-By Pat LaPointe

Recently a client shared with me a copy of a solicitation e-mail that he received from an otherwise reputable marketing-measurement company. The outfit boasts a proprietary methodology for linking the value of marketing communications to shareholder value. Here's the e-mail:

Dear John,
It is at this time every year that we're asked by dozens of companies to help them justify their marketing budgets. We've been presenting our ROI measures to CEOs and CFOs for 18 years. Our work is time-tested and based on sound financial principles. It is our goal to make your CFO the biggest advocate in the company!

If you've been looking for practical, easy-to-use measures to prove the value and ROI of your efforts, [company name withheld] can help. Our metrics are quick, easy to report, easy to understand and relatively inexpensive. They will demonstrate the significance of your communications campaigns in financial terms that will generate the support of your senior management.

We are constantly evolving our metrics to meet the changing needs of businesses and market movement. Give me a call or send me an e-mail to get a quick update on our latest measures.

Best regards, [Name withheld], CEO

If an offer like this truly appeals to those making key decisions regarding marketing measurement and metrics, I've got just one thing to say: Our industry is toast.

Allow me to explain some of my thinking behind that contention. First I'd like to call your attention to the use of the words "justify" and "prove." What's wrong with justifying a marketing budget and proving the value of marketing efforts? Only this: When justification becomes the goal, objectivity and credibility fly out the window. Then the stalemate between marketing and finance persists.

In my view, the real wonder of this e-mail is not that it promises "quick, inexpensive, easy-to-use measures" but that it doesn't come with a complimentary suit of finely spun invisible clothes. The fact is, when it comes to measuring the value of marketing investments, there are no easy-to-use solutions. The credible and financially sound approaches to measurement have all been shown to take considerable effort and focus in order to properly apply within a company.

It's also really swell to know that the metrics hawked herein are "constantly evolving." What a convenience! This way, we marketers need not suffer being held to any particular standard; all we have to do is change the rules of the game to suit the circumstances.

While it's easy enough to simply drag an e-mail like this to the trash, there's a bigger point to be made before I do. A pitch like this does a disservice to the entire marketing discipline. Part of the solution—and, indeed, even some of the prevention—rests with we in the marketing field. By failing to set anything close to realistic expectations about what it takes to develop a credible measurement approach, we inadvertently encourage companies to get distracted by the promise of measurement-in-a-box, and waste their resources chasing an "easy" measurement fantasy instead of working to build the knowledge, skills, and processes to figure out what's most meaningful and insightful to them.

So here's a tip: When you see words like "prove", "justify", "easy" and "inexpensive" applied to marketing measurement, run away. Fast. If any of those claims were true, marketing would long ago have become a perfect science—and we wouldn't even be talking about measurement right now. That we are talking about it, however, brings to mind a little Latin that's worth knowing when it comes to selecting the right metrics: Caveat emptor. It also brings to mind another adage that mom or dad might have told you: If an offer looks too good to be true, it probably is.
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Pat LaPointe is managing partner at MarketingNPV in Princeton, N.J.,
a specialty consultancy on marketing measurement and metrics. You can contact him by calling (609) 688-0606 or by visiting www.MarketingNPV.com.