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F9-06·F9 — Marketing Finance

The Business Case for Marketing Investment

The productive tension

Short-term paybackandlong-term value

The synthesis

A defensible business case for marketing is neither a 12-month payback promise nor a hand-waving appeal to long-term brand value. It is a portfolio submission with two baskets — short-horizon activation measured monthly, and long-horizon brand-building measured over multi-year rolling windows — each linked to an explicit financial outcome. The evidence-based marketer wins the budget meeting by speaking the CFO''s language of risk-adjusted returns, scenario planning, and discounted cash flows.

Learning objectives

  • Distinguish the activation case from the brand case in business-case construction
  • Apply the Binet & Field 60:40 rule and explain its empirical basis
  • Summarise the Profit Ability findings on long-term versus short-term ROI
  • Translate brand investment into DCF and NPV terms (Doyle approach)
  • Construct a CFO-credible scenario plan for marketing spend

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