10. Investments and Measurements: The Quest for the Holy Grail

We are grateful to Professor Lucia Porcu who has generously provided this chapter at our request. It is not a euphemism to use such words as “the quest for the holy grail” as part of the chapter title. Indeed, such a subject has bedevilled and perplexed marketers and market researchers for decades and will likely continue to do so until all elements of the supply and research chain start to work together in a coordinated manner. Top management needs to acknowledge the importance of taking a customer-centric approach to budget and allocate investments accordingly in communications. Therefore, outside-in budgeting and the closed-loop system potentially connect marketing communication expenditures to revenues generated by customers. As in other areas, adopting a consumer-centric approach in measurement implies that the return on customer investment is to be applied to evaluate IGMC programmes and campaigns. Therefore, both short-term (business building) and long-term (brand building) objectives are needed and the measurement of results needs to take both into account. This chapter also offers a worked example (see Appendix B).