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Using judgment profiles to compare advertising agencies' and clients' campaign values
Abstract
This study explored cognitive conflict between advertising agencies and clients by comparing decision profiles for a group of 57 advertising agency professionals and 63 clients concerning the qualities they typically look for in a campaign. Respondents assessed 30 hypothetical advertising campaigns that mixed-different levels of five decision factors: message/creativity, advertising budget, media planning, market research, and agency/client relationship. Although the profiles revealed some pockets of disagreement, the two groups' judgment policies showed substantial overall agreement, especially regarding the importance of creativity and budget. These aggregated judgment policies provide normative models for typical client and agency preferences.
... Many scholars have studied advertisement effectiveness and different techniques which can be used for measuring advertisement effectiveness (e.g., Batra et al., 1995;Beerli and Santana, 1999;Danaher and Dagger, 2013;Gong and Maddox, 2003;Heerde et al., 2013;Korgaonkar et al., 1984;Lavidge and Steiner, 1961;Lewis and Reiley, 2014;Murphy and Maynard, 1996;Neal and Bathe, 1997). According to Neal and Bathe (1997), advertisement effectiveness can be judged either by examining whether the advertisement have led to an increase in the number of consumers who would consider the product/service or by investigating whether the promotional campaign improved the value of the product/service in the consumers' collective mind, thus increasing the number of customers who would choose the product/service. ...
... Their study indicated that as competition decreases the probability that an advertising campaign will be successful increases. Murphy and Maynard (1996) studied advertisement effectiveness by investigating the cognitive conflict between advertising agencies and their clients. They used multiple regression-based procedures in order to compare the decision profiles of advertising agency personnel and customers. ...
... Laskey et al. (1995) found that advertising message strategy has an impact on advertisement effectiveness. Furthermore, the findings of Murphy and Maynard (1996) indicated that clients consider advertising message and creativity as the most important factor in determining the quality of an advertisement campaign. Therefore, it is predicted that a well-designed and creative advertising message will have a positive impact on the success and effectiveness of brand advertising. ...
The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that affect advertising effectiveness and to investigate the effects of these factors on advertising success. Using a sample of 252 customers the study identified seven factors that affect brand advertising success and effectiveness, namely, advertising message and creativity, advertising media selection, market research, competitiveness, market share, uniqueness, and customer relationship. Path analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used in order to test the proposed conceptual model of the study. The results revealed that advertising media selection has the strongest relationship with brand advertising success and effectiveness and can be considered as the most important factor affecting advertising effectiveness. The second and the third most important factors affecting advertising success were found to be advertising message/creativity and customer relationship. The results also indicated that although competitiveness impacts brand advertising success and effectiveness it is the least important factor among the seven factors identified in this study. Establishing appropriate relationships with customers and other stakeholders in order to understand their needs and demands is an important step toward improving the chances of brand advertising success and effectiveness. These relationships will also help the organizations to design their promotional campaigns according to the characteristics of their target customers which will contribute to the cumulative effectiveness of their brand advertisements.
... Likewise Rutherford et al. (1992) estimated that 20% of all US clients switched their agency in any 12 month period, while (according to Dowling, 1994) the corresponding gure for Australia could be as high as 38%. Yet, terminations undoubtedly entail considerable nancial costs for both the client and the agency (Michell, 1986;Wackman et al., 1986;Buchanan and Michell, 1991;Murphy and Maynard, 1996) as well as generating long and frustrating delays for clients as they search for and go through the process of selecting another agency, conduct induction brie ngs, develop rapport with the new agency and so on. The new agency has to learn about the client's needs and does this at the client's expense. ...
... Relationship breakdowns serious enough to result in account withdrawal have been studied from various perspectives. Murphy and Maynard's (1996) review of empirical investigations into agency-client con ict concluded that the common thread running through most of them was the dif culty that both sides experienced with understanding their counterparts' value systems and priorities, consequent perhaps to their possessing different backgrounds or objectives. Hence, Murphy and Maynard (1996) argued, agencies needed to get to know how decisions were taken and business conducted within client rms, even if this information did not pertain directly to advertising. ...
... Murphy and Maynard's (1996) review of empirical investigations into agency-client con ict concluded that the common thread running through most of them was the dif culty that both sides experienced with understanding their counterparts' value systems and priorities, consequent perhaps to their possessing different backgrounds or objectives. Hence, Murphy and Maynard (1996) argued, agencies needed to get to know how decisions were taken and business conducted within client rms, even if this information did not pertain directly to advertising. Overall it seems that high levels of interaction between an agency and the client and frequent agency-client communications can improve the quality of a relationship, as might periodic reviews of performance (Michell and Sanders, 1995). ...
Executives in 121 UK advertising agencies completed mail questionnaires designed to explore their attitudes and behaviour towards charity sector clients. Two major clusters of agencies emerged; those exhibiting a commercial approach to the management of charity accounts, and those displaying a more philanthropic orientation.
... From the advertiser's point of view, immediate measures of effect, making advertising accountable only in the short term, were more important, whereas agencies often focused more on creativity, ahead of strategy (Flandin et al., 1992). Advertisers viewed market research as being more important, whereas agencies viewed relationships as being more important (Murphy and Maynard, 1996). In today's complex environment, the key to successfully building a brand is to understand the relationship between consumers and that brand, regardless of the viewpoints of advertisers or advertising agencies. ...
... The message and creativity of an advertising campaign often contribute to its success (Korgaonkar et al., 1984; Korgaonkar and Bellenger, 1985; Murphy and Maynard, 1996). Highly creative, award winning advertisements often have a tremendously positive influence on sales (Schori and Garee, 1998). ...
... Media selection also has a major influence on advertising success (Korgaonkar et al., 1984; Korgaonkar and Bellenger, 1985; Murphy and Maynard, 1996). Around 40-50 per cent of new product offerings and existing brand offerings fail to take off despite heavy advertising, and most consumer product categories compete with each other on brand differentiation, for which it is becoming increasingly difficult to gain attention ( Businessline, 2003). ...
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the relationship between successful brand advertising campaigns in China and various factors such as message/creativity, media selection, market research, competition, market share, product uniqueness, and agency/client relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
The data for the study were collected by mailing a questionnaire to 283 advertising agencies executives who were selected from the All‐Asia Ad Agency Guide. A total of 1,086 questionnaires were sent out and 163 were returned for a response rate of 15 per cent. Factor analysis was first used to identify various success factors, and ANOVA was used to compare the means of each factor related to the degree of success of the campaign. Correlation analysis was then used to examine the relationship between successful brand advertising campaign and various success factors.
