The practice of marketing has significantly changed among companies operating in Hungary since the economic transition with new emphasis, marketing activities and expectations have been emerged. This paper analyzes the role and significance of marketing in corporate practices; undercover the most important activities of marketing managers in current business processes; the size and tendencies of change in marketing budgets as well as the features and components of the dominant marketing orientation. Moreover, the reader shall gain insight into the analysis of cooperation activities of firms and their interpretation of the meaning of CSR. Besides this paper give an overview of the current trends influencing daily marketing practices and analyzes the correlation between the size of revenue and marketing activities. It is found that the strongest positive correlation is between brand building and higher revenue, e. g. building strong brands can be considered as the most effective marketing activity.

1. CRITERIA OF EFFECTIVE MARKETING
ANALYSIS OF CORPORATE MARKETING ACTIVITIES IN HUNGARY
Dr Szabolcs Nagy
Associate Professor
Faculty of Economics, University of Miskolc, Hungary
marvel@uni-miskolc.hu
“Balance and Challenges” 9th International Scientific Conference
15-16 October, 2015, Miskolc-Lillafüred

2. Changing world, changing marketing
• Rapid technological development ignited a paradigm shift in
marketing.
• Digital became an increasingly important source of competitive
advantage. Leeflang, Verhoef, Dahlström, Freundt (2014)
• The effect of user-generated content on shareholder value
(Tirunillai & Tellis, 2012)
• How companies can analyze big data (Feit, Wang, Bradlow, & Fader,
2013).
• Effectiveness is a buzzword.
• There is a growing demand for quantifing business processes including
marketing activities.
• Marketing metrics have been in the forefront of marketing renewal since
the Millennium (Paul W. Farris, Neil T. Bendle, Phillip E. Pfeifer, David J.
Reibstein, 2006).

3. Marketing in practice
• While the theory of marketing is widely researched,
scientific papers on marketing in practice can rarely be
found in the literature.
• Hungary
• Although a conference dealing with new tendencies in
marketing in Hungary was organized in 2012, and the
conference proceedings was also published, but it contained
analyses from the academic point of view (Józsa, 2012).
• A strong need for an empirical investigation on
corporate marketing activities in Hungary to define the
criteria of effective marketing has been formulated by
the Hungarian Marketing Association (HMA).

4. Research methodology
• Design and implementation of the survey research
• by Marketing Institute, University of Miskolc.
• In total
• more than 1000 executives were approached.
• Duration
• between 1 and 29 October, 2014
• Data cleaning
• Respondents who did reply ‘‘don’t know’’ to at least half of the questions in the
questionnaire have been excluded from further investigations.
• Usable responses: 112
• Response rate
• rather low.
• Although the sample is not representative in any respect, but it can be
used to explain tendencies.

5. Small enterprizes are dominant in the sample.
62,3%
19,8%
17,9%
0,0%
10,0%
20,0%
30,0%
40,0%
50,0%
60,0%
70,0%
Small Enterprises Medium-sized enterprises Large Enterprises
Type of the company

6. The distribution of firms by NUTS region is uneven with
companies operating in Central Hungary (69,7%)
overrepresented in the sample.
3,7% 2,8% 1,8%
10,1%
69,7%
2,8%
9,2%
0,0%
10,0%
20,0%
30,0%
40,0%
50,0%
60,0%
70,0%
80,0%
Southern Great Plain Southern
Transdanubia
Northern Great Plain Northern Hungary Central Hungary Central Transdanubia Western
Transdanubia
Distributions of firms by NUTS Regions

7. 4 of 5 firms have Hungarian owners, 20,6% of the companies is
owned by foreigners.
20,6%
79,4%
0,0%
10,0%
20,0%
30,0%
40,0%
50,0%
60,0%
70,0%
80,0%
90,0%
Foreign Hungarian
Ownership

8. Most companies in the sample are independent.
31,1%
68,9%
0,0%
10,0%
20,0%
30,0%
40,0%
50,0%
60,0%
70,0%
80,0%
Part of a group Independent
Group membership status

9. The revenue distribution is uneven.
28,4%
9,8%
15,7%
5,9%
10,8%
29,4%
0,0%
5,0%
10,0%
15,0%
20,0%
25,0%
30,0%
35,0%
Less than 50M HUF 50-100 M HUF 100-250 M HUF 250-500 M HUF 500-1000 M HUF More than 1000 M HUF
Revenue

10. One of four companies has no formalized marketing activities in
house, which means they really do not care about marketing.
33,9%
17,9%
22,3%
25,9%
There is an independent marketing department, function or unit
Marketing is integrated into another corporate function (sales, communication,
trade)
Only one or more persons are doing marketing, but not in an organized way
There are no formalized marketing activities in house
0,0% 5,0% 10,0% 15,0% 20,0% 25,0% 30,0% 35,0% 40,0%
How are marketing activities organized in your firm?

