A renewed approach to services marketing effectiveness

Purpose – Marketing as a function is under increasing pressure to develop and implement business‐oriented methods and measures to improve its effectiveness. This paper approaches the subject of marketing audits and aims to examine its impact and perceived benefits in service organizations. Based on the Index of Services Marketing Excellence framework, it seeks to develop an updated instrument and to test the hypothesized relationships – connections between input and output marketing measures. Design/methodology/approach – Data were taken from DunsPep Financial Sector Database. First, to validate the measurement instrument content, five individual interviews with marketing managers were carried out. Then, the same type of professionals were surveyed. Regarding structural equations modelling, a PLS‐GRAPH was utilized. Findings – This work tries to demonstrate the connection between marketing activities and company performance, sustaining the importance of a framework designed to evaluate the former. Findings were able to confirm the usefulness of marketing auditing. Research limitations/implications – The major limitation of this paper is traduced in sample size (n=51). Practical implications – According to conclusions, marketing audits can be viewed as a tool to evaluate activities and to increase marketing awareness and comprehension, leading to practice improvement. In this sense, the awakening seems to be achieved of an instrument that presents itself with interest to marketers and managers of service companies. Originality/value – In this work, the theoretical perspective was used not only to update the original instrument, but also to study the subject from a perspective beyond that usually associated with audits.