The role of marketing

As marketing gains increasing prominence as an orientation that everyone in the organization shares and as a process that all functions participate in deploying, a critical issue that arises is the role of the marketing funct ion. Specifically, what role should the marketing function play, and what v alue does the marketing function have, if any, in an organization that has a strong market orientation? The authors take the view that though a firm's market orientation is undeniably important, the marketing function should play a key role in managing several important connections between the custo mer and critical firm elements, including connecting the customer to (1) th e product, (2) service delivery, and (3) financial accountability, The auth ors collect data from managers across six business functions and two time p eriods with respect to marketing's role, market orientation, the value of t he marketing function, and perceived firm performance. The results show tha t the marketing function contributes to perceptions of firm financial perfo rmance, customer relationship performance, and new product performance beyo nd that explained by a firm's market orientation. Marketing's value, in tur n, Is found to be a function of the degree to which it develops knowledge a nd skills in connecting the customer to the product and to financial accoun tability. For service firms, the value of the marketing function also is re lated positively to marketing's ability to connect the customer to service delivery.