Findings
The results of the ANOVA indicate that there are significant relationships between some items in each factor and the degree of success of an advertising campaign. Correlation analysis further reveals that message/creativity, media selection, market research, market share, and product uniqueness are significantly related to the success of brand advertising in China. No significant relationship is found between brand success and competition or agency/client relationship.
Research limitations/implications
The respondents may have been biased about the extent to which their advertising campaigns are successful or how creative an advertisement should be. Their perceptions of successful or creative advertising could be very different, especially in relation to those questions that asked respondents to critique their own work. All of these affect the rigor of the study. Another limitation of the study is the low response rate. If the sample size had been large enough, comparisons could have been made concerning the correlates of successful brand advertising across different regions in China.
Originality/value
In addition to providing researchers with further understanding of brand advertising in China, this study provides some insights about the ways in which multinational advertising managers contribute to successful brand advertising.
... Likewise Rutherford et al. (1992) estimated that 20% of all US clients switched their agency in any 12 month period, while (according to Dowling, 1994) the corresponding gure for Australia could be as high as 38%. Yet, terminations undoubtedly entail considerable nancial costs for both the client and the agency (Michell, 1986;Wackman et al., 1986;Buchanan and Michell, 1991;Murphy and Maynard, 1996) as well as generating long and frustrating delays for clients as they search for and go through the process of selecting another agency, conduct induction brie ngs, develop rapport with the new agency and so on. The new agency has to learn about the client's needs and does this at the client's expense. ...
... Relationship breakdowns serious enough to result in account withdrawal have been studied from various perspectives. Murphy and Maynard's (1996) review of empirical investigations into agency-client con ict concluded that the common thread running through most of them was the dif culty that both sides experienced with understanding their counterparts' value systems and priorities, consequent perhaps to their possessing different backgrounds or objectives. Hence, Murphy and Maynard (1996) argued, agencies needed to get to know how decisions were taken and business conducted within client rms, even if this information did not pertain directly to advertising. ...
... Murphy and Maynard's (1996) review of empirical investigations into agency-client con ict concluded that the common thread running through most of them was the dif culty that both sides experienced with understanding their counterparts' value systems and priorities, consequent perhaps to their possessing different backgrounds or objectives. Hence, Murphy and Maynard (1996) argued, agencies needed to get to know how decisions were taken and business conducted within client rms, even if this information did not pertain directly to advertising. Overall it seems that high levels of interaction between an agency and the client and frequent agency-client communications can improve the quality of a relationship, as might periodic reviews of performance (Michell and Sanders, 1995). ...
Respondents to a mail survey designed to investigate relationships between small to medium-sized charities (SMCs) and their advertising agencies were questioned about the reasons underlying their decisions to change their agencies. It emerged that most SMC clients adopted pragmatic and commercially orientated approaches to the issue of agency termination. 'Market-orientated' charities were more likely to switch their agency within any given period than were others, particularly SMCs which (1) bench-marked their marketing activities against those of competing organizations, (2) experimented with promotional techniques and (3) employed marketing personnel who exerted a heavy influence on a charity's organization and management. Turbulence in the fund-raising environment was also a significant factor. The main reasons cited for agency termination related to poor creativity and the failure of advertisements to generate additional income.
... Cohesion may allow for greater discussion of consumer research to set it in a shared strategic context. Cook (1994), and Murphy and Maynard (1996), both report examples of how good consumer research leads to good strategy formulation, although in neither case was the process helped or hindered by the cohesive dynamics of the agency. Their results indicate that consumer research is simply more readily assimilated directly to strategy formulation without the need for intensive team dialogue. ...
... Their results indicate that consumer research is simply more readily assimilated directly to strategy formulation without the need for intensive team dialogue. In the advertising domain, most experienced creative employees can make sense of input primes for strategic purposes without a great deal of contextualizing (Cook 1994;Murphy and Maynard 1996;Rossiter, Percy and Donovan's 1991;Sutherland et al, 2004). Thereby, no interaction between cohesion and consumer research is expected when predicting the appropriateness of campaign strategy in the context of advertising development, and a simple one-way effect is hypothesized. ...
This article explores mechanisms that influence the absorption of external information within the creative advertising development process. Consumer information, in the form of consumer research or evaluations of consumer responses, is presumed to be the building block of consumer insights for agencies seeking more effective communication with consumers. Successful agencies are presumed to have the capacity to absorb consumer insights and utilize them to develop effective advertising strategies. But consumer insights do not always translate seamlessly into a strategy dialogue. Absorbing and using external knowledge has costs beyond those of acquisition or simply employing “creative” people. Agencies, through their sociocognitive processes, have to actively identify useful information, make it accessible to the organization, and then exploit it to develop creative ideas. A study is presented on how group dynamics influence knowledge absorption, which then shapes the emergence of creative ideas. Group cohesion and interpersonal friction are examined. Subjects include 184 advertising practitioners reporting on 548 campaigns. Results show that in some group settings effective absorption of external information occurs, which improves the creative quality of promotional campaigns. However, in other situations the work changes in character, shifting from more original to more appropriate, rather than improving overall creativity.
... Forces Prompting Break Up of Client-Agency Relations Murphy and Maynard (1996) explored cognitive conflict between agencies and clients comparing 4 decision profiles regarding hypothetical campaigns in five areas. While substantially in overall agreement with their clients, agency rankings on the five decision areas did show some discrepancies. ...
... In particular, Murphy and Maynard (1996) and Hotz et al (1982) emphasized the effects of organizational factors with the interaction of individual factors. This interaction is suggested by WW. ...
Account acquisition and retention is an ongoing problem facing advertising agencies. Literature in this area has focused on the criteria used in agency selection, the factors fostering continuity, and the forces prompting the break-up of client–agency relationships. However, this classic industrial service relationship has not been examined from a business-to-business buying behavior perspective. A study was conducted with top agency account acquisition personnel. This study found strong support for the notion that business buying behavior models can be applied to client–agency relationships. Furthermore, they may be applied to business-to-business service transactions as well. Many forces considered unique to business buying behavior were prevalent for the selection of agency services according to sales personnel involved in cultivating new business. The findings suggest that agencies need to emphasize nonspecific campaign forces effecting agency selection. Moreover, the study also points to the importance of identifying the effect of internal organizational forces and the roles buying center members play, side by side with campaign-specific factors. Directions for future research are noted and managerial implications for business-to-business new account acquisition and selling are also provided.
... For example, Trauth et al. (1993) investigated the expectation gap from the information systems (IS) industry's perspective, where they examined the difference between the IS industry's needs and graduate abilities. Similarly, Murphy and Maynard (1996) looked at the expectation difference in campaign values between advertising agencies and their clients. A study conducted by Douglas and Connor (2003) found a gap between managers' perceptions of consumers' expectations and actual customers' expectation of service quality. ...
