Marketing Veterans Launch New Media Group

NEW YORK, NY, November 7, 2003 A team of senior marketing executives have launched a new media group that will provide corporate marketing officers the insight, techniques and tools for better marketing decision making through a magazine, online content, workshops, and a web-service library of downloadable decision tools.

Launched today, MarketingNPV, a 16-page, bi-monthly magazine, and www.MarketingNPV.com, will deliver in-depth editorial, case histories, profiles and interviews that analyze the best processes for better marketing decision making. Initial distribution will be to a controlled target list of approximately 3000 readers.

MarketingNPV is founded by Pat LaPointe, an entrepreneur and former Senior Vice President at Frequency Marketing Inc, an industry leading customer loyalty management and consulting company, who has 20 years of experience in corporate marketing and marketing services outsourcing. He is teaming up with Hilleary Hoskinson, a 20-year marketing veteran who has held the top marketing positions at eHealth Insurance and Excite@Home. He also served as Chief of Consumer Marketing at U.S. News and World Report and was the first General Manager of Fast Company magazine.

Over the past year, LaPointe and Hoskinson have been shaping the company's business plan, revenue structure and editorial mission.

"Marketing is being held to higher standards of accountability than ever before," said LaPointe. "Most Chief Marketing Officers will agree that improving marketing effectiveness is a top priority. Yet what's missing from most departments today are efficient, reliable processes for decision-making and measurement. Simple things that most marketing managers can learn quickly and apply immediately to deliver more return on marketing."

MarketingNPV will share the learning and best practices from around the world with regards to processes for making better decisions without impinging upon creativity or innovation. They provide marketers with the ability to make smarter decisions, better assess the economic value of their initiatives, and make stronger cases to request or defend resources.

Responding to the needs of the country's leading marketing organizations, The Marketing Science Institute has identified Assessing Marketing Productivity (Marketing ROI) and Marketing Metrics as its #1 research priority for the current two-year session. MSI member companies like P&G, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol-Myers Squibb have collectively set an agenda that identifies linking marketing program results to financial metrics as one of several key needs, along with customer and brand valuation.

"Marketing as a function is really just beginning to appreciate the full potential of applied science," according to LaPointe. He observes that "too many companies seem to fixate on buying analytical software or having complex models built when often the greatest value is derived from continuous improvement in the everyday decision-making processes. That's where the science gets linked to results."

Greg Wehr, Shell Oil's Director ofLoyalty Marketing, concurs. "We have made a significant investment in improving our analytical decision processes over the past few years and will continue to do so because we've seen first how our resource allocation strategies have created a better return." He added "I think there's a great need for a Magazine like MarketingNPV to keep pushing marketers forward to improve upon their instincts."

The premier issue of MarketingNPV focuses on managing marketing risks and provides a five step process to identifying and eliminating unnecessary risk from marketing decisions. There are also interviews with Doug Rose, Vice President, Merchandising Brand Development with QVC, and with Glenn Koller, Senior Advisor, Risk Assessment Center of Excellence, BP Amoco, and author of Risk Assessment and Decision Making in Business and Industry: a Practical Guide.

Other features include actual case histories and reviews of readily available resources like books and software. One of the more innovative sections of the magazine is titled "Tools and Techniques", which highlights easy-to-use measurement methods and analytical tools that plug into Microsoft Office applications and require no previous training in statistics or analytics.

LaPointe, who helped lead the highly successful Colloquy magazine, which has become a leading publication serving the loyalty marketing industry, will head the MarketingNPV editorial team. Contributors already include a broad array of expert practitioners from many industries all carefully screened for pragmatic, applicable advice and insight.

"The magazine and website are just the beginning for MarketingNPV," notes Hoskinson. "In early 2004, we will announce more details about premier content and subscription-based downloadable applications. The use of decision tools and processes is already commonplace in other functional areas like strategic planning, product development, manufacturing, and engineering. In many ways the decisions that marketers face have become equally complex. To stay competitive, marketing departments need these accessible tools and everyday processes to make faster, better decisions."

In March, MarketingNPV is hosting a series of Risk Management for Marketers workshops in New York City and San Francisco, designed to provide a forum where participants will learn about every day risk management tools and techniques they can use to make high quality marketing decisions.