Interest in marketing excellence is growing rapidly, but its nature and effects are unclear. This research reveals that marketing excellence is a strategy focused on achieving organic growth by executing three priorities: marketing ecosystem, end-user, and marketing agility. Moreover, findings show that investors value marketing excellence more highly than they value strategies based on market orientation and marketing capabilities. Results provide a new marketing playbook to help companies better achieve their growth targets in today’s quickly changing environment.

1. Marketing Excellence
Nature, Measurement, and Investor Valuations
From: Homburg, Theel, and Hohenberg (2020)

2. Interest in marketing excellence is growing rapidly
From: Homburg, Theel, and Hohenberg (2020)
Business Articles
Mentioning Marketing Excellence
Count of all press articles (n=7,955) that deal with marketing excellence as
listed in the Factiva database
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
NumberofArticles
Year
Investor Filings
Mentioning Marketing Excellence
Count of all filings (n=1,138) as listed in the EDGAR database of the SEC
(retrieved from Nexis)
0
50
100
150
200
250
NumberofFilings
Year

3. However, its nature and effects remain unclear
From: Homburg, Theel, and Hohenberg (2020)
How to define
marketing excellence?
How to achieve marketing
excellence?
How to evaluate marketing
excellence?
Prior research Focus of this research Future research
How to implement marketing
excellence?
Research question 2: How do
investors evaluate marketing
excellence? (Study 2)
Burkitt 2014; McDonald and
Meldrum 2013; Moorman and
Day 2016
Research question 1: How do managers
understand and exercise marketing
excellence? (Study 1)

4. To examine our research questions, we conducted a mixed-
methods investigation encompassing two empirical studies
From: Homburg, Theel, and Hohenberg (2020)
IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWSA
Cross-country analysis:
 150 firm-level strategies of European,
U.S., and Chinese firms
 Firms are listed in the S&P 500 (n = 50),
Euro Stoxx 50 (n = 50), and CSI 300
indexes (n = 50)
STUDY 1 STUDY 2
Interview partners (39 senior managers):
 marketing, sales, & general management
 various industries (e.g. automotive,
chemicals, construction, energy, FMCG,
health care, IT)
 different customer groups (B2B & B2C)
 different business cycles (established
player vs. start-up)
 Large-scale dataset of 8,317 letters to
shareholders from 1,727 firms from 1998
to 2016
 Machine learning algorithm to
automatically identify marketing
excellence in letters to shareholders
 Original dictionary development as a
complementary classification method
FIRM STRATEGY DATAB LETTERS TO SHAREHOLDERSC

5. Study 1 reveals that marketing excellence is a strategy type
focused on organic growth by executing three priorities
From: Homburg, Theel, and Hohenberg (2020)
Marketing excellence
Marketing ecosystem
priority
End-user
priority
Marketing agility
priority
A firm’s strategic means of
growing the business by
developing mutually
beneficial systems of
networks (in the proximal
and distal firm environment)
A firm’s strategic
emphasis on engaging
with the final
customer, who applies
or consumes the
offering, and leveraging
the final customer
insights for growing the
business
A firm's strategic means of
executing growth
activities by the marketing
organization and its
members through
simplified structures and
processes, fast decision-
making, and trial and error
learning

6. Study 1 reveals that marketing excellence differs from previous
marketing concepts regarding the scope of firm activities
From: Homburg, Theel, and Hohenberg (2020)
Traditional marketing
strategy concepts
Traditional cost leadership
strategy concepts
Marketing excellence
Operational excellence
Sourceofcompetitive
advantage
Scope of firm activities
Cost
leadership
Differentiation
Organization & market Organization & market
& environment

7. Study 2 reveals higher returns for marketing excellence vs.
benchmark portfolios, with trajectories in recent years
From: Homburg, Theel, and Hohenberg (2020)
Cumulative Returns on $100 Invested in Marketing Excellence, Market Orientation, Marketing Capabilities, and Market Portfolios.
Using a web crawler, we compiled a sample of 8,317 letters to shareholders from 1,727 U.S.-listed firms’ annual reports from 1998 to 2016.
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
Valuein$
S&P 500 Market portfolio Marketing excellence portfolio
Market orientation portfolio Marketing capabilities portfolio