How to Choose Between an Audit and a Strategic Review

How to Choose Between an Audit and a Strategic Review

If you’ve set up your marketing programs to deliver measurable results, data should be flowing in almost continuously.

You have set parameters to warn you if a program falls out of compliance. But even with all of your programs humming along, Marketing By Objectives requires you to periodically take a figurative step back and ask whether the programs themselves are the right ones.

I generally view this in broad terms as either a Strategic Review or an Audit.

For instance, if we were analyzing the value of a whole channel of marketing such as Industry Events against a company’s Business Goals, we could call that a Strategic Review. 

On the other hand, if we were to analyze a specific program, say a product-focused ad campaign, against Business Goals, that would fall into the Audit category.

Let me make it clear that in nearly all cases, an Audit should lead to a Strategic Review.

However, it has been my experience that some clients eschew the Strategic Review for the instant gratification of an Audit. 

Let’s explore factors that relate to “strategic review avoidance”:

1. Business goals simply aren’t known.
1. The project manager may not be senior enough, or have sufficient “line of sight” in the organization to have visibility of these goals
2. The goals are not clearly communicated internally
2. The costs of the larger study are constrained by budget
3. Urgency – you are too pressed for time to consider a larger study
1. Renewal decisions are due very soon
2. Senior executives want an answer to the pressing question of value instead

Once we’ve identified why a Strategic Review might be foregone, we need to address the different ways to temper this problem:

1. Find the information on strategic and tactical business objectives yourself
1. Researching readily available public sources
2. SEC filings
3. Ask the advertising agency – an important partner in this process
2. Conduct the analysis without the Strategic Review framework
1. Determine only a monetary ROI for the campaign in question
2. Forego the question of the strategic value to the company
3. Leverage an initial study to highlight the inherent need for analysis against actual business goals

If we instead begin by committing to a Strategic Review, this inevitably will lead to the Audit of activities – and a wellspring of useful information.