Hello. I hope you have had as good a 2005 as I have. This year has been personally and professionally eventful, and I'm looking forward to the challenges of a new year, and there are many as you pointed out in your answers to my recent survey. Your concerns will be the topics Think covers in the coming months.

Marketing measurement is on the minds of some Thinkers. We'll take that on this time, and revisit it with more specifics in 2006. Also, we'll look at some media relations opportunities, too.

Let's get going.

For smaller organizations, there are two key areas that I believe you must track:

• Customer acquisition

• Customer retention

Customer growth rate helps you measure acquisition, while customer longevity as well as frequency and recency of purchase are metrics of retention and customer value.

But before you can measure, you have to know a few facts. Who are your best customers? In each organization, the answer will be a little different. How do you define a "best" customer? Are they the ones who buy the most and cost the least to service? Are there other parameters that tell you they are "best?" Do they refer more business to you? Are they brand ambassadors?

How did you acquire them in the first place (special offers, referrals, newspaper ads, DM)? What is your customer growth rate/attrition rate? Which customers did you keep/lose? Why?

Then you need to define what the best ones look like demographically. Are they 35 - 45, married couples with children and a mortgage, or 18 - 24-year-old singles who live in condos? Urban or suburban? Readers or radio listeners?

Once you have a picture of them, it is easier to develop a strategic and tactical plan to acquire and retain more of them and fewer of the bad ones. Additionally, it becomes more apparent what you need to measure to ensure you are making headway and spending your marketing dollars correctly.

RESOURCES
• Marketing Metrics White Paper

• Marketing NPV, a website devoted to marketing measurement

Newspapers, for instance, often work with no lead time. Online, radio and TV, too, are known for their immediacy. Newspaper special sections, such as a holiday gift guide, might want material one to two months in advance. Weekly newspapers, like the Charlotte Business Journal, have their special editions planned months in advance and begin reviewing story ideas for those as much as two to three months out. So, they might be thinking about their February 17 corporate philanthropy section in December.

Magazines - particularly those aimed at consumers - often have lead times of as much as six months. Some of those include women's books likeLadies' Home Journal and Redbook, as well as men's magazines like Maxim. In December, those editors are already thinking about Easter, taxes, Mother's Day and baseball season.

Even newswires like the Associated Press have some longer lead times for their special editions. AP's new editor, Julia Rubin, begins thinking about her monthly specials more than a month in advance. She likes to receive information about products and services, as well as story ideas that tie in. Here are some of her upcoming features and their deadlines:

Fashion, 2/1/2006; Health/Fitness, 3/1/2006; Careers, 4/1/2006