Many marketing organizations put enormous effort and resources into developing and launching new marketing initiatives - but pay little or no formal attention to how those strategies are performing post-launch.

In addition, today's marketing executives are under growing pressure to demonstrate accountability for the enterprise resources invested with them. In numerous recent studies, marketers consistently report that their single largest professional challenge lies in demonstrating the returns on investments in marketing and brands. They also report that they're struggling to effectively use the methods and tools that make possible the link between marketing investments and larger business outcomes.

Lodestar's Marketing Services help executives tackle those pressing challenges with these offerings:

We are frequently asked to re-analyze or integrate existing research to generate greater strategic insights or to fill "mission-critical" marketing intelligence gaps. We also conduct primary research on a standalone basis or in support of marketing performance measurement and ROI programs.

Marketing Performance Intelligence Assessor™. Our initial diagnostic and assessment tool provides a systematic, in-depth evaluation of your company's existing marketing performance intelligence (i.e., market research, performance data, transaction data, benchmarks, competitive intelligence, etc.), appraises the quality and usefulness of this intelligence for performance measurement purposes, and identifies "mission-critical" information gaps. Outputs include a comprehensive analysis of strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for improvement in existing systems and processes - along with an integrated game plan of "next steps" for building increased marketing accountability through marketing performance and ROI applications.

Marketing Performance & ROI Assessor™. The most difficult aspect of marketing performance measurement and ROI assessment is not in taking actual marketing measurements or making the quantitative links between marketing investments and the returns they produce. In fact, the data collection and analysis required to achieve this is relatively straightforward.

The far more significant challenge lies in helping you define your exact marketing performance information needs, determining which parts of the marketing program/mix should be examined and why, and identifying the exact units of analysis and the appropriate assessment tools and techniques. In other words, the heavy lifting in MPM and ROI assessment is in planning and design, not in execution.

Our proprietary MPM & ROI Assessment Design System™ - including a series of 21 Framing Questions - is used in an iterative process with clients to finalize a performance measurement design customized to their unique information needs; business models and marketing contexts; timelines; and budgets.

Internal Marketing & Communications Performance Assessor™. Internal marketing performance questions are receiving increased managerial attention in many companies. For example:

• How well is the company's "story" being told to employees?
• How well is the company's brand being managed and leveraged inside the organization?
• How are employee attitudes and behaviors being changed as a result?
• What are the impacts on larger business outcomes - external marketing, customer loyalty, new customer acquisition or profitability?

Offered in conjunction with our Human Resources Services, the Internal Marketing & Communications Performance Assessor™ is designed to help you address the other half of total marketing performance - either as a separate line of inquiry or in combination with an external marketing assessment. Deliverables include a scorecard of current internal marketing effectiveness and a road map for improving future performance.

Traditional Marketing Research Services. While Lodestar specializes in performance measurement and ROI assessment, we also offer clients a full range of traditional marketing research and related services, including market landscape and dynamics, pricing, segmentation, customer and employee research, advertising effectiveness and new product development. Working with our partners, we also perform more advanced analytical applications (e.g., econometric forecasting, causal modeling, data mining and linkage analyses).