Perhaps more worrying than comments about lack of alignment between marketing strategies and corporate objectives are charges of poor marketing professionalism. Very few marketing professionals, it seems, actually under- stand or know how to use the widely available strategic analysis tools that would help them to dovetail their plans with what is going on in the wider marketplace, and elsewhere in their organisations. There are numerous tried and tested tools that would be of immediate value in improving marketing's contribution to the main board agenda.
THE MEANING OF PROFESSIONALISM IN MARKETING
For example, financial rigour in appraising marketing objectives would be a useful start. Financial managers have used tools such as Shareholder Value Added (SVA) for at least ten years now to support investment appraisal and resource allo- cation. SVA is not complicated, and it requires little more than a PC spread- sheet. However, these methods are mainly applied to capital projects and mergers and acquisitions. Although SVA is occasionally applied to calculate brand valuations, it is not widely used to support marketing decision-making. Resource allocation needs to be aligned with business growth. Yet there is a widespread disconnect between marketing's growth objectives and corporate cost-cutting objectives. Symptoms of this disconnect can be observed in the poor service provided by the majority of call centres, and the inadequate customer response from many Internet business ventures, which are very often set up as corporate cost-cutting ventures. Again the treatment is conceptually easy. Yet, surprisingly, few marketing plans adequately assess their resource implications (especially not cross- functionally). Benchmarks against the industry and measurements of customer satisfaction would indicate if the level of strategy and training was correct.