The influence of marketing in a company

Not much research has been made yet concerning this topic. This is one of the reasons why I’m interested in the effectiveness of marketing.

According to a survey of authors Homburg, Workman, and Krohmer there are some significant effects of marketing within a company. They examined three industry sectors in Germany and the U.S. Some of their conclusions:

-          The marketing department is rated the most influential unit within the firm concerning decisions on the strategic direction.

-          Marketing’s influence results from different determinants, not directly from individuals.

-          It’s not correct to assume that all consumer behavior can be explained by common theories of marketing. Institutional factors also have an impact.

To conclude they mention that managers must be sensitive to intraorganizational influence as a potential barrier to organizational change. Managers must be aware of the fact that their organizational form is not the single result of their rational choices. There are other factors that also count, like cultural and institutional issues.

Stijn De Schutter

Source: http://www.msi.org/publications/publication.cfm?pub=506