Although tallied as an expense on an income statement, marketing can be considered an investment- a means of creating assets in the form of lifetime customers that create a future stream of profits. Thus, embedded in all of MotherNature.com’s decisions on a marketing plan is the broader issue of return on investment. Will MotherNature.com’s investment in marketing yield a high return in terms of ongoing, paying customer relationship? MotherNature.com is using the ROMI (return on marketing investment) model to help answer this question.