Research aim: The aim of this study is to examine the possibility of a gap in perception between Shariah practitioners and customers of Islamic banks on the importance of Shariah disclosure by Islamic banks. Design/ Methodology: Questionnaires were distributed to Shariah practitioners, consisting of Shariah committee members and Shariah officers, and Islamic banks’ customers who were lecturers and final year accounting students. The concept of expectation gap derived from the auditing literature was extended and applied to this study’s context. A total of 64 and 200 questionnaires were distributed to Shariah practitioners and customers of Islamic banks, respectively. The response rates were 41% for Shariah practitioners and 65% for Islamic banks’ customers. Research findings: The results indicate that Shariah practitioners and customers perceive all Shariah disclosure items as important to be disclosed. However, a few significant differences were noted between both groups, suggesting the existence of an expectation gap, albeit minimal. Only a minimal gap between the selected customers and practitioners may be reasonable, as the group of customers consisted of informed customers. Theoretical contribution/ Originality: This study contributes to knowledge as there is a dearth of literature that determines customers’ perceptions of Shariah disclosure. Practitioner/ Policy Implications: The results provide regulators and Islamic banks with valuable insight into the importance of Shariah disclosure items from the points of view of customers and Shariah practitioners on which items they concur as important and which items they differ in opinion. Limitation/ Implication: This study is an initial effort to examine the expectation gap between knowledgeable customers and Shariah practitioners on the Shariah disclosure made by Islamic banks. The customers are respondents from only one university; hence, there is a limitation concerning the generalisability of the findings. Thus, future research could extend such an investigation to other customers in order to enhance generalizability.
... A simple and convenient sampling technique was used to distribute questionnaires/survey between barber shop in Eastern area of London to gather information. A mixture of probability and non-probability sampling method, furthermore questionnaires were also part of advertising (Murphy & Maynard, 1996). From an estimated total population of over 400 black barbershops in the East of London, 40 barbershops were randomly selected to be used for the survey (Mintel, 2017; Office of National Statistics, ONS, 2017), a field survey was conducted with questionnaires designed to educate black barber shop clients about the service. ...
Barbershops and electronic booking
... A simple and convenient sampling technique was used to distribute questionnaires/survey between barber shop in Eastern area of London to gather information. A mixture of probability and non-probability sampling method, furthermore questionnaires were also part of advertising (Murphy & Maynard, 1996). From an estimated total population of over 400 black barbershops in the East of London, 40 barbershops were randomly selected to be used for the survey (Mintel, 2017; Office of National Statistics, ONS, 2017), a field survey was conducted with questionnaires designed to educate black barber shop clients about the service. ...
This article is part of an MBA Special Issue of the Bloomsbury Institute (an Associate of the University of Northampton). It features some insight into the electronic booking systems for Barbershops by highlighting the main preoccupation of the barber as someone that is too busy to answer his phone calls or respond to questionnaires when customers are queuing up to fulfil their grooming rituals. In the absence of receptionists at barbershops (considering the overheads associated with employing the services of a full-time receptionist), the study highlights the need for an electronic booking system to barbershops in the East London area. The proposition is with a view to enable barbershops fulfil orders that might otherwise be missed, by taking advance bookings in real time.
... A simple and convenient sampling technique was used to distribute questionnaires/survey between barber shop in Eastern area of London to gather information. A mixture of probability and non-probability sampling method, furthermore questionnaires were also part of advertising (Murphy & Maynard, 1996). From an estimated total population of over 400 black barbershops in the East of London, 40 barbershops were randomly selected to be used for the survey (Mintel, 2017; Office of National Statistics, ONS, 2017), a field survey was conducted with questionnaires designed to educate black barber shop clients about the service. ...
The digital revolution has permeated and reconstituted innovation in recent years – from production to consumption, marketing and farmgate to the dinner table, and from bales to fabric and fashion. The way we communicate, dress, drive or perform rituals such as grooming, have all changed. Artificial intelligence has permeated the retail sector: from financial services to fashion, from travel to accommodation booking systems, smart chatbots, propensity modelling and marketing automation abound. Even your regular visit to the barbers or non-traditional medicine like acupuncture delivery are affected. The purpose of this article is to introduce contributions of digital and everything in-between to the rapidly changing landscape of business and management.
... Agencies overestimated the importance of their creative ability and achievement. Murphy & Maynard (1996) studied the sources of cognitive conflict between agencies and clients. In five key areas there were significant differences. ...
Public relations agencies are an important part of the public relations industry, but their relations with client organizations are rarely studied. There is more literature and studies in agency-client relations in advertising than in public relations. This paper reviews literature and reports results of an empirical study into perceptions of public relations agencies and their clients on the reasons for their cooperation and sources of conflict between them. Results show that agencies misperceive reasons for which they are hired and the sources of conflict in the relationship. The paper offers several suggestions about how to tackle the problem: notwithstanding rebranding into consultancies and firms, public relations agencies-client relations should be studied as a particular example of a broader family of agency-client relations. Also agencies should study and strategically manage relations with their clients, while being realistic about client organization's needs - sometimes they just need additional arms and legs.
... A collaborative ACR benefits both parties Table 2 Prevalent Journals in Dataset 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 Conflict Pollay and Swinth (1969) Survey Behavioural Simulation Agency (9) (CON) Murray (1971) Survey Questionnaire Agency (164) Doyle, Jens and Michell (1980) Survey Questionnaire Agency (210) Hotz, Ryans, and Shanklin (1982) Survey Questionnaire Agency (68) Michell (1987). Survey Questionnaire Client (100) Pincus, Acharya and Trotter (1991) GT Michell, Cataquet and Hague (1992) Survey Questionnaire Client (200) Johnson and Laczniak (1991) Conceptual N/A N/A Dowling (1994) Survey Questionnaire Client (157) Murphy (1994) Interviews Interviews Agency (10) Bourland (1994) Conceptual N/A N/A Henke (1995) Interviews Interviews Agency (151) Beard (1996b) Conceptual N/A N/A Murphy and Maynard (1996) Survey Questionnaire Agency (57) Client (63) Michell, Cataquet and Mandry (1996) Survey Questionnaire Client (1,145) West and Paliwoda (1996) OBB Survey Questionnaire Client (145) Mathur and Mathur (1996) Conceptual N/A N/A Murphy and Maynard (1997) Survey Questionnaire Agency (57) (2012) AT, NT Interviews Interviews Agency (22) Broschak and Block (2013) Conceptual N/A N/A Heo and Sutherland (2015) SET Survey Questionnaire Agency (89) Client Account Management (CAM) Capon and Scammon (1979) Case Study Interviews Agency (1) Client (1) Calantone and Drury (1979) Conceptual N/A N/A Wackman, Salmon and Salmon (1986) Survey Questionnaire Client (182) Michell (1986) Interviews Interviews Client (128) Michell (1988) Interviews Interviews Agency (15) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 ...
