The Importance of Forecasting a Marketing Event

Forecasting is an essential part of planning, otherwise, there is no way to know what results can be expected and thus how much to spend. Event marketing budgets should be directly correlated with the opportunity an event presents. Also, it is pretty important to set realistic expectations internally with executives and others about expected results and justification for the investment.

The following variables can be forecast for an upcoming trade show for example:

Estimating Resources
Exhibit size
Budget
Number of Staff Required

Estimating Results
Number of visitors
Number of Engaged Prospects
Number of Committed Leads

Expected Sales Results

Number of Impressions - Promotion Impact(Gross and Targeted)
Advertising Equivalent Value (Media Value)

Cost Savings

Customer Relationship Management Value

Payback Ratio - ROI

It really is worth the time to estimate what an event will produce and what resources are required. For more reading on this and other event and tradeshow measurement topics go to our website at http://constellationcc.com.

Ed

Small Samples, and the Margin of Error - A useful Read

Today I am sharing a really useful post - Small samples, and the margin of error from the blog: What’s new
Updates on my research and expository papers, discussion of open problems, and other maths-related topics. By Terence Tao


It is pretty complex in some places, but skip the equations and read the text, which is quite digestible.

As Constellation conducts random sample research in an event marketing measurement context, these are things we worry about and try to point out. Sometimes we see a client take results and run with them that may have significant weaknesses. For example, very high level executives are not nearly as likely to respond to a poll because they are very busy or they have an assistant screen their correspondence, so they are under-represented in the result.

Also relevant, people tend to believe what is reported on TV or in the press. The myriad of polls reported daily have many of the issues explained in this post. I believe that is why networks famously called states incorrectly on election day. I would suggest we are usually looking at close to 10% possible (not probable) error on most of the better political polls reported on TV.

Thanks to Terrence for a very thoughtful article. If he could dumb it down a bit, it should be required reporting on every television network and print media outlet.

Ed Jones

Read the Post - Small samples, and the margin of error
10 October, 2008 in expository, math.ST, non-technical | by Terence Tao

Slogans - Do They Work? and Does Anybody Care?

Does your Company Slogan reflect your Business?... Is this relevant?

Asked by Mariéme JAMME- MBA
Ed’s answer:

Marieme, "Delta is Ready When You Are!"

A slogan is only as good as it is customer focused.

An example I use frequently is from Delta Airlines, a great company. Their best known slogan was "Delta is Ready When You Are!" an entirely customer focused message. Later it changed to "We Love to Fly and It Shows," an entirely myopic, self-centered slogan that happened to be timed with a significant downturn in customer service and what was perceived to be a bad attitude at the airline. You might also remember the "Ya da Ya da" unintelligible music they played as you boarded or exited the airplane. Sometimes even good companies seem to lose their minds.

Your slogan should communicate value to the buyer. If so, a slogan will be important and will likely be a factor in buyer preference. I hope this is helpful.

Ed Jones President Constellation Communication Corp., Event Measurement, Justification and Continuous Improvement