Marketing Accountability: Linking Marketing Actions to Financial Results
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Authors:
• Daniela MITRAN, PhD Associate professor, email: danielamitran@yahoo.com, Afiliation: „Athenaeum” University of BucharestPages:
• 186|193 -
Keywords: marketing, accounting, financial results, measurement tools
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Abstract:
Abstract\r\n\r\n Marketing function could benefit from favorable resource allocation and timely\r\n\r\n approvals for new marketing initiatives when it is perceived as being accountable.\r\n\r\n Many times marketing fails to link its activities to financial outcomes. There are\r\n\r\n three distinct classes of outcomes that relate to marketing activity: short term\r\n\r\n effects, long-term effects, and real options. Until now marketers have been most\r\n\r\n successful at identifying, measuring, and modeling short-term effects. Long-term\r\n\r\n effects occur in the present but fundamentally alter the market over the long term\r\n\r\n or at least for some period into the future and are more difficult to measure. The\r\n\r\n third type of return on marketing investment is referred to in finance as real\r\n\r\n options (the future opportunities for the firm). Valuing such options is difficult but\r\n\r\n marketers need to identify this type of contribution. By adopting more advanced\r\n\r\n measurement tools, marketers can not only measure the impact of their marketing\r\n\r\n programs against the goals of their organization, but also justify their actions to\r\n\r\n top management. The paper suggests some practical steps to improve marketing\r\n\r\n accountability not as an end goal in itself, but as a key factor in a move to support\r\n\r\n a customer focus and approach to growth.\r\n