Metrics are one critical form of customer intelligence -- and it appears that the marketing profession now is focusing on measurement with extraordinary vigor.

"I've always felt that marketing drove profitable revenues," says Karen Haefling, CMO at Cleveland-based KeyCorp, the parent company of financial services firm KeyBank, in a new issue of CMO Magazine. "But now there's a new accountability in marketing that hasn't been there in the past. Companies are beginning to realize that it's important for their marketing strategies be aligned with their business strategies."

KeyBank's key measures include acquisition rates, conversion rates and ROI. "I can also measure the quantitative impact of performance activities," says Haefling. "Did the call get made in two days? Or did we have more success when a sales call was preceded by a mailing?" The company also can drill down on satisfaction and loyalty. "Now, with a rich client data warehouse and powerful campaign management tools, we can pinpoint the actual effects of specific actions for specific clients," she says.

"When we know the perceptions of our clients and the underlying drivers of those perceptions," she says, "we can use them to design new strategies that can be tested with a specific set of clients to see if their actual purchase behavior changes."

With quarterly presentations of its analysis and more frequent business unit reviews, Haefling has brought a high level of credibility to the marketing group. "This is a journey," she says, "that requires good data, strong analytics, flexible tools and, most of all, a mind-set to measure."