Occasionally, some corporate types forget that the purpose of marketing initiatives is to improve the business condition, not just change it. History has taught us, it is easy to change, what's difficult is to improve. Over the years, business pressures have created a silver bullet mentality. When immediate results are needed, opt for the simplest and fastest tactic known to get results. In many cases, these techniques require incremental spend upfront to drive some indeterminate result down the road.

A few good examples are; new ad campaigns with higher media spend, re-engineering and of course new technology. Another alternative to addressing budget shortfalls is the deep freeze. Freeze discretionary spending, freeze salaries, and freeze hiring. The first examples often times fail. When a business is challenged, it already has enough on its plate that is not working. To layer on additional challenges further dilutes management focus from what makes the core business successful. The freeze mentality is fraught with emotional and cultural ramifications. When an organization hunkers down, it tends to be less creative, take less risks, be less customer-focused and subtly less confident.

Each of these concepts may have an appropriate place in the framework of business improvement, however by narrowing the focus to a specific and measurable business outcome, you limit the alternatives to those where impact can be measured.

20/20's approach to Performance Improvement uses a strategic framework which translates the tangible results that an organization desires into specific program objectives. From the objectives, specific and measurable tactics are identified which will directly impact achievement of the targeted goal. 20/20 will then manage the implementation and execution of the initiative on behalf of our client. All infrastructure and project resources can be provided by 20/20. In this way our client companies can focus on what they do best, without layering on additional performance challenges. The resulting impact can be identified and measured. The elusive "ROI" on marketing programs can actually be identified.

Too many good marketing ideas have failed because they were over produced and under communicated. Target audiences must take notice of, and understand a marketing tactic if we expect them to respond.

Given the way we are all bombarded with selling and informational messages on a daily basis, think about what it takes to get our attention. The tried and true doesn't cut it in many cases. Clever, dynamic, current and relevant communications tactics must be part of any effective marketing initiative. Multimedia is a given.

Through understanding the demographic and psychographic nature of the target audience, and the specific outcome we are after, we can create a communications plan which accomplishes the goal within an affordable budget.