DOES MARKETING RELATE TO FINANCE? – “MARKETING IS FINANCE?” THEORETICAL PERCEPTION

Abstract

As market develops and grows continuously and internationalizes, the confusion among companies increases regarding their orientation of the business. They find it each day more difficult to grab new shares in the market, to capture and gain new customers, to hold their clientele, to increase continuously their customers’ satisfaction, to position properly in the market and to face competition, as well as to answer to the spontaneity of the market evolution.  This tells for an increasing role of marketing in the companies’ organization, and of course in their performance and profitability. Even this necessity, the top management and other departments, but especially the finance ones are often debating on the marketing role and its contribution in the overall profit of the company, as marketing is very much oriented and familiar with performance indicators rather than financial results and profit in itself. There are views recently which emphasize that marketing is finance too, as it completes the value chain and realizes indirectly all the company’s targets. To this logic it has become necessary to measure its performance not only using marketing KPI (Key Performance Indicator) but financial metrics too. The study aims to show the reasons why marketing and finance are closely related and why “marketing is finance”. This is a deduction-induction-deduction theoretical review and treatment of the question, based on some facts and arguments both, from the world wide experience, as well as from Albanian reality of business and marketing.