The Marketing Accounting Interface

When marketing managers and financial managers join forces within any business, the result can often be poor communication on financial criteria and goals. The risk of this situation occurring is inevitably present when those with different professional backgrounds and roles are working in accordance with their own norms. In his seminal 1956 paper on general systems theory, the economist Kenneth Boulding referred to the phenomenon of "specialised ears and generalised deafness", which can be seen to exist when marketing managers are financially illiterate or when financial managers lack the necessary insights to design, implement and operate accounting systems which are useful to marketing managers in carrying out their roles. It is increasingly difficult to attach credence to the idea of marketing managers who lack financial skills, or financial managers who fail to relate to the context in which marketing managers operate. Understanding the marketing/accounting interface is therefore important in generating emergent properties from the interaction of marketers and accountants whereby the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The chapters in this volume seek to address this challenge. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Marketing Management.

When marketing managers and financial managers join forces within any business, the result can often be poor communication on financial criteria and goals. The risk of this situation occurring is inevitably present when those with different professional backgrounds and roles are working in accordance with their own norms. In his seminal 1956 paper on general systems theory, the economist Kenneth Boulding referred to the phenomenon of "specialised ears and generalised deafness", which can be seen to exist when marketing managers are financially illiterate or when financial managers lack the necessary insights to design, implement and operate accounting systems which are useful to marketing managers in carrying out their roles. It is increasingly difficult to attach credence to the idea of marketing managers who lack financial skills, or financial managers who fail to relate to the context in which marketing managers operate. Understanding the marketing/accounting interface is therefore important in generating emergent properties from the interaction of marketers and accountants whereby the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The chapters in this volume seek to address this challenge. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Marketing Management.

Many organizations have found that the value to business operations and financial performance created by the marketing function has become very important. The need to demonstrate this importance has also become clear. Top managers are constantly challenging marketers to document marketing's contribution to the bottom-line and link marketing investments and assets to metrics that matter to them. This Handbook relates marketing actions to various types of risk and return metrics that are typically used in the domain of finance. It provides current knowledge of this marketing-finance interface in a single, authoritative volume and brings together new cutting-edge research by established marketing scholars on a range of topics in the area. The research in the marketing-finance interface spans tactical and strategic marketing actions related to the creation, communication, delivery and appropriation of the value proposition. The chapters, specifically written for this Handbook, draw on theoretical developments in economics, accounting, finance, psychology and cutting-edge statistical and econometric approaches. Academics and doctoral students in marketing, accounting, finance, and applied economics, along with marketing and brand strategy-focused business practitioners and consultants, will appreciate the state-of-the-art research herein.

A common complaint from senior management is that marketing managers are often unaware of the financial implications of their recommendations. Equally, it could be argued that many financial managers lack an understanding of marketing and how it influences such basic issues as sales, margins and cash flow. Marketing and Finance offers the opportunity to both marketing and finance managers to gain a better understanding of how their roles integrate in corporate decision making.