The State of Marketing survey: Performance monitoring and budgeting remain relatively weak

The national Markkinoinnin tila (State of Marketing) survey opens up important perspectives to the Finnish marketing knowhow, the role of marketing and changes in its operating environment, as well as areas for development in Finnish marketing. This year the study focused particularly on questions related to budgeting and effectiveness, the use of artificial intelligence, and responsibility.

This year marks the tenth implementation of the State of Marketing survey. The survey has become an established part of the strategic marketing research of the Department of Marketing at Aalto University. 

‘The survey, carried out every other year, is the Finland’s longest-running academic survey in the field of marketing. Its unique data has, for instance, been published in the most respected international scientific journal in the field, the Journal of Marketing. We collect the data in collaboration with our long-term research partner, MicroMedia,’ says Associate Professor Johanna Frösén, who is responsible for the survey.

Monitoring marketing performance is too limited

Market orientation, marketing capabilities, and marketing performance and its measurement still form the basis for embedding marketing thinking as a key to Finnish companies’ international competitiveness. 

‘In particular, monitoring marketing performance and drawing the link between marketing activities and business performance still appear to be relatively weak in Finnish firms, despite the enormous development of marketing analytics in recent decades,’ says Johanna Frösén. 

‘Almost one third of companies do not regularly monitor the achievement of the objectives set for their marketing, and only just over one third trust that they are able to demonstrate the connection between their marketing activities and business performance at the company level. The amounts of money budgeted for marketing also lag behind comparable countries – for example, US companies invest in marketing almost one and a half times more relative to their turnover.’

Artificial intelligence and responsibility issues are reshaping the marketing field

Recently, the development of marketing technologies – particularly artificial intelligence – and the rise of responsibility issues have fundamentally reshaped the marketing field. Marketing performance is examined not only in terms of the economic impact on the business, but also increasingly in terms of environmental and social outcomes. 

‘The firms’ responsibility initiatives primarily focus on responsible governance and social issues. On the other hand, the role of environmental issues in companies’ strategy development has somewhat grown over the past two years,’ says Johanna Frösén.

Tools for analysing the operating environment and, for example, understanding the activities of customers and competitors are also constantly evolving. Market monitoring has become real-time in an increasing number of companies, and marketing decisions are increasingly based on data and analytics, as well as on recommendations generated by artificial intelligence. At the same time, AI-assisted automation of various marketing processes is spreading rapidly.