11. Nearly one half of the companies considered marketing as an
important organizational function. 1 of 5 firms stated that
marketing is not really important.
not important
12%
low
10%
average
29%
important
26%
extremly important
23%
How important is the marketing unit/department in your company?

12. 25% of the companies spend no money or a very low amount of
money on marketing.
25%
27%
34%
7%
7%
How big is your marketing budget?
zero or very low lower than average average more than average significant

13. Dominantly (typical of 18.2% of the firms) only one
percent of the total revenues was spent on marketing.
The average spending ratio is 6,8%.
13,1%
18,2%
11,1%
4,0% 4,0%
16,2%
1,0% 1,0%
4,0%
10,1%
1,0% 1,0%
4,0% 4,0%
1,0% 1,0%
4,0%
1,0%
0,0%
2,0%
4,0%
6,0%
8,0%
10,0%
12,0%
14,0%
16,0%
18,0%
20,0%
0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% 10% 11% 12% 15% 20% 25% 28% 30% 60%
How much percentage of your revenues do you spend on marketing?

14. Online
marketing is
reported to be
the most
typical
marketing
activity.
4,93
4,87
4,79
4,72
4,69
4,33
4,15
4,15
3,94
3,86
3,83
3,82
3,76
3,75
3,51
3,47
3,42
3,41
3,36
3,28
3,28
2,5
1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5 4 4,5 5
Online marketing including managing the webpage of the…
Brand building
Advertising
Image building
Content marketing
Managing events, fairs and trade-shows
Collecting market data, analysis, database building
Launching new products and services
Segmentation & positioning
Sales Promotion
Relationship marketing
Marketing-, market research, surveying
Developing strategic market plans
Sponsorship
Developing annual, operative marketing plans
Sales (trade)
Determining the product mix elements
CSR
Building CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system
Supporting R&D (product development)
Price management
Production planning
To what extent do the following activities belong to marketing?
(1 not at all ... 5 fully)

15. Providing the best possible products and services to customers
is the most typical marketing task in practice. Knowing and
understanding customer expectations and providing high
quality products/services are ranked as the Top 3 priorities.
4,54
4,35
4,33
4,16
4,09
4,05
3,98
3,96
3,7
3,7
3,54
3,26
3,23
3,12
3,07
3,06
3,05
2,96
2,8
1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5 4 4,5 5
Providing the best possible products & services to customers
Knowing and understanding customer expectations
Providing high quality products & services
Maintaining good customer relationships
High level of customer complaint management
Keeping deadlines
Prompt reactions to customer demand
Having a flexible service system
Measuring customer satisfaction
Having products with significant competitive advantage
Being able to predict changes in the relevant market(s)
Having significantly more customers than our competitors
Analyzing market demand
Using information system to support marketing decisions
Measuring the value of each customer
Concentrating on the marketing of current products to avoid high R&D costs
Taking steps in the market to which the competitors are usually react
Working content-marketing strategy and program
Launching many new products and services
How well do the following statements characterize your organization?
(1 not at all ... 5 a great deal)

16. The cooperation intensity of firms is found to be rather low.
Companies responded that they have the most intense
cooperation with customers.
4
3,65
2,95
2,92
2,6
2,35
2,35
2,32
2,31
1,98
1,89
1,86
1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5 4 4,5 5
Customers
Suppliers
Professional bodies, associations
Consulting service providers, advisers
Other companies within the group (if applicable)
Competitors
Economic Development Organisation (chambers, business development foundations)
Universities and high schools
Central government entities, authorities, offices
Territorial development organizations, local goverments
Organizations supporting innovation (innovation agencies, technology centres)
Public or private research institutes
How intense cooperation have you established with the following organizations? 1= no or very low
intensity 5= very high intensity

