Who's Accountable?

Once upon a time ... in a galaxy far away ... a primitive tribe of marketers huddled around a primitive campfire and chanted "we can't be accountable." In this primitive world, there was a primitive idea that marketers were somehow different from those in other tribes who had auditors looking over their shoulders. Marketing can't be measured, they cried. It's an art. It's immeasurable. It's magic.

That primitive world has gone away. In this galaxy ... in this world ... in this reality, there is a universal understanding that accountability and measurement are the brave new world. And marketing can't escape the universal mantra that measurement is a mandate. Measurements may not be perfect, but they are necessary. And as marketing costs have escalated, there is an increasing chorus of managers who are demanding that the marketers prove their worth. Difficult? Yes. Impossible? Well, let's just say difficult. There are creative minds out there that have been able to create approximations - if not precise measurements - for marketing effectiveness.

It's about time marketers stop stonewalling the need for accountability. It's part of the new world we're living in.