Marketing measures their effectiveness, but should also measure organizational effectiveness as perceived from outside.

The fact is that all organizations want to make progress. Too often though, progress is equated with profit. Profit is only one form of progress. To not measure more meaningful aspects of progress might lead to eventual doom.

Imagine that you could report to the CEO a fantastic year. Sales up. Net profits up. Total number of customer up. But let’s also assume that you failed to measure customer satisfaction, brand loyalty or relative market position. Next year you would likely be reporting plunging sales, no profits and a bleeding customer base.

Every organization wants to make progress, but you have to define what is the progress that needs making. A 10% improvement in customer satisfaction might generate 20% more sales the following year with additional marketing spend. If you have not monitored customer satisfaction, then you might not know that is a market weakness needing improvement, and that making progress there results in profit progress.

Marketing is responsible for everything the customer sees. You may not run the customer support department, but you are responsible for knowing how it affects total brand value. You might not oversee product returns, but a complex and painful return process generates bad buzz. If you do not measure these aspects of public perception, nobody will and that impedes all progress.

Measure, identify where progress needs to be made, then measure again. These are tough things that need doing, and it is up to you to do them.