Abstract:

This paper reports a research effort to increase our knowledge of how excellent marketing can be assessed and identification of factors leading to success in the market place. The concept of excellence and of excellent in marketing in particular is discussed. Various measures of excellence in marketing with their inherent advantages and disadvantages are emphasized. The chosen dual evaluation approach, i.e. evaluating marketing exellence from the perspective of consumers and business is described. Two related empirical studies conducted in Denmark, the one carried out with a sample of firms and the other, a large scale consumer study are reported. It was found that firms (marketers) and consumers partly differ in their use of criteria of excellent marketing performance, and that success criteria vary across product categories. However, factors attributing to excellent marketing were found to be in concordance with accepted marketing knowledge. Managerial and theoretical implications are highlighted.