Purpose - Since agencies play a pivotal role in operationalising marketing strategy, this relationship is central to marketing theory, management and practice. This article presents the first systematic review of the literature relating to the relationships between organisations and their marketing agencies, the agency-client relationship, and presents a concept matrix that identifies the key areas of investigation, and topics where further research would be beneficial.
Design/methodology/approach - A systematic review of the literature was performed using key databases and search terms, and filtering on the basis of criteria relating, for example, to relevance and format, to create a core set of refereed articles on the agency-client relationship in the marketing and advertising domains. Bibliographic and thematic analysis was used to profile the literature in the dataset, and to draw out key themes.
Findings: The article provides an analysis of the extant knowledge base, including key themes, journals, and research methods. The following themes emerged from the literature, and are used to elaborate further on the existing body of knowledge: conflict, client account management, contracts and agency theory, cultural and international perspectives and co-creation. An agenda for future research is proposed that advocates a focus on theoretical foundations, research strategies, and research topics and themes.
Originality/value: This is the first systematic review of the literature on agency- client relationships, which is scattered across disciplines and informed by several theoretical perspectives. Given the increasing complexity of agency-client relationships in the digital age, and increasing need to understand ‘marketing-as- practice’, the coherent overview offered by this article is of particular value for guiding future research.
Keywords
Agency-client relationship, Agency Theory, Relationship management, Marketing management, Co-creation, Marketing-as-practice.
... The concept of audit expectation gap has been used not only in the accounting literature, but also in other disciples. For instance, to evaluate the view of the information system industry relating to the academic preparation of graduate (Trauth, Farwell and Lee, 1993); difference in expectations of advertising agencies and their clients with respect to campaign values (Murphy and Maynard, 1996); differences in relation to various issues associated with corporate environmental reporting on one hand and the clash between auditors and the public over preferred meanings of the nature, objectives and outcomes of an audit (Sikka, Puxty, Wilmott and Cooper, 1998 and Deegan and Rankin, M & Tobin 2002); the gap in banks between the transaction-audit approach that evolved during the industrial age and the information age and a financial reporting expectation gap (Andrew, 2003). In 1978, the definition was extended by the ...
... The public perception of an auditor's responsibility differs from that of the profession and this difference is referred to as the expectation gap. The term has been used not only in the accounting literature, but also in other fi elds, for example, to describe the perceptions of the information systems industry relating to the academic preparation of graduates (Trauth et al., 1993); difference in expectations of advertising agencies and their clients with respect to campaign values (Murphy and Maynard, 1996); differences in relation to various issues associated with corporate environmental reporting on one hand and the clash between auditors and the public over preferred meanings of the nature, objectives and outcomes of an audit (Sikka et al., 1998) and (Deegan and Rankin, 1999); the gap in banks between the transaction-audit approach that evolved during the industrial age and the information age (Singh, 2004); and a fi nancial reporting expectation gap (Higson, 2003). ...
The main objective of the study is at first identifying the expectation gap about audit responsibility and the second quantifying the expectation gap in Iran. In order to collecting data, a questionnaire designed and developed between auditors and investors. Collected data analyzed by employing non-parametric statistics test. The results show that there is expectation gap between auditors and investors in Iran. The current study employed a new approach in the world in order to quantifying the expectation gap. It gives the more strength to other researchers in order to measuring audit expectation gap in the world.
... John Otalor / Chinwuba Okafor 135 | P a g e and the public over preferred meanings of the nature, objectives and outcomes of an audit, the gap in banks between the transaction-audit approach that evolved during the industrial age and the information age, and a financial reporting expectation gap (Trauth, Farwell and Lee, 1993;Murphy and Maynard, 1996;Sikka, Puxty, Wilmott and Cooper ,1998;Deegan andRankin, 1999 andAndrew,2003). ...
he study sought to ascertain if reducing the audit expectation gap would led to greater public confidence in corporate financial information. Self-administered questionnaires were used in the study. The data generated from the responses of the subjects were analyzed using descriptive and statistical analysis through the computer (Eview3.1).
The result showed that the higher the audit expectation gap, the higher the negative impact on the credibility of corporate financial reports. Thus, audit expectation gap creates doubt on the reliability of financial statements. Based on the findings and conclusion, it was recommended that the scope of auditors’ responsibilities should be expanded; companies should create a forum for regular interface between management, auditors and financial statement users to enhance confidence in financial reports and strengthening the audit committee and regulatory oversight of auditors to enhance their respective performances.
... The term expectation gap has been used not only in the accounting literature, but also in other fields. For example, to describe the perceptions of the information systems industry relating to the academic preparation of graduates (Trauth, Farwell and Lee, 1993); difference in expectations of advertising agencies and their clients with respect to campaign values (Murphy and Maynard, 1996); differences in relation to various issues associated with corporate environmental reporting on one hand and the clash between auditors and the public over preferred meanings of the nature, objectives and outcomes of an audit (Sikka, Puxty, Wilmott andCooper ,1998 andDeegan andRankin, 1999); the gap in banks between the transaction-audit approach that evolved during the industrial age and the information age (Singh, 2004); and a financial reporting expectation gap (Andrew,2003). ...
The study sought to ascertain the role of the auditing profession in narrowing the audit expectation gap. Self-administered questionnaires were used in the study. The data generated from the responses of the subjects were analyzed using descriptive and statistical analysis through the computer (SPSS 16.0). The result shows that the public is ignorant of the duties of the auditor and this lack of knowledge is responsible for unreasonable expectations of the public from auditors. Based on the findings and conclusion, it was recommended that the public need more education on the duties and responsibilities of the auditor, the standard auditor's report should be expanded to include disclaimer clauses clearly showing that it is not a certificate or guarantee of the financial soundness of the auditee, it should be clearly stated in the audit report that the auditor is not the Compliance Officer of the audited company and that the auditors report should add that the opinion expressed by the auditor should not be construed to mean a guarantee of accuracy of the financial statements.
... The public perception of an auditor's responsibility differs from that of the profession and this difference is referred to as the expectation gap. The term has been used not only in the accounting literature, but also in other fields, for example, to describe the perceptions of the information systems industry relating to the academic preparation of graduates (Trauth et al., 1993); difference in expectations of advertising agencies and their clients with respect to campaign values (Murphy and Maynard, 1996); differences in relation to various issues associated with corporate environmental reporting on one hand and the clash between auditors and the public over preferred meanings of the nature, objectives and outcomes of an audit (Sikka et al., 1998) and (Deegan and Rankin, 1999) the gap in banks between the transaction-audit approach that evolved during the industrial age and the information age (Singh, 2004), and a financial reporting expectation gap (Higson, 2003). ...
