New Version of Avista by MMA Makes It Easier to Manage Marketing ROI and Predict Future Business Performance

Wilton, Conn. (PRWEB) June 17, 2009

Marketing Management Analytics (a Synovate company), http://www.mma.com, the pioneer and innovator in marketing effectiveness, today announced the release of Avista 6.1, the latest version of its pioneering hosted decision support software service that will provide more precise ROI measures and greater marketing accountability.

Since 2006, Avista has been consistently delivering data integration, model updates and a rich simulation and reporting environment for major brands in the apparel, retail, consumer products, telecom and financial services/ banking sectors. It allows them to use continuously refreshed data and marketing mix models to track, manage and optimize marketing investments.

New features in Avista by MMA 6.1 include:

• More precise profit modeling: With its advanced analytical capabilities, Avista 6.1 enables marketers to enter various prices in order to model weekly profit margins across a variety of products in a category or line. This dynamic capability provides greater precision, accuracy and granularity in determining independent ROI figures by product and by week, with a higher degree of confidence in the impact of price changes on margin.
• Self-serve cost-per-point (CPP) inputting: Marketers can now input their own weekly or cost per point (CPP) data for various marketing vehicles into Avista's pricing and margin models, adding an element of self-service functionality that makes the process more streamlined and efficient.
• Streamlined product scenarios: Avista now allows a greater degree of consistency and standardization in product scenarios used to determine the impact of various marketing mix decisions, by giving administrators more control over the inputting of data that could potentially alter important items like annual plans or forecasts.
• Rapid data and model refreshes: MMA's new streamlined tools and processes enable clients to support monthly data updates and just-in-time model refreshes throughout the year.

"Given current economic conditions, it's become more critical than ever that marketers have capabilities and processes in place that allow them to make intelligent marketing decisions on the fly, and to calculate the impact of those decisions on margin in order to drive profitability," said Keith Hopkins, vice president, applications management for MMA. "The release of Avista 6.1 gives them a powerful system for making more timely, efficient and accurate decisions, enabling a greater degree of fine-tuning and course correction so that organizations can realize a greater return on their marketing investment."

Avista by MMA is a web-based decision support platform that helps companies manage their marketing budgets and produce plans by market, channel and time period. A proven market leader for nearly four years, Avista makes it easy for marketers to produce marketing scenarios and plans and then link them to causal forecasts. Avista's dashboard views provide visibility and transparency which enables marketing, research and finance to track the performance of marketing investments and the impact of both internal and external business drivers on a monthly or quarterly basis.

For more information or to be taken through a demonstration of the new Avista 6.1, please contact MMA at info (at) mma.com or call 203-834-3300.

About Marketing Management Analytics, Inc. (MMA)
MMA pioneered the use of marketing mix modeling to help companies plan, measure, validate and optimize their marketing performance. Since that time, MMA has conducted more than 1,000 studies on hundreds of brands and businesses in more than 20 countries. MMA's clients include many of the most recognized marketers in the world. MMA became a unit of Synovate in December 2008. For more information about Avista DSS and other MMA services, visit http://www.mma.com.

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