NEW YORK (May 24, 2005)-Despite the corporate world’s long held, unspoken fear of “accountability,” it is making great strides in taking a bottom line approach to specific types of marketing programs. This is just one of the findings in the 2005 Incentive Federation Survey of Motivation and Incentive Applications, a benchmark study to one conducted in 2003, which queried business owners, senior managers, and sales and marketing executives at manufacturing and service companies. The research reveals that while slightly more than half of respondents use ROI to measure program success, three out of four are currently placing greater emphasis on ROI as an evaluation criterion than before. The results were announced in conjunction with the Incentive Show, the east coast’s largest incentive marketplace, at the Javits Center in New York, May 24 and 25.
“These numbers are very encouraging and bodes well for even greater ROI measuring in the future,” says Howard Henry, Executive Director of The Incentive Federation. “In this age of transparency and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance requirements, it makes more sense than ever before for companies to take a bottom-line approach to every aspect of their business including the areas examined in the study.”
The survey also found that 1) when it comes to motivating employees and attracting customers, cash tends to be less effective than merchandise and travel awards; 2) organizations are increasingly purchasing incentive awards through third parties rather than directly from manufacturers; and 3) businesses are increasingly embracing integrated marketing to communicate their brand messages. The survey was designed to gain insight into practices and attitudes of current users of merchandise and travel items for consumer promotions, sales incentives, non-sales employee recognition programs, and dealer incentives.
Other key findings of the 2005 Incentive Federation Survey of Motivation and Incentive Applications:
The survey indicates that companies continue to have high expectations and expect high returns from incentive programs. Consumer promotion planners, sales incentive planners, and dealer incentive program planners set their increase in volume goals between 16% and 18%.
Conducted in early 2005, the study was prepared by the Center for Concept Development, Ltd on behalf of The Incentive Federation. The methodology and findings were reviewed and approved by Frank Mulhern, Ph.D., managing director of the Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement at Northwestern University.
The Incentive Federation is the alliance organization for the incentive industry representing its national trade associations, trade publications and national trade shows. In this position, it is responsible for all aspects of incentive marketing including merchandise, travel and services. The Federation conducts major incentive research projects, manages the Incentive Performance Center (IPC) and is responsible for industry government affairs on the state and federal levels.
The following members of The Incentive Federation sponsored the study: Association of Retail Marketing Services, Incentive Marketing Association, The Motivation Show by Hall-Erickson Inc., Promotion Marketing Association, Promotional Products Association International, and the SITE Foundation.
For copies of the study, please contact Howard Henry at incentivefed[at]aol.com.