Audit expectation gap is not a new phenomenon in auditing literature. It somewhat gives a bad reputation to external auditors. This paper addresses the nature and different dimensions of audit expectation gap around the world. The author comes to the conclusion that this kind of gap should be reduced by the auditor himself, by improving audit responsibilities, educating various users, and mandating new standards.
... The public perception of an auditor's responsibility differs from that of the profession and this difference is referred to as the expectation gap. The term has been used not only in the accounting literature, but also in other fields, for example, to describe the perceptions of the information systems industry relating to the academic preparation of graduates (Trauth et al., 1993); difference in expectations of advertising agencies and their clients with respect to campaign values (Murphy and Maynard, 1996); differences in relation to various issues associated with corporate environmental reporting on one hand and the clash between auditors and the public over preferred meanings of the nature, objectives and outcomes of an audit (Sikka et al., 1998). ...
The audit expectation gap (AEG) is denoted as the difference between what the public expects from an audit function and what the audit profession accepts the objective of auditing to be. The existence of an audit expectation gap is likely to be detrimental to the value of auditing and the well-being of the auditing profession as the contribution of auditing may not be fully recognized by society. This has stirred a number of professional and regulatory reforms aimed at protecting shareholders who rely on the financial statements for decision purposes. In spite of the existence of research pointing to the difference between what the public expects from audit and what the audit profession accepts as the objective of auditing, there appears to be paucity of research on how to address this issue in Nigeria. Therefore, this research investigates whether audit expectation gap exists in Nigeria and the perception of the users' group on its existence. Respondents view was also sought on how the gap could be narrowed. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested using the analysis of variance. The study reveals that an audit expectation gap exists in Nigeria, particularly on issues concerning auditor's responsibility. It was also observed that there are significant differences in the perception of respondent groups on the existence of the audit expectation gap in Nigeria. Therefore, the study suggests educating the public about the objects of an audit, auditors' role and responsibilities to narrow the audit expectation gap.
... The public perception of an auditor's responsibility differs from that of the profession and this difference referred to as the expectation gap. The term has been used not only in the accounting literature, but also in other fields, for example, to describe the perceptions of the information systems industry relating to the academic preparation of graduates (Trauth et al., 1993); difference in expectations of advertising agencies and their clients with respect to campaign values (Murphy and Maynard, 1996); differences in relation to various issues associated with corporate environmental reporting on one hand and the clash between auditors and the public over preferred meanings of the nature, objectives and outcomes of an audit ( al., 1998) and (Deegan and Rankin, 1999); the gap in banks between the transaction-audit approach that evolved during the industrial age and the information age [Singh, 2004]; and a financial reporting expectation gap (Andrew Higson: 2003). The audit expectation gap has a long persistent history. ...
This paper focuses on the concepts and evidences of audit expectation gap. In first part it covers the evolution of audit, and causes of audit expectation gap. In the next part it covers the evidence of audit expectation gap. This study brings out the nature of audit expectation gap prevailing in different countries of the world. The major countries were and Egypt. These studies bring out the differences in perceptions on audit expectation gap amongst different sections of the society. Most of the studies ascertain the auditors' and the public's view of the roles and responsibilities of auditors through the use of questionnaire surveys. The approach to defining audit expectation gap varies from one person to another. However, there is a consensus among the researchers that the gap arises due to over-expectations of users regarding the functions of an auditor and lack of knowledge about auditors' role and responsibilities have made the users to expect high. The literature also reveals that educating the public about the objects of an audit, auditors' role and responsibilities will help to narrow the audit expectation gap.
... Dado que el interés consistió en la retención del cliente, se buscó información sobre variables que tuvieran incidencia sobre la misma, tales como cambios de agencias, estabilidad o rupturas de las relaciones. Murphy y Maynard (1996) compararon perfi les de decisión basados en si el cliente había cambiado anteriormente de agencia o no. Buchanan y Michell (1991) demostraron que los aspectos creativos inciden no solo en la obtención de la cuenta, sino en su conservación en el tiempo. ...
"Events 5" are part of the mixture of effective communication for brands, and today, they demand a strategic management. It is important for the specialized organizations that provide this service, to implement tools that enable them to be competitive in the long term through differentiation. To this end, the CESA has studied the client-agency of marketing communications relationship, primarily on the importance of the retention of clients in B2B relations, as the ones that have been held among events agencies and their clients.
... The groups differed in their views as to the significance of product uniqueness and competition. Murphy and Maynard (1996) studied the cognitive conflict between ad agencies and their clients by comparing judgment profiles concerning attributes each group typically wanted to see in a good advertising campaign. The findings indicated that agencies and clients "think very much alike," but "they often believe they do not." ...
This manuscript reports the results of a national survey of advertising agencies who have small business clients. The mail survey to a national sequential sample of 500 agencies sought to evaluate the quality of advertising assistance provided to small business clients based on the agencies understanding of how advertising strategy should be developed. The results of the study indicate that the advertising agencies correctly responded to only 82% of the questions. This demonstrates the need for small businesses to judiciously select their ad agency in terms of the agency's knowledge of marketing concepts related to advertising strategy development.
... Supporting Frazier and Rody (1991) and Gundlach's and Cadotte's (1994), participants do not claim that conflict is always negative. Similarly, Helgesen (1994) and Murphy and Maynard (1996) argued that disagreements can be useful for the final outcome. Participants support the view that clients' constructive involvement in the development of the campaign, even with opposing to the agency's opinions, can improve their relationship. ...
Power does not receive much attention in the services marketing literature, with factors such as trust and commitment (e.g. Morgan and Hunt 1994) attracting most attention. Yet power balances are important elements of many services relationships and understanding the significance of these can provide insight into the manner in which relationships develop and endure. Additionally, the research into this phenomenon has tended to be conducted in either a US or UK context, so this raises questions about whether power (and dependency) are perceived in similar manners in different cultural contexts. This paper uses semi-structured interviews to explore the power balance in advertising agency - client relationships in the Greek market. The findings suggest that the notion of power was perceived to have negative connotations, often results in conflict and that power lies in the hands of the client resulting in negative effects on the performance of an agency and consequently advertising success and services relationships.
