Return on Marketing

“What you can’t measure, you can’t manage.” During the last decade, the marketing function has seen a gradual decrease in budgets and a climate of aggressive cost-cutting. Marketing has turned to be regarded as an extravagance rather than a business function that creates value. In an effort to overcome these misperceptions and justify investments into marketing, firms continually demand greater accountability for money spent on marketing. This class emphasizes marketing’s contribution to firm performance and long-term shareholder value creation, which is the governing objective of management today.

In doing so, the course equips you with the understanding, strategic insights, and necessary tools and techniques to critically assess return on marketing investments. First and foremost, Return on Marketing (REMA) is a very practical class. The teaching method will be highly interactive, with a blend of cases, calculations, and discussions. Almost each class requires some form of practical application and analysis, with a focus on exposing you to a diverse set of analytical methods. This class is not built on a particular textbook. Instead, the essential material are the lecture slides, the literature, and the applications.

After successfully finishing this class, you should understand the concept of intangible marketing assets, understand different assets to measure marketing performance, and understand the methods to quantify how marketing actions contribute to financial value.