My Business Is Failing: Has To Be The Marketer's Fault, Right?

Maybe. 

But probably not.

In my system, I can immediately diagnose whether the marketer is failing or there is a merchandising problem.

• Hint: There is usually a merchandising problem when business does not meet expectations.

As you've repeatedly heard me say over nearly twenty (20) years, I use my Comp Segment framework to diagnose if there is a marketing/merchandising problem. A weak marketer / modern marketer is likely criticized by Management when business is bad, then performs a "deep dive" of traffic driven to the website, which is a mostly feckless exercise. A strong marketer using my "system" has a dashboard with comp segment metrics.

Let's say the metrics reveal this outcome for November.

• Comp Segment Performance = -11%.
• Comp New/Reactivated Buyer Counts = -9%.
• Net Marketing Impact = -9% - -11% = +2%.

The marketer immediately knows that there is a merchandise problem. The marketer goes to a comp segment dashboard to look at the -11% comp, understanding if it is across all merchandise categories or just within a couple of large categories. The marketer evaluates the metric for new items and existing items, discounted items and full-priced items.

Here is another example that happens, less frequently.

• Comp Segment Performance = -4%.
• Comp New/Reactivated Buyer Counts = -17%.
• Net Marketing Impact = -17% - -4% = -13%.

Comp segment performance isn't great, but the marketing team is the problem here. Marketing problems reveal themselves via new/reactivated buyer counts.

In my "system", a Comp Segment Dashboard quickly tells all employees "who" is causing the problem. It's usually the merchandising team, but it can be failures in marketing spend (i.e. reducing the marketing budget by 20%) or structural failures in new customer acquisition (i.e. catalog brands using failed catalog co-ops) that generate business issues.