Professor Robert Shaw believes that the ultimate test of marketing investment is whether it creates value for shareholders. But few marketing investments are evaluated from this perspective, and many would argue that it is almost impos- sible to link financial results to any specific marketing activity. Increasingly, however, boards of directors and city analysts worldwide are dissatisfied with this lack of accountability for what are very often huge budgets.
Cranfield began to address this problem through the launch of the Market- ing Value Added Club (see www.cranfield.ac.uk) formed with the support of several blue chip companies. The Club sets out to create and test a new framework which shows how marketing systematically contributes to shareholder value, and how its contribution can be measured in an objective and comparable way. There is an urgent need for such a framework. Not only does marketing need it, to answer the widespread accusations of poor performance, but corporate and financial strategists need it too, to understand how to link marketing activities to the wider corporate agenda. All too often, marketing objectives and strategies are not aligned with the organisation's overall plans to increase shareholder value.