... This is not surprising given creativity is the foundation of most advertising work and has been shown to be the primary selection criterion for choosing an agency (Kover & Goldberg, 1995;Marshall & Woon, 1994;Michell, 1984;Reid, Whitehill King, & DeLorme, 1998;Taylor, 1994;Zinkhan, 1993). This is because an advertising agency that produces good creative strategies and is committed to creative excellence inspires confidence and builds loyalty among their clients (Michell & Sanders, 1995;Murphy & Maynard, 1996). It is not an easy task for agencies, as the process of developing advertising involves "creativity on demand" (Nachum, 1996;Zinkhan, 1993). ...
This article examines the management of creativity facing international advertisers and agencies. There has been a substantial amount of research comparing advertisements in different cultures but relatively little work on the nature of the creative personalities, processes, and philosophies used in developing such advertising. The research question posed in this article is whether the differences in advertising observed between "individualistic" and "collective" societies are mirrored by differences in creative people and practices. Australia is studied as a representative individualistic society and Singapore as collectivist. Using a questionnaire, a sample of creatives in each country was examined. Differences were found to exist between the 2 cultures, particularly with personal qualities, control of the process, and use of philosophies. However, agency philosophy types were remarkably similar between the 2 cultures. Implications are identified along with directions for future research.
An analysis of the articles published in the Web of Science between 1986 and 2023 is presented, seeking to serve researchers and professionals. The research design included a bibliometric analysis based on bibliographic coupling, a process complemented by thematic analysis to rethink the challenges and future of advertising research in an era emphasised by the rise of the creative industry, from politics to business, industry, services, education and culture. The study of the 235 identified articles, divided into seven distinct clusters, allowed us to identify areas,
researchers and institutions that have generated more research and the themes most pursued by researchers. The results of the seven clusters identified show that it may be pertinent to investigate creativity in advertising through a new extension
to the 3Ps framework. A new study perspective is proposed: artificial intelligence, due to its current preponderance and how it can condition and simultaneously be part of the solution to current social challenges.
La creatividad ocupa un rol nuclear dentro de la comunicación publicitaria, pero ¿el anunciante lo tiene en cuenta como un factor esencial a la hora de juzgar y dar el visto bueno a las ideas comunicativas que una agencia le presenta? El objetivo principal de este artículo es el de identificar los elementos que, desde el punto de vista de los anunciantes, son claves en su proceso de valoración y aprobación de las ideas comunicativas; detectar los elementos que pueden facilitar o dificultar que un anunciante valore favorablemente una propuesta y comprobar si la creatividad es uno de ellos. Para ello, se planteó una investigación con un enfoque cualitativo y carácter exploratorio en la que se llevaron a cabo entrevistas en profundidad a seis anunciantes que operan en el mercado español. Los resultados obtenidos, utilizando el análisis de contenido y la Teoría Fundamentada, ponen de manifiesto que la propuesta de la agencia no se valora de manera aislada sino que, más allá de la idea, hay un abanico de elementos intangibles que ejercen una enorme influencia sobre la decisión final del anunciante. La creatividad es una característica que se da por supuesta, se asimila a originalidad y se equipara a un medio para conseguir unos determinados objetivos empresariales. A su vez, el enfoque del artículo proporciona una visión del anunciante tradicionalmente ignorada en la literatura publicitaria: su condición no solo como emisor, sino también como público objetivo de la comunicación comercial.
While advertising processes are complex and changing, the same ethical problems endure, including those relative to organizational challenges. Yet research affords little attention to challenges influencing ethical awareness in advertising, such as those related to new business. In response to the call for an organizational approach to advertising ethics, ethnographic field work and 45 one-on-one interviews were conducted regarding perceptions of advertising ethics, organizational challenges, and the relationship between the two. Findings suggest that financial pressures related to new business challenges influence how members perceive ethics such as advertising harmful products.
Creativity is the heart of advertising. The advertising industry provides a unique research setting with a range of highly specialized roles. These roles range from undertaking creative ideation processes through to idea refinement and expression, evaluation, and relationship management roles. Like all creative ideas, great creativity in advertising requires ideas that are both original and appropriate, but also well presented. Numerous con straints exist to achieving great creative advertising including time, med ium, and evaluation pressures. Evaluative pressures result from the difficulty in accurately assessing the effects of an advertising campaign prior to vast expenditures being made. This increases the potential for conflict and the need for structures and processes to be established to manage relationships. For the privileged few who have been fortunate to research in this industry, their insights have assisted our understanding of a range of complex interactions and constraints that influence the full range of creative processes and outcomes. While this research has provided many practical findings, there is still much to learn from this dynamic field.
Kaohsiung City is a special municipality in Southern Taiwan. The difference between northern and southern cities in terms of public investments, industrial structures, and social perspectives has been a problem in Taiwan because talented people keep moving from the south to the north. The difference in cognition of government's allocation of policy resources between professional civil servants and the general public demonstrates the conflict between "public opinion" and "professionalism". This study adopted the social judgment theory (SJT) to examine the cognition of individuals affected by policy resource allocation regarding the allocation of policy resources made by the Government of Kaohsiung City. The SJT is applicable to real-world circumstances in the field of judgment and analysis. The research result indicated that the affected individuals were concerned that the government lost its focus when allocating policy resources. Obscure schemes and plans for policymaking and election-oriented decision making significantly impact government allocation of policy resources. The essential problem of policy resource allocation in Kaohsiung City is that although the supply of resources is higher than the demand, the types of resources do not meet the requirements of the demand.
The explosive growth of the internet has the potential to alter agency-advertiser relationships and blur the functions performed by each. Moreover, newer challenges are also surfacing in regard to web-related activities and functions performed by agencies and outside internet specialists from public relations firms, computer design boutiques, and studios. This study attempts to assess and compare perceptions, use, and implementation issues associated with marketing on the internet among a national sample of advertising agencies and advertisers. The findings are discussed regarding the potential impact of these perceptions on the agency-advertiser relationship.
