No Shortcuts: The Road Map to Smarter Marketing

Companies invest staggering sums of money on marketing with surprisingly little rigor. Because measuring and optimizing spending on marketing is notoriously difficult, companies often rely on rules of thumb, such as spending as a percentage of revenues. A recent benchmarking study conducted by BCG and Marketing Analytics indicates that these shortcuts can be imprecise and unreliable. This report describes a better approach—one that encompasses all commercial investments and integrates a top-down strategic perspective and a rigorous bottom-up analysis.