M-Factor News

As a user of the M3 Marketing Investment Management solution, we hope you find the the following information helpful.

M3 April '08 Release Update

The April M3 release contains numerous feature enhancements. Many of the changes continue to emphasize improvements in data and software configuration and will be transparent to end users. The list below contains the feature enhancements that may be of greatest interest to M3 users:

  • The Driver Elasticity report has historically reported the percentage change in the output (such as Volume) caused by a percentage change in the driver (such as Price). The report now also allows the user to see the percentage change in the output as the result of an absolute change in the driver (say, increasing from $5.00 to $7.00 in $0.10 increments).

    Example Driver Elasticity Report


  • The Model Fit report returns the MAPE (Mean Absolute Percent Error) for the models' volume predictions over the specified scope. A new option allows the user to receive the actual Volume figures (predicted and actual) that go into the MAPE calculation.

  • Automated stability testing has been implemented to alert M3 administrators to unexpected changes in calculated results. This capability is especially useful following incremental data loads or model updates to catch data issues and/or model drifts that show up unexpectedly.

    • M3 Feature Spotlight

    For an easy side-by-side comparison of individual initiatives within a scenario, users can turn to the scenario list view.  Base, Total, and Other Effects rows are also included to provide context. The specific columns to be displayed and their sort order may be selected using the Options menu.

    Example scenario list

    Values in the Base row are calculated with all initiatives disabled, and the values in the Total row are calculated with all initiatives enabled. The values for each individual initiative are calculated by simulating just the Base, then simulating the Base plus that single initiative, and subtracting the two simulation results. If the initiatives are all independent of each other, then the effect of simulating all initiatives together equals the sum of the per-initiative effects. If, however, synergy exists between the initiatives, then the total effects will not equal the sum of the individual effects, and this difference is included in the Other Effects row. For example, if a TV campaign is stacked over a Trade promotion, then simulating both effects simultaneously will typically have more positive effect than summing the individual effects, and this additional benefit will be displayed as Other Effects.   

    Coming Soon

    We are pleased to soon be adding a new directly ediTable P&L that allows marketing planners to adjust individual expenditure line items and immediately see the impact on volume, revenue, and all other line items.  Users may choose to work from a summary or detailed P&L format, and may even break out the line items across attributes such as products, locations or time for a more precise perspective.  Watch for more information on this new capability in next month's newsletter after its general release.