The need to justify one's decisions is a signal characteristic of decision making in a managerial environment. Even chief executives must communicate reasons for their actions. Yet, despite a significant amount of laboratory research on the effects of accountability on decision making, few studies have attempted to assess what affects accountability might have outside the lab for actual managers. In this paper, we use as subjects actual members of the professional account, research, and creative staffs of several advertising agencies in an experimental simulation of an advertising copy meeting. We demonstrate that accountability effects in complex, managerial decision contexts diverge considerably from those found in the lab. In particular, we find that accountability does not always lead managers to emphasize the most "objectively" accurate information, but instead can also encourage emphasis on information which is socially acceptable to the manager's key "constituencies" (those to whom they feel accountable, see Tetlock 1991). The social constituencies of accountable managers within a single organization can differ significantly. For example, members of an advertising agency's account service or research departments are likely to favor the quantitative, analytical decision styles of their supervisors, while members of the same agency's creative department are likely to favor empathy and personal judgment. Requiring managers with different constituencies to justify their responses can cause "policy bolstering," the tendency to favor a process of decision making particular to one's own constituency. Thus accountability may sometimes make it more difficult for a diverse group to reach a consensus, and may not have the desired positive impact on decision quality. In an experiment simulating an advertising copy meeting, we first solicited managers' private judgments of 12 ads, then presented them with research data and asked each of them to make numerical predictions of how much consumers would like each ad. The experiment manipulated the diagnosticity of the available research and the degree to which managers expected to be held accountable for their predictions. We used hierarchical linear regression to analyze the results. Hierarchical linear regression allows us to estimate simultaneously a within-subjects model capturing individual weighting coefficients for private judgment and research, and a between-subjects model of the effects of department membership and experimental conditions on these judgment-policy weights. This analysis also controls for the varying degrees of precision in the within-subjects estimates, as well as for correlations between the within-subjects weighting coefficients. Key Findings. 1) Accountability had different impacts on the weighting schemes of members of account services and creative departments. Accountable research/account staff weighed research more in making their predictions than non-accountable research/account staff. Accountable creatives, on the other hand, actually weighed research less than did nonaccountable creatives. 2) Because accountability caused subjects to attend assiduously to the research, the weight given private judgment reflected whether the data was diagnostic of the problem at hand. Accountable subjects presented with low-diagnosticity research reacted by emphasizing private judgment more heavily. 3) Accountability increased confidence in predictions; this effect was not dependent on the accuracy of subjects' predictions. Managerial Implications. We provide several suggestions and observations regarding current managerial practices, which may improve the impact of individual accountability on decision making.
Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is accepted widely as a multi-stakeholder strategic business process for brand communications. Yet, much less is known about the failures of its practical implementation. The current research provides a novel explanation for such failures. A two-year ethnographic study was conducted with a large Swedish retailer and its IMC partners. The objectives were to reveal potentially divergent managerial mental models and to understand the consequences of such divergence on IMC implementation. The authors' findings uncovered four basic mental models, which, in turn, revealed four aspects of IMC implementation dysfunction: miscommunication, compartmentalization, loss of trust, and decontextualization.
On the basis of an exploratory survey of executives from a cross-section of U.S. advertising agencies, this article examines the relationship between agency creative philosophies and agent creative risk taking. The natures of both creative risk and agency philosophy are discussed. Multiple measures of risk taking are applied and the findings suggest that agency executives working in agencies with clear identities are more likely to take risks than are those in agencies without such identities (hybrid philosophies), but not for all measures of risk. The extent to which the size of client plays a role also is assessed. After an assessment of the findings, limitations and suggestions for further research are discussed.
Account planning in the United States is now part of the mainstream agency landscape. The planning field has evolved from the original British conceptualization of the 1960s and 1970s. Now planners are central to client business strategy development and are also accountable for the outcomes of the agency's products. In light of increased demands by shareholders, holding companies, and market analysts on agencies for accountability, this study examines how the work of account planners in U.S. agencies is currently and should be evaluated. The study reports results of a national survey of U.S. planners regarding these questions. The study found that there are three general factors that planners say are currently being used to evaluate their work: (1) feedback from creatives, clients, and account teams; (2) traditional advertising campaign measures; and (3) awards and press. Of the three, the traditional advertising campaign measures factor accounts for most of the variance in responses. Planners rate the feedback factor as most important, however.Overall, awards and press were not a major consideration in evaluating the work of planners. These finding were consistent when planners were asked how they feel their work should be evaluated: For the most part, it appears that planners feel that the way their work is currently being evaluated is the way it should be evaluated. The study concludes with suggestions for future research.
Originality is an important characteristic of effective advertising, but what contributes to advertising originality is far from clear. This research examines the effect of the advertiser's creative risk-taking propensity on campaign originality. We draw on agency theory and the creativity literature to develop two behavioral strategies that risk-taking advertiser can employ (i.e., creative qualification and trust in agency) to enhance advertising originality. We find the advertiser's risk taking increases its creative qualification effort and its trust in the chosen agency, and it is through qualification and trust that advertiser risk taking contributes to campaign originality and performance.
This paper will discuss the concept of account management in the area of advertising agency-client relationships. The main theoretical issues regarding agency-client relationships are discussed by means of a review of the literature to identify an account-management lifecycle for agency-client relationships. Three main stages were identified: agency evaluation/selection; relationship development and maintenance; and agency review/termination. Discussing the literature will also provide a greater understanding of agency-client relationships and identify possible areas for further research.
This manuscript reports the results of a national mail survey sent to a sequential probability sample of media sales representatives, advertising agencies, and small business managers. The study sought to determine if differences exist among advertising service providers and small business managers.
Respondents were asked to express their degree of agreement or disagreement to 16 statements about advertising strategy development for small businesses. The results indicated that significant differences existed among the groups. The analysis of variance indicated significant differences on 9 of 16 statements, and the t-tests yielded 19 significant differences. The perspectives of the three groups may be related to their perceptions and opinions of advertising strategy development. Each of the three groups can benefit from the study.
China, with its history of a planned economy and current status of part-planned/part-market economy, presents an interesting environment for the advertising industry. However,the advertising industry in China is still somethingof a mystery, particularly in terms of client perceptions of advertising and advertising agencies.After examining the literature relating to China's advertising this article reports on a survey of 200 firms in Shanghai who use the services of an advertising agency. The results indicated that advertising's primary purpose is to increase awareness and sales. Contrary to what has been suggested by previous researchers, the firms in this study felt confident in their media and creative decisions (although they saw the effects of advertising as being difficult to estimate). Advertising agencies are used more for creative decisions rather than media decisions. Clients tend tohavean arm's length relationship with their agency in the sense that they let the agency carry out advertising activities and do not interfere in what the agency does. While not affected by the size of their clients, the agency relationship was affected by whether or not client firms had top-down or bottom-up decision processes.
The 1980s and 1990s have seen the development of an interesting, diverse and relevant body of literature on the advertising client-advertising agency relationship. Recently an area of focus has been the application of organizational buying behavior principles to companies who are purchasing advertising services from advertising agencies. However, little is known about such issues in China. This article reviews the literature relating to the application of organizational buying behavior principles in the advertising industry, and provides a background to China's advertising industry. Then, based on insights from both the literature and in-depth interviews in Shanghai, this article lists a set of propositions relating to organizational buying behavior in the context of the agency-client relationship in China. Future researchers can use these propositions to develop testable hypotheses relating to the agency-client relationship in China.
