Prioritising Marketing Activities in Different Types of Marketing Functions

Marketing functions (MFs) differ in how they practise marketing roles. The purpose of this article is to differentiate between MFs that practice marketing roles in a particular manner and then study how these different types of MFs differ with regard to the marketing roles’ effect on business performance (BP) and top management's respect. An empirical survey identifies four types of MFs: (1) the broad spectrum; (2) the hesitant; (3) the traditional and (4) the market-creating. Findings show that for each of the four types, the effect of investing in a particular role varies: all roles are not equally important to practise. Moreover, all roles are not equally important to all marketing functions, but depend on the marketing function's unique starting point. Since MFs differ, relevant investments in marketing roles also differ, making it beneficial to prioritise them. However, management dilemmas exist, because to gain top management respect the MFs may have to perform roles that will not improve BP.