Column 18 · Marketing-Finance and Performance · Era 5, Assets and Accountability (2000s)
Productivity Chain
Outputs: performance · Landmark · Cluster VII, Outcomes
Description
They proposed the chain of marketing productivity linking marketing actions to customer impact, market impact, financial impact, and firm value, and set the research agenda for marketing accountability.
Managerial Implications
Marketing actions affect customer thinking, then customer behavior, then market results, then financial results, then firm value. Build a chain of metrics from your marketing actions to financial outcomes and track each link. This lets you attribute results, identify where effects break down, and justify spending in finance's language. Marketing accountability fails when the chain is skipped and spending is compared to revenue directly.