What distinguishes excellence among marketing organizations? What do best-in-class marketers do better and differently that enables them to achieve marketing excellence at their organizations? In many events, the differences are difficult to notice and measuring marketing performance is a very dry topic.

Since 2001, VisionEdge Marketing and a variety of partners have been evaluating the quality and merit of marketing organizations in terms of their ability to measure Marketing’s impact, value, and contribution. The purpose of this research is to understand the often-subtle differences that distinguish best-in-class (BIC) marketers from the rest of the field.

The main driver of this research for the past 16 years has been the grade the C-suite gives Marketing. Survey participants rate their marketing organizations using a 100-point scale, where 100 is the highest able to reach score. The scale is 90-100, 80-89, 70-79, and 69 or lower. Those marketers who receive 90 and higher are rated an A; those 80-89 are rated a B; those 70-79, a C; and those 69 or lower, a D.

This year, as in previous years, the percentage of marketing organizations earning an A remained at 23%, or just a little more than 1 in 5 Marketing groups. The number of Value Creators or BIC marketing organizations seems to have stalled out, whereas D-rated marketing organizations continue to increase.

A recent study by the American Management Association found that the largest gap between high-performing organizations and low-performing organizations was whether organization-wide performance measures matched the organization’s strategy: “The proper alignment between performance and strategy seems to make a big difference to organizational success.”

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Through the employment of marketing performance management (MPM), marketing organizations change into high-performing organizations that in turn help drive high performance throughout the whole organization. Marketing organizations that want to survive and grow and do well must wholeheartedly aspire to serve as Value Creators by embracing MPM.

This year’s study showed six ingredients that this elite group of marketers – Value Creators, who are one of the top 23% – use better or differently to accomplish higher-marks from the C-Suite for their ability to measure and report on their contribution to the business. As a result, Value Creators achieve better results for the business, gain more influence over business decisions, and experience greater believability.

About the study: The 2017 MPM Benchmark study was managed and done by VisionEdge Marketing in partnership with Hive9 and Valid USA. The online study was fielded March 1, 2017 through April 7, 2017. Data from 418 qualified survey responses was used in the analysis. Some 30% of the attendees were members of the C-suite, with titles such as CEO, COO, CFO, and President. The participants represent companies of different sizes, geographic places, and a mix of B2B, B2C, and a combination of both. There were no statistical differences in results between roles, company type, and company size.

See below some more details to the study in the infographic, “Cook Up The Best, Marketing Performance”.