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Keywords: Marketing communication effectiveness, business-to-business markets, marketing communication objectives, organizational performance, structural equation modelling
JEL: M31
Abstract
Much of the research into marketing communications has focused on the consumer market with little regard to date for the business-to-business market. This paper focuses on a development and testing of a model of marketing communication effectiveness in the business-to-business market. Building on past research from the marketing communications and business-to-business marketing literature, the model (which incorporates facets of the marketing communication objectives, bidirectional communications, and communications channels) is tested to examine the impact of these antecedent variables on marketing communications effectiveness and organizational performance. The concept of marketing communication effectiveness assumes that there are variables that can have a positive influence on the effectiveness of marketing communications, and confirm the central concept of marketing communication effectiveness as having a positive impact on organizational performance. Managerial implications are discussed along with suggestions for further research.
1INTRODUCTION
This paper focuses on a new model for marketing communication effectiveness in the business-to-business context. Any company can develop a marketing communication program, regardless of budget or staff size. The key to implementing a successful program, however, is to incorporate measurement and analysis right from the beginning of marketing communication programme (Jerman, 2007, 871).
In recent years, the business-to-business marketing has experienced significant progress due to a number of theoretical and empirical findings published in the journals that examined the business-to-business market. A number of authors have written about the role and importance of marketing communications in the industrial markets (Smith, Gopalakrishna, Smith, 2004, 61; Garber, Dotson, 2002, 1; Rinallo, Borghini, 2003, 20; Kitchen, Schultz, 2003, 66; Wickham, Hall, 2006, 95; Hall, Wickham, 2008, 139). However, marketing communication in the business-to-business markets offers further potentially valuable opportunities of research, especially empirical research.
With the increasing call for accountability of significant marketing communication spending, measuring the contribution of marketing communication effectiveness to firm performance is inevitable and valued (Kitchen, Schultz, 2009, 201; placeEwing, 2009, 104; Rust et al., 2004, 76). However, measuring marketing communication impact on organizational performance has historically proven to be difficult, if not impossible. Benkahla (2006, 10) argues that integrated marketing communications still has no standard form for testing its effectiveness. Reid, Luxton and Mavondo (2005, 18) argue that...