Review: "Marketing Metrics 2nd edition" - Is it really any different from the first?

Reviewed by Pat LaPointe, Managing Partner of MarketingNPV

I’m always a little skeptical when the 2nd edition of any book is released. Usually it’s just a means to get the buyers of the first edition to “upgrade”. I often find myself wondering – why a 2nd edition? Did the authors’ make a mistake? Did they leave out something crucial? You’d think that four prestigious marketing academics could get it right the first time, right?

But Marketing Metrics: The Definitive Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance – 2nd Edition  isn’t a textbook. It’s a reference book. And much like an encyclopedia, it needs updating as the world changes. So this 2nd edition offers an updated look at the key marketing metrics that help marketers measure the payback on their marketing investments to make smart business decisions. It’s a desktop resource of today’s most valuable marketing metrics. Practical techniques for measuring everything from brand equity to social media, market share and web engagement, are all described with clear examples.

But I still wanted to know, “Why the 2nd edition?” So I reached out to one of the authors, Dave Reibstein, co-author and longtime Professor of Marketing at Wharton School of Business. He offered me the following:

“The marketing discipline continues to evolve at break-neck speed. The 1st edition of the book, while including the most important metrics at the time, just touched on metrics like Net Promoter, Social Media Marketing, Web Metrics and Brand Equity. These metrics are much more evolved today, and are critical for marketers to understand and implement. In response to marketer’s needs, it was time to revisit our work in order to provide an updated and expanded resource.”

Turns out, that makes a lot of sense. Social Media Marketing has literally exploded over the last few years, and if you don’t get the importance of understanding and measuring its effects, well….I hope you enjoy that rock you’re living under. In addition, the book is significantly expanded, providing readers with new ways to organize marketing metrics into marketing dashboards that translate numbers into real insight.

Bottomline: it appears that, at least in this case, the 2nd edition Marketing Metrics: The Definitive Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance has added value that warranted a revision.

Given the speed at which marketing techniques and tools continue to advance and evolve, be on the look out for a third edition on store shelves sometime around 2013. If you can’t wait that long to answer your marketing ROI challenges, then I recommend this 2nd edition - now available for pre-ordering and available online shortly. Visit http://www.ftpress.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0137058292 for more information.

Marketing Metrics: The Definitive Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance 2nd Edition
Paul W. Farris, Neil T. Bendle, Phillip E. Pfeifer, David J. Reibstein
Feb 2010
$39.99
432 pages ISBN-13: 978-0-13-705829-7