Share of Voice – A Key Metric That Has Lost Its Place?

In the mid ‘90s I worked in competitive analysis for a market leader consumer services brand during an extremely active and aggressive period in the market. The business was led by a hyper kinetic guy who left no challenge unanswered and was always angling for a squabble. It was a great learning experience that reinforced the need for sound business and marketing strategy.

I was tracking the advertising and Mar-com for four major competitors. We were tasked with understanding the message, promotions, offers and target audiences. We also looked extensively at the media types, investment and share of voice, going to great expense to have a pretty accurate handle on the numbers.

Interestingly, the senior executives never warmed up to or really “GOT” the importance of the Share of Voice (SOV) or Share of Spending (SOS). They were most intrigued by the creative, give-aways and offers. Our team put together a terrific presentation on the correlation of Share of Voice to Share of Market (SOM); using a classic marketing science book entitled The Wheel of Marketing by James Peckham Sr.

Peckham had analyzed several hundred leading package goods brands from 1946 to 1975 while working for Nielsen Data Corp.

The key conclusions were:

• SOV/SOM is key; if not the best indicator of what level of media support is needed to drive share growth.
• 96% of leading brands that grew share maintained SOV/SOM ratios exceeding 100%
• There is a substantial lag effect resulting from SOV/SOM ratio changes and actual market share impacts.
• SOV/SOM must be sustained for a long period to drive share changes.
• The greater uniformity/equality that exists among the competition on the quality of advertising and brand benefits, the stronger the correlation of SOV/SOM.
• Brands with news or high growth categories get a better return on increased SOV/SOM ratio.
• The following circumstances require greater SOV/SOM ratio to grow share:
- New brands generally need a disproportionate ratio (150 to 200 indexes) to get a foothold and grow.
- Longer purchase cycles.
- New brands without a quality or equity difference.
• The theory of SOV/SOM ratio does not hold for the following situations:
- A major price change by one brand
- A brand pre-launch or significant new innovation
- Entry of a significant, dynamic brand
- Much more compelling message, copy or creative for one brand
- Dramatically poorer brand image or equity


The extensive data that backed these analyses won over the marketing staff to a more scientifically driven approach to the media plan and market analysis. To be clear, it was not easy or inexpensive to compile the data, especially in a highly active market. It was also challenging to apply CPG models to a services industry. Yet, it was very worth it as it moved the ‘non-marketing types’ who held important marketing roles away from their obsession on creative issues and allowed the professionals to run advertising and mar-com.

These days, with many more media forms and the fracturing of the marketplace and audiences, SOM calculation is even more challenging. However, for any brand that can isolate a target segment and media, this analysis can be very beneficial.

A couple of important learnings for me were that data and facts will always sway the discussion and that marketing is part science, along with an art form