watching this trend over the past few years knew this to be false and the US auto sales reports of 2006 proved them right.

Despite high gas prices, vehicle sales in the US remained constant – the main change was the type of vehicles being purchased (more fuel-efficient light vehicles instead of SUVs and trucks), not the quantity.  Not only did these Credit Unions have the upper hand by watching such trends, they had an open playing field as their competitors focused on other lending services.

As you begin to create your storehouse, keep a hard-copy of all your materials produced and make sure you document all relevant information pertaining to your promotion no matter how marginal it may seem.  In addition to ROI, focus on topics such as:

-     Any demographics you focused on and how you specifically related to this target group

-     List all aspects of your marketing mix used

-     Current competitor offers, incentives, and demographics they focused efforts towards

-     Environmental factors such as the economy, auto / real estate industry trends, homeowners insurance / property tax increases or decreases, and seasonal events such as tax season

-     The implementation strategy used – whether you sent direct mailers three times to the same targeted group or a single mass mailer

-     Market changes such as new competitors or new products or services offered

Marketing assumptions are a major factor in why $112 billion in advertising is wasted each year.  Briggs’ and Stuart’s storehouses have proven to successfully increase the marketing efforts of some of the world’s largest organizations.  As simple as they may seem, storehouses are one of the single greatest tools any marketing department could possess in today’s ever-changing commercial environment.