Prioritising Investments in Marketing Activities to Improve Business Performance.

The purpose of this study is to prioritise investments in marketing activities based on their effect on business performance (BP). On the basis of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model adapted to a marketing context, four generic marketing activities are structured in two dimensions: (1) Small m: marketing strategy and marketing implementation and (2) big M: cross-functional coordination and innovation. Big M and small m interact and influence BP similarly. When considering investing in marketing activities to improve financial performance, the first priority is to recruit and retain competent employees and the second, to collect, disseminate and act upon market insight in the form of measurement of effectiveness and production of intelligence. These provide resources for the development of a customer-oriented marketing strategy that in turn helps innovation and cross-functional coordination.