Conference clips--Chief Marketing Officer Council.

Marketers at major technology firms have a persistent problem: they cannot easily measure the performance of their marketing programs. With that issue in mind, The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council met at BusinessWeek's New York offices on June 9 (th) to address what has become a critical issue for organizations: marketing performance measurements (MPM). AS critical an issue as this is, few companies have a formal system in place according to the Council's extensive study of nearly 1,000 top technology marketers.

Both the study and the Council confirmed that the measurements most frequently reported to management are qualified leads generated, feedback from sales and channel groups, revenue impact and Web site traffic and content viewing.

Measures rated least frequently as performance indicators were stock price, share of mind, brand equity and Wall Street perceptions.

Among the hardest-to-measure activities were results from advertising, sales, branding and marketing collateral, the study claimed. Easiest to measure were results from direct mail and e-mail campaigns, Web site and Internet search engine marketing, telemarketing and contact management programs.

It was an interesting and energetic day. More verticals should have councils of these types to help clear marketers heads and support them on the bumpy road ahead as they duke out their struggle to survive with result-oriented number crunching CFO's who only grasp the outer rim of many marketers' dilemma.

The CMO Council represents more than 800 technology companies, and was designed to foster high-level knowledge exchange and thought leadership among senior marketing and brand decision-makers. MPM Forum key underwriters include Biz360, Cognos, Google and Unica.

http://www.cmocouncil.org