Six Sigma puts power in Marketing’s hands

Six Sigma puts power in Marketing’s hands

One of the challenges of instilling the Marketing By Objectives approach is the need to quantify results.

Historic measures such as total reach or share of voice simply don’t provide enough insight – requiring costly one-off analyses to supplement the data, when and if funding is available. Even adding social media metrics provides little depth of understanding – simply more numbers.

That’s why taking a Six Sigma approach is such a game-changer for Marketers.

Instead of starting with the data and trying to make sense of it one piece at a time, you begin with what you know – the mission.

By breaking the mission into its component parts (see the Y Discernment blog), then attaching metrics to each of the key steps, you’re able to confidently set targets then track performance of each program.

More importantly, you can build the programs to allow adjustments on the move, empowering you to direct resources where they will do the most good.

This approach guarantees a superior Return on Investment, while opening up the pathway to Return on Objectives, a key performance indicator in the executive suite.

Among the most powerful tools in the Six Sigma box is the Design of Experiment (DOE), which allows testing prior to launch for a major campaign, and then subsequent testing of possible adjustments once the campaign is under way.

Each aspect of Six Sigma has been developed and de-bugged over more than a decade of field use, so there’s no need to reinvent the wheel.

Importantly, creativity need not be stifled by accountability. In fact, creativity generally increases in the presence of a specific challenge.