Marketing for Maximum Value

Our research

In June 2003 the marketing Forum and PA Consulting Group conducted research among more than 100 senior UK marketers to assess marketing's role in driving business performance. The findings were then compared to a survey run previously, and with a similar study carried out among 270 leading US marketers.

Professor Philip Kotler said of the research: "PA Consulting Group and the marketing Forum's study of marketing's role in business firms is to be commended for identifying the strong and weak aspects of current marketing's performance in companies.

"The good news is that, where marketing is strongly positioned in companies and strongly competent, marketing improves the company's profit performance. The bad news is that marketing is not strongly positioned and competent in a majority of companies."

The findings provide important insights into how marketers must raise their game to drive further value for customers and shareholders.

Marketing in its broadest sense delivers more shareholder value than other business activities, but the research shows that marketers' influence is largely limited to 'traditional' marketing areas.

Marketers face three key challenges if they are to improve their contribution to their business’s performance:

	focus as closely on shareholders as they do customers
	deliver marketing accountability
	demonstrate ambition in driving the business agenda.

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See also:

Focus on shareholders as well as customers

Demonstrate results

Aim high

How effectively does marketing drive business success? (UK survey results 2002)