Given the challenges in measurement, is marketing perpetually burdened by uncertainty?
Raab: It is harder in marketing. If I run a factory, I know that if I change the dial on this machine, [this is] what the outcome is going to be—I can measure it very precisely. If I dial my marketing spend up 10 percent, it’s not too clear what’s going to happen. There are all kinds of more difficult-to-measure, subtle effects that are, in many cases, the primary effect of marketing. The whole issue of brand marketing—how much is brand marketing worth?—is extremely difficult to measure but we all know it’s worth something. There’s more of a realization that you do have to tie the marketing to the end result—the marketers really do need to understand the whole downstream impact of what they do. It’s a very complex set of interrelated activities; but just because it’s complex, there’s no reason you have to throw up your hands and say, “Oh, I can’t measure it.” It just means maybe you have to work a little harder—maybe a lot harder. CRM: Will digital media make marketing more measurable
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