If you believe polished forecasting skills are for financiers and weathermen, think again. Marketing executives and practitioners are pinpointing first-rate forecasting as a key component of process improvement for strategic marketing. The benefits (improved marketing orientation, ROI metrics and project accountability) are abundant and the consequences (disastrous ROI, misspent time and resources) too great to ignore the importance of forecasting in marketing strategy.
Because forecasting isn’t an exact science, a coupling of quantitative strategy and the ‘human dynamic’ is necessary for accuracy, meeting project goals and ROI. The ‘human dynamic’ consists of a combination of the forecaster asking the right questions and being open to feedback as well as the strategic team contributing its input for the forecast. Further, this MarketingNPV article emphasizes that the quantitative lifeblood of forecasting lies in five basic principles: 1) Choosing the proper forecasting route (operational or strategic); 2) Taking a structural approach to your analysis; 3) Balancing quantitative and qualitative data in your methodology; 4) Staying aware of causal factors and 5) Streamlining the forecasting process by keeping it simple and focused.
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