Companies have been benchmarking processes and measuring best practices in many functions for years, but benchmarking marketing or conducting a marketing audit is still relatively rare. That's because the industry has been slow to codify the marketing process that makes benchmarking marketing possible.

EMM Group has focused on marketing processes for over 8 years; that's why the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) turned to the EMM Group when they wanted to offer its members a marketing benchmarking survey. This survey comes in two different 'flavors,' B2B marketing benchmarking and B2C marketing benchmarking. Both versions include benchmarking of an insights process, a marketing knowledge management process, a brand equity development process, an annual marketing planning process, an integrated marketing planning process and a marketing accountability process.

This process benchmarking survey provides not only a scored result comparing the respondent company to peers but also marketing process diagnostics, specific marketing process improvement recommendations that are unique to each responding company. To the best of our knowledge, the EMM Group's marketing benchmarking survey is the only survey of its kind because of its evolution from marketing best-practice audits of more than 50 major companies over eight years at a cost exceeding $5 million. It is surely the most comprehensive, because it extends across the entire marketing planning and marketing demand creation continuum.

The very existence of such a survey underscores EMM Group's conviction that marketing, like other business functions, must be managed by a process -- in this case, one aimed at building brand equity and driving growth in a predictable, repeatable manner subject to measurement by marketing metrics. For a comprehensive statement of EMM Group's vision, please read our book, The New Marketing Mission, How Process, Metrics and Technology Can Drive Growth. The foreword to our book was written by Jim Stengel the Global Marketing Officer for Procter & Gamble, EMM Group's legacy company.