The purpose of this paper is to address financial decision support for marketers and provide suggestions for improvement potentials.
The context is the Norwegian furniture and fishing industries. The samples consisted of 118 respondents, 69 from the fishing industry and 49 from the furniture industry, with an average response rate of 33 per cent. Respondents reported on six groups of marketing costs, gave an overall evaluation of their existing and potential management accounting systems and of the systems' existing and potential decision support in nine marketing decision areas.
Marketing costs represented 8.9 per cent of total revenues in the fishing industry and 16.2 per cent in the furniture industry. The difference can be attributed to items that resulted in revenue reductions and promotional costs. Both industries showed significant potential for improvements in management accounting systems. Priorities regarding the nine decision support areas differed between the two industries. Additionally, priorities in the fishing industry seemed to differ regarding time horizons (short‐ versus long‐term).
While the discussion was based on a survey representing 55 per cent of the total turnover for the fishing industry and 40 per cent for the furniture industry, the findings cannot be considered valid in other contexts. Thus other studies are welcomed.
The findings suggest a need to be fairly familiar with business contexts when preparing a management accounting system. Therefore marketers should become involved and make substantial contributions when any system is developed. At a minimum, marketers should ensure that necessary decision‐relevant information is made easily available.
Few studies have focused on the cost and profitability aspects of marketing.
