Wait a Minute! What Happened to "Brand?"

One fundamental of learning to fly on instruments that every pilot learns is "scan your instrument panel." It has tons of information about where you are, where you're going, how the engines are performing, and the temperature in coach. Fixating on any one instrument, which often happens at the beginning of instrument training, can jeopardize situational awareness and maintaining aircraft control.

The intrusion of bean counters - with their fixation on ROI - into the world of sales and marketing over the past few years not only has been annoying, it's been dangerous.

I only recently came across an article by John Obrecht that I had ripped out of the May 2006 issue of Media Business magazine. In it, he quotes Joe Hanson, Chairman of Profes-sional Media Group, a b2b publisher of education management magazines. "ROI is a term that comes out of manufacturing," Hanson said. "I don't know how anybody really measures ROI in advertising. How do you measure branding?"

Another executive quoted in the article is Jeff Klein, former President of 101communications. "ROI, ROI, ROI...in some circles brand has become a dirty word," says Klein. "Brand is important. It builds awareness. It's part of the media mix. Great marketers know that," he adds.

To be sure, ROI is an important instrument on the instrument panel. But there are others, including the "brand" meter. Editor Paul Nolan does an excellent job in this issue of exploring how sales managers can benefit from a balanced scan of all the information at their disposal. To paraphrase Hanson, as a sales manager, you are charged with making your company grow, not the bean counters fixated on their ROI meters.

Don't miss the cover story sidebar "How Do You Quantify Employee Engagement?" It's a great example of how some things simply can't be measured.