Notwithstanding the importance of non-executives as a control mechanism to reduce the potential divergence between corporate management and shareholders and the increasing attention they receive from both regulators as well as the media, research concerning non-executives is still in its infancy. This dearth of knowledge may account for the unrealistic expectations the public is said to have of non-executive directors. However, no study has previously looked into possible expectations gaps regarding non-executive directors. This study fills that lacuna and reports the results of a survey sent to more than 1,000 non-executive directors, employee representatives, and institutional investors from the Netherlands. Although we do not find an expectations gap regarding nonexecutive directors' main function, gaps are found with respect to stakeholders' satisfaction with current functioning of non-executive directors and non-executives' roles concerning directors' remuneration. Furthermore, a gap is also present with respect to the interests non-executive directors should serve. The results indicate that, notwithstanding the Cadbury and Peters Committees, the public's confidence in corporate governance has not yet been fully restored.
Respondents in 103 medium-sized charities completed a mail questionnaire designed to explore the nature of the relationships between these charities and their advertising agencies. It emerged that some, but not all, of the factors known to influence interactions between agencies and their commercial clients were equally relevant within the charity sector. Variables crucial to charity clients' levels of satisfaction with their advertising agencies included agency provision of functional assistance with media planning and the creative design of advertisements, trust and an agency's willingness to act as a member of its client's team, and the ability to generate new ideas. Additionally, an agency's experience of work within the charity sector and its empathy with charitable aims, ideals and philosophies were key determinants of satisfaction ratings. Assistance with market research and public relations and an agency's ability to offer extensive ancillary services did not appear to exert significant influence.
Recent research of corporate reporting practices has suggested that corporate environmental reporting within Australia, and a number of other countries, is typically deficient and not of a standard to satisfy the information needs of various classes of report readers. This paper explores whether a potential information demand/supply imbalance is due to differing perceptions between report users and report preparers as to the relative importance of various items of environmental performance information to the users? decision making processes. The paper explores whether an environmental reporting ?expectations gap? exists within Australia. The study sponsored by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, surveyed the attitudes of senior executives within 462 of the largest companies within Australia (the preparers group), as well as the attitudes of 474 individuals from various categories of annual report users. In comparing the responses, significant differences between the views of users and the preparers were found to exist in relation to various issues associated with corporate environmental performance reporting. The evidence is consistent with the existence of an environmental reporting expectations gap within Australia.
The astonishing growth of the Internet coupled with its unique capabilities has captured the attention of the marketing community. Although many businesses are acknowledging the importance of a Web site, to date, little attention has been given to the business community'sperceptions of the ethicality of this new medium. A national sample of marketing executives was surveyed regarding their perceptions of: (1) regulation of the Internet, (2) the potential ethical issues via Internet marketing facing their industry, and (3) the role of ethics and Internet marketing in their organization. Results and recommendations for incorporating Internet ethical guidelines into organizations are discussed.
Galt das Marketing und besonders die Kommunikationspolitik bisher als intuitive Managementlehre der weichen Daten einer kreativen
Leistung, deren Ergebnisse kaum quantifiziert werden konnten (Bauer 2006, S. 17), steht in den Führungsetagen der Unternehmen
heute die nachdrückliche Anforderung im Raum, das Marketing müsse seinen Erfolgsbeitrag deutlich nachweisen (Rust et al. 2004;
Meffert/Perrey 2008; Verhoef/ Leeflang 2008). Sehr häufig werden diese Produktivitätsansprüche an die Kommunikationsagenturen
weitergegeben (Kitchen et al. 2007; Bruhn/Martin 2010), die als externe Dienstleister Planungs-, Durchführungs- und Kontrollfunktionen
der Unternehmenskommunikation übernehmen. Die konkrete Forderung lautet: Steigerung und Nachweis der Effektivität und Effizienz
integrierter Kommunikation bei gleichzeitiger Reduktion der zur Verfügung stehenden finanziellen Ressourcen (Miller/Cioffi
2004; Reinecke/ Geis 2006). Die so genannte Full-Service-Agentur, in der Kreation, strategische Beratung und Medialplanung
aus einer Hand angeboten werden, ist die präferierte Organisationsform der nachfragenden Unternehmen (Horsky 2006).
Account acquisition and retention is an ongoing problem facing advertising agencies. Literature in this area has focused on the criteria used in agency selection, the factors fostering continuity, and the forces prompting the break-up of client–agency relationships. However, this classic industrial service relationship has not been examined from a business-to-business buying behavior perspective. A study was conducted with top agency account acquisition personnel. This study found strong support for the notion that business buying behavior models can be applied to client–agency relationships. Furthermore, they may be applied to business-to-business service transactions as well. Many forces considered unique to business buying behavior were prevalent for the selection of agency services according to sales personnel involved in cultivating new business. The findings suggest that agencies need to emphasize nonspecific campaign forces effecting agency selection. Moreover, the study also points to the importance of identifying the effect of internal organizational forces and the roles buying center members play, side by side with campaign-specific factors. Directions for future research are noted and managerial implications for business-to-business new account acquisition and selling are also provided.
Many marketing scholars and practitioners would agree that the ideal relationship between a client and its advertising agency is that of a strategic partnership. Yet, one element of the strategic marketing planning process the setting of the advertising budget still remains relatively uninfluenced by agency input. In this article, we discuss why agencies traditionally have had little input into the budget-setting process. We draw upon qualitative interviews with top marketing managers to provide insight into the agency client relationship and identify seven factors likely to influence the extent of agency participation in budget setting. Ways in which clients and agencies can work together to increase agency participation are also discussed.The authors acknowledge the support of the Florida International University Foundation in the completion of this project.
“Advertisers get the advertising they deserve.” This is one of David Ogilvy's confessions[1]. Very much along the same lines, M. P. Ryan and R. H. Colley, after an intensive survey of leading advertisers, came to the conclusion that “much of the trouble in a company's relations with its advertising agency has little to do with the inherent capability of the agency”[2]. In November 1973, Bernard Flu, General Manager of Sovirel (Corning group) was also stressing the point during a meeting of the French Advertisers' Association: “Rather than good or bad agencies, there are good or bad relationships between advertisers and advertising agencies, relationships which condition the advertising value.
Determing the sources of conflict in public relations firm-client relations is the first step toward managing such conflict productively. A content analysis of firm-related articles in Public Relations Journal from 1980–1989 yielded a total of 45 conflict issues. The key issues recurring whether the conflict was attributed to the firm or the client were concerns over knowing each other's businesses, contributing to a consistent communication flow, finances, and “chemistry.”For the most part, conflict issues for public relations firms paralleled those for advertising firms as reported in the advertising agency literature. Exceptions were top ranking public relations firm issues related to research and billing and for clients, prompt payment. Advertising issues not directly found in the public relations literature included defensiveness, blame placing and the number of approval levels.