In an article entitled “Marketing budgets in flux,” that appeared in a recent issue of BtoB Magazine a marketing representative from Citrix was talking about how the recession has affected their marketing expenditures. He was quoted as saying, “A down economy is a good time to take a scalpel to programs, and we’ve certainly done that.” So good so far – but he continued. “The important point is that we now use data and ROI metrics to guide us to things that work or don’t work. It’s not based on emotion but on data.” The underlining is mine.
I don’t know why but that sentence conjures up some strange imagery. I have a vision of the Citrix marketing team sitting around a conference table opening up about how radio ads during drive time make them feel. Or how one of them has had a long-time crush on direct mail. I just find that sentence strange.
Before the economy tanked was Citrix basing their marketing investments on emotion? How would one do that? If someone cried harder about using a particular tactic would they win? I know my take is ridiculous, but is it any less so than that statement? Only now, when times are tight have they started to analyze what works and what doesn’t? Interesting. So many firms have tightened their marketing belts – I wonder how many of them based their cuts on emotion?
Comments