MARKETING
Marketing Relevance And
Credibility Escalator
By Michael M. Nzule
R
elevance is defined by Hjørland and
Christensen (2002) as ‘something
that serves as a tool; applied as a
contribution to the realization of a goal’.
In this review, I share my thoughts and
comparison of the relevance of historical
financial data and reports in strategic
marketing management.
My key questions oscillate between
the utility of historical data in driving
marketing
decisions
and
whether
relevance can be regained through real
time information exchange from market
and specifically focused on customer
feedback and customer engagement.
‘Relevance lost’ is a great reference point
in management accounting. The theme
was researched and led to engaging
debates in the 80s with key contributors
to the debate including Thomas and
Kaplan and critiques by Ines and Mitchell
(Relevance Lost: The Rise and Fall of
Management Accounting.) H. Thomas
Johnson and Robert S. Kaplan, Harvard
Business School Press, Boston, MA.
Later we heard of the light bulb moments
with arguments for relevance regained in
management accounting literature. financial data have any relevance to the
worth and delivery of marketing function
to a company? What is the value from a
marketers’ point of view? Actually, what is
value of products (and brands) in the eyes
of customers and consumers?
Years later, I wish to draw parallel
and lessons from those management
accounting debates and place them to our
subject of interest – strategic marketing
management. Is it possible that through
the evolution of what we consider as
great marketing that we might have lost
relevance? If so has there been relevance
regained moments? Can we create the
relevance and escalate it? This is the story
we should be creating. Historical financial
data may have very little impact in
influencing what the future of our brands
holds. Accountants have always pushed marketers
to support their proposals with numbers,
return on investment, some measure of
growth in brand equity (which is yet to find
its way in the financials or management
accounting reports and detailed overhead
variance analysis for all expenditure
incurred).
Do fixed financial reporting cycles
and periods based on hard historical
My key questions oscillate between the utility
of historical data in driving marketing deci-
sions and whether relevance can be regained
through real time information exchange from
market and specifically focused on customer
feedback and customer engagement.
Accounting reports tend to be so static.
The reports lack dynamism when used for
decisions like pricing without consideration
of the real marketing rationale. Besides
covering costs and assuring profits, pricing
decisions serve wider perspectives. Product
life cycles are not re lated to accounting
periods, hence the disconnect in reliability
of historical financial data.
Marketers employ a crystal ball into which
they forecast the market trends to provide
insights that are useful for pricing decisions.
This will not be found in the historical cost
data. What is the economic value that the
product or service provides in creating
utility to the customers? How can this be
incorporated into the historical data that
management accountants provide?
A convergence of minds is the requisite
56 MAL25/18 ISSUE