SAS Leading the Charge to Improve Marketing's performance

SAS® for Marketing Performance Management improves marketing effectiveness, accountability

Dublin, Ireland, 12. Sep. 2006 -  SAS, the leader in business intelligence, today announced new software to help solve the age-old problem of calculating marketing's contribution to an organisation's bottom line. Designed to help boost the performance of marketing organisations as well as quantify marketing's results, SAS for Marketing Performance Management demystifies marketing's impact on an organisation's overall success.

Gartner, in its findings on marketing performance management, predicts that by 2008, more than 60 percent of Global 1000 companies will deploy analytics outside of database marketing that improve visibility and accountability of marketing operations and programs (0.8 probability).[1]

Seamlessly integrated with SAS' award winning suite of customer intelligence solutions, SAS for Marketing Performance Management creates alignment between marketing strategies and activities, links marketing performance to the company's financial performance, and helps ensure accountability of the marketing team. The solution provides:

• Analytically driven insights
• Role-based marketing scorecards
• An integrated view across marketing

"Now more than ever, chief marketing officers must justify their place at the board room table," said Jim Davis, Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President at SAS. "To do this, they need to quantify the marketing organisation's contribution to the success of the company. This has traditionally been a nebulous proposition. Now, by measuring and analysing key marketing performance indicators, SAS helps ensure that marketing activities are aligned with company strategy and demonstrate how marketing contributes to the bottom line."

Agility through analytically driven insight
Through integrated advanced analytics, SAS for Marketing Performance Management provides both an historical view and a forward look at trends. SAS supplies the intelligence to understand deep-rooted, causal relationships between metrics and the marketing activities that drive them. Applying these correlations and forecasts across key marketing metrics and strategic objectives provides marketers with the necessary insights to direct resources to areas more likely to yield higher returns.

Role-based marketing scorecards
SAS for Marketing Performance Management supports the different needs of the entire marketing department, from the chief marketing officer to brand managers. SAS provides a set of standard marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) that are a compilation of marketing best practices SAS has experienced over the past 30 years. These marketing KPIs are divided into four categories: marketing programs, customer, business/financial and marketing process. SAS is the only solution provider that delivers metrics in all four areas, enabling alignment and accountability across the entire marketing department.

Integrated View Across Marketing
SAS for Marketing Performance Management provides a complete view of all marketing activities with capabilities to optimise the marketing mix and spending levels in support of business objectives. Organisations can make timely adjustments to programs, perform what-if analysis for more effective forecasting, and deliver performance feedback. Companies that deploy the measurement and analysis capabilities of marketing performance management will significantly improve return on marketing investments (ROMI). For more information on how marketing leaders rely on BI to improve ROMI, see http://www.sas.com/news/preleases/051706/news2.html.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: 
Siobhan Molloy / Louise Cassidy, Weber Shandwick
Tel: 01 6760168 / 086 817 5066 / 086 383 5727
smolloy@webershandwick.com/ lcassidy@webershandwick.com

[1] Gartner Customer Relationship Management Summit, "Marketing Performance Management: Making Marketing Accountable," Kim Collins, November 2005

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