Marketing Performance Measurement and Firm Strategy
Summary
In today’s dynamic marketplace, the alignment of marketing performance measurement with firm strategy is essential for achieving sustainable competitive advantage. Marketing performance measurement encompasses both financial metrics—such as return on marketing investment and contribution margin—and non-financial metrics—such as brand equity indices and customer lifetime value—to deliver a comprehensive view of marketing efforts. By integrating these measures within strategic frameworks, organisations can assess the effectiveness of campaigns, refine targeting, allocate budgets more judiciously and respond swiftly to market shifts. Advances in digital analytics and marketing automation have intensified the granularity and timeliness of performance insights, enabling real-time strategy adjustments and fostering accountability across the enterprise. Concurrently, knowledge management practices have become vital for interpreting complex metric systems and ensuring that performance data drives coherent strategic decisions. Emerging research underscores the necessity of strategic control mechanisms that close the loop between measured outcomes and overarching corporate objectives, thereby enhancing both marketing’s influence on resource allocation and its contribution to long-term growth.
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Marketing Performance Measurement and Firm Strategy publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in marketing performance measurement and firm strategy across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Marketing performance measurement: The systematic assessment of marketing activities using financial and non-financial indicators to guide strategic decision-making.
Financial metrics: Quantitative measures—such as return on marketing investment—that capture the economic impact of marketing programmes.
Non-financial metrics: Qualitative indicators—such as customer lifetime value—that evaluate behavioural and relational outcomes of marketing efforts.
Marketing automation: Technology systems that automate the execution, management and measurement of marketing processes to deliver personalised customer engagement and data insights.
Strategic control: A management function that monitors marketing performance against strategic objectives and external benchmarks, facilitating timely adjustments to plans and resources.
References
- Strategic business decision making: the use and relevance of marketing metrics and knowledge management. Journal of Knowledge Management (2021).
- Marketing accountability and marketing automation: evidence from Portugal. EuroMed Journal of Business (2021).
- The Concept of Strategic Control in Marketing Management in Connection to Measuring Marketing Performance. Sustainability (2021).
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