Return on Investment - ROI revisted in the social mobile world...

Tim Phillips had a lengthy but very interesting column on Return On Investment in an article at Research-live.com. His overall theme is:

Buyers and suppliers are struggling to define the business impact of research. Is time running out for them to do so?

Highlights include:

• Richard Evensen, a senior analyst at Forrester Research states that businesses are being measured more, with an increased expectation from above that everything can be quantified in its contribution to the top line.
  
  • Evensen states that "other elements of marketing" can now be measured much more – for example the effectiveness of digital advertising and marketing campaigns.
  • Insights are now more of a differentiator for the business - but only if they fit the business objectives.
• Kennedy Consulting Research & Advisory tracks the management consultancy industry in the US, and they show that client spending on consulting services declined by 10 per cent in 2009, and did not start to grow again until the second half of 2010.
• Responsive research agencies are treating the current ROI debate as more than just the latest manifestation of an age-old strategy for squeezing price.
• Coca-Cola vice president of marketing strategy and insights Stan Sthanunathan recently announced plans to encourage Market Research suppliers to work on a pay-for-performance basis.
• My favorite quote, “We talk a lot about providing actionable insight. That’s what we need to deliver.”

See the full article at Research-live.com.