ABSTRACT
Stephen L. Vargo and Robert F. Lusch suggest that marketing is evolving to a new dominant logic in which service provision is the basis of economic exchange, namely marketing. This chapter adopts the Bartels view and seeks to disentangle marketing from the perspectives of different commentators and from its context. The key to survival in this marketing-hostile ecology is the intangible asset created by good marketing, namely brand equity or reputation. Only transactional marketing can prove a short-term quarterly, or even annual, payback. The new financial ecology adds to existing theory and provides a framework for evaluating marketing. Marketing performance should not be measured by sales, or even by profits, alone but should consider short-term cash flow alongside changes to the marketing asset. It therefore integrates the longer-term nature of marketing with the short-term need for accountability. Rust is also supportive of V&L and highlights the contribution that information technology can make to the way marketers conduct their business.