17. Seven global vs local (Hungarian) trends in marketing
(global trends: dominant changes that affected 777 companies worldwide)
Ability to interact
with and/or serve
customers in a new
manner
Ability to reach
new customer
segments
Increasing pace of
change in the
marketplace
Increasing access to
data and insights
Greater ability to
reduce costs in
various business
processes thorough
technology
Emergence of new
business models
and new revenue
streams
Greater use of
analytical tools and
models in decision
making
HU2014 4,12 3,71 3,55 3,45 3,44 3,34 2,94
GLOBAL2012 56% 30% 25% 39% 25% 24% 24%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
0
0,5
1
1,5
2
2,5
3
3,5
4
4,5
strenght:1=veryweak...5=verystrong
* Methodology and GLOBAL2012 data were adapted from Leeflang, Verhoef, Dahlström, Freundt (2014)

18. CSR is widely misunderstood by business people.
3,26
3,07
2,99
2,86 2,86
1
1,5
2
2,5
3
3,5
4
4,5
5
customers employees the environment suppliers local communities and
settlements
To what extent do you agree with this statement? "The main objective of CSR is to be responsible
for and to support..."
(1 not at all ... 5 a great deal)

19. The most significant correlation is between brand building and
revenues. Managing and participating in events, fairs and trade
show has also a significant positive impact on the revenues.
0,403
0,388
0,343
0,327
0,317
0,31
0,249
0,245
0,204
0,203
0 0,05 0,1 0,15 0,2 0,25 0,3 0,35 0,4 0,45
Brand-building (company & product)
Managing events, fairs and trade-shows
Online marketing including managing the webpage of the company
Advertising
Sponsorship
Image building
Content marketing
Marketing-research
Sales-promotion
CSR
Significant correlations between marketing activities and the revenue

20. There are significant correlations between revenues and other
marketing and demographics variables. As for demographics
variables, the type of the company (size of the firm) has the
highest impact on revenues.
Variable Correlation strength
Flexible reaction to customer needs 0,317
Flexible services system 0,272
Good relationship with customers 0,242
Ability to forecast changes in the market 0,213
Type of the company 0,731
Ownership -0,507
Group membership status -0,432
Sales orientation 0,283

21. Conclusions
• If marketing effectiveness is defined in terms of
financial results, effective companies in Hungary are
• building strong brands,
• frequent participants of fairs, commercial events & trade
shows
• good at online marketing, advertising and sponsorship.
• Image building, content marketing, extensive marketing
research, sales promotion and CSR are also typical
marketing activities of the best performers.
• Marketing practice in Hungary shows a diverse picture.
• There is still room for improvement for several
companies that are currently uninterested in
marketing.

22. Refrences
• Feit, E. M., Wang, P., Bradlow, E. T., & Fader, P. S. (2013). Fusing aggregate and
disaggregate data with an application to multiplatform media consumption.
Journal of Marketing Research, 50(3), 348–364.
• Józsa László (ed.): A Marketing új tendenciái - A Széchenyi István Egyetem Kautz
Gyula Gazdaságtudományi Kar és a Regionális- és Gazdaságtudományi Doktori
Iskola szervezésében megrendezésre kerülő konferencia kiadványa, Győr, 2012,
Főszerkesztő: Prof. Dr. Józsa László. Szerkesztő: Konczosné Dr. Szombathelyi
Márta és Dr. Huszka Péter, ISBN: 978-963-7175-75-6
• Paul W. Farris, Neil T. Bendle, Phillip E. Pfeifer, David J. Reibstein: Marketing
Metrics: 50+ Metrics Every Executive Should Master, 2006, Wharton School
Publishing
• Peter S.H. Leeflang , Peter C. Verhoef , Peter Dahlström , Tjark Freundt:
Challenges and solutions for marketing in a digital era, European Management
Journal, Volume 32, Issue 1, 2014, 1 - 12
• Tirunillai, S., & Tellis, G. J. (2012). Does chatter really matter? Dynamics of
usergenerated content and stock performance. Marketing Science, 31(2), 198–
215.

23. More info & other publications
• LinkedIn
• https://www.linkedin.com/pub/dr-szabolcs-nagy-
phd/33/91a/a26
• Academia
• https://uni-miskolc.academia.edu/SzabolcsNagyDrPhD
• Researchgate
• https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Szabolcs_Nagy3