I Want People to Say

I just finished reading Ad Age's The CMO Interview of Rory Finlay at Beam Global Spirits & Wine. While I applaud him for focusing on word-of-mouth and engagement, I found it telling when Ad Age asked what measurements he was using to determine success. Here is his response:

"I want people to be proud to dink Jim Beam. I want people to say, "that's my brand." I want people to walk up to a a bar with a a circle friends and say, "Give me a Beam and Coke." What we now have is a great example of building brands people want to talk about, rooted in a core insight and driving conversation and talkability and, at the end of the day, responsible consumption of Jim Beam."

Based on this answer, I would say that he knows what he wants people to be, say, and do, but he doesn't have measurements in place to determine success.

In my experience, this is one of the hardest questions for marketers to answer (many times, they don't have an answer). As a result, it makes it very difficult to work with corporations to put together a sponsorship and activation strategy that will ensure successful outcomes. I mean really, if they can't articulate their business goals and measurements for success, how can you?