For organisations to compete successfully, in an environment where customers have more choice than ever and loyalty is increasingly a thing of the past, they must get smarter.  This requires taking a holistic view of the marketing organisation and aligning the marketing strategies to the people and processes.  Technology has a key role to play in supporting this.  Organisations that do not achieve this alignment will fail to realise the potential of new technologies.

These are some of the key findings emerging from the SAS Marketing Evolution Assessment (MEA) – a tool that enables businesses to rapidly gain an understanding of the state of their marketing organisation.

The Marketing Evolution Assessment enables organisations to form an understanding of how their marketing capabilities and processes measure up to corporate objectives and drives forward development visions.  It can provide a prioritized list of requirements that is tailored exactly for the organization, making it easier to evaluate alternative technology offerings in their ability to deliver what is really important.

The MEA investigates the state of the marketing organisation through understanding capabilities in three discrete areas, which are fundamental to the overall marketing process. These are the 3 ‘I’s of Customer Insight, Customer Interaction, and the Improvement of Performance.

The SAS Marketing Evolution Assessment takes the form of a facilitated workshop, that aims for open and lively discussion and debate between management representatives of the business. The workshop is typically completed in 3 to 4 hours at the organizations facility.  We have found that a small team of professionals is required to gain an accurate overview.  The functions and/or rolls should include:

• Analytic or customer insight
• Campaign management including campaigns, processes and channels
• Marketing Process overview
• IT and data quality infrastructure
• Brand or channel management

SAS provides a Customer Intelligence business consultant to act as facilitator and a SAS individual familiar either with the organization or with similar organizations.

The Marketing Evolution Assesment delivers a report with 3 major parts:

• Current state / Future state summary – both quantitative and qualitative summary
• SAS evaluation of key highlights based on past industry related experience
• Recommendation and/or roadmap for next steps