Abstract:

In North America and WestemEurope, the slowing of population expansion and inflation as well as ever increasing global competition have made it extremely difficult for marketers to achieve consistent revenue and profit growth. At the same time, much of the profit gains from efficiencies in manufacturing, distribution, and consohdation have been realized. The challenge set for the 1990’ s and beyond is to manage profitable growth through continual improvement in marketing productivity. Recent studies of scanner panel data by Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) have shown the profit limitations of couponing and trade dealing, such that heavy investments in these price-related allocations appear to have a low likelihood of contributing significantly to profitable growth in the future (Fulgoni, 1990). On the other hand, while advertising’s track record in these same studies is only slightly better, there is new and exciting evidence which suggests that advertising can be the main driver of consistent growth in revenues and profits, when the principles of Total Quality Management are applied to the advertising development and management process.