Marketing professionals are more and more accountable for proving value, and making investment recommendations and decisions, based on business and marketing performance. Marketing mix modeling is quickly being adopted across different industries as the preferred way to measure, forecast, optimize, and plan marketing budgets. 

Today, I am pleased to announce the publication of The Forrester Wave™: Marketing Mix Modeling, Q2 2013. This evaluation is a result of countless hours of vendor reviews and assessments, in-person briefing reviews, customer calls, fact-checking, and intensive research work. This Forrester Wave will help firms create a shortlist of providers, based on their unique business needs.

After long days and nights, I am glad to share with you the key takeaways that emerged from the Forrester Marketing Mix Modeling Wave:

  • Wide arrays of firms are adapting marketing mix modeling. Marketing mix modeling is the traditional approach to uncover value and build a marketing plan for consumer packaged goods companies. However, other industries, including financial services and retail, are quickly taking an interest in adopting this approach because they need a more scientific, holistic way to understand marketing and business performance. As a result, we see an upsurge in adoption across different industries.
  • Marketing mix modeling is a mature market. The top marketing mix modeling providers in this space have years of experience, solid methodologies, a laser-sharp understanding of complex marketing and business problems, and a clear vision of how to constantly evolve to remain relevant. To remain competitive, all the providers are focused on managing the deluge of data and expanding their core offerings with complementary analytics and insights that expand beyond marketing insights.
  • Building expertise and integration in digital data is a top priority. While marketing mix modeling firms are experts in traditional media, marketing, and business, they are collectively focused on how they can provide more value and expertise on the digital front. They all want to integrate digital and mobile data in a more precise way, specifically from social listening platforms. As a result, some vendors have strategic data partnerships that help them hone in on their digital expertise.
  • Leaders in marketing mix modeling are focused on developing integrated analytics. The leaders in this category are highly focused on providing real-time insights and capabilities, improved technologies, and end-to-end insights. There is a strong focus on developing technologies to support the influx of data. And, finally, leaders are thinking of marketing mix through a customer lens by providing insights to the preferred marketing mix throughout the customer journey.

If you need a marketing mix provider, this is your shortlist. They all have strength and growth opportunities and are well positioned to help your business optimize on the greatest opportunities.

A big thank-you for support and sanity to my research colleagues — Luca and Sam. Your help and guidance through this process made this all possible!