Marketing by CPAs

Abstract

Until the late 1970s, the AICPA discouraged commercial advertising and some other marketing tactics by practicing accountants. This study contacted 600 CPAs in the U.S. in an attempt to discover what kinds of marketing they employ, how useful they think it is, and how appropriate do they feel the AICPA's rules and regulations are in regard to marketing an individual CPA's services. Most thought the AICPA was fair. Accountants doing the most marketing tend to be younger males. “Conflict of Interest” was the area of most current concern in light of the ongoing problems of public accounting firms doing both auditing and consulting for the same client. “Newspaper” was the preferred advertising medium. Most of those surveyed were pleased the AICPA relaxed its restrictions on marketing and advertising, even though many CPAs still do not market their services to any great extent. This may change as younger accountants fill leadership positions in U.S. accounting firms.     

How to Create Effective Ad Copy for the Small Service Organization

ABSTRACT

This paper reports the results of a study that examined two factors that influenced the individual's selection of an accountant: The qualifications that the accountant may hold and the accountants membership of a professional accounting body.

In Australia, any person can hang a shingle outside their door calling themselves an ?accountant.” In contrast, the law dictates that a doctor of medicine can only use the title “doctor” when he/she has tertiary qualifications and registers with the relevant Health Departments throughout Australia.

Let's be clear on the term accountant–there are accountants in public practice who offer themselves to the public to perform a wide range of duties from income tax preparation, auditing and financial advice. Then there is the accountant who is employed internally in a business to keep the financial reins. It is the accountant who offers public accounting services that this study concerns itself.

Prior research studies conducted in this area are examined for relevance to the study and to determine if the results concur with the outcomes of this study.

The managerial implications of the results are discussed considering the confusion and perceptions that arose with the meaning of “qualification” and “professional body membership.”     

A Gap Analysis of a CPA Tax Service and the Implications for Enhancing Service Quality

ABSTRACT

Certified Public Accounting (CPA) firms are “pure” services where the customer is buying the knowledge and expertise of the accounting professional. Marketing the “expertise” of certified public accounting firms is challenging because the client's expected and perceived levels of service quality is not clearly understood. This article presents a service blueprint of an income tax service and highlights potential failure points that can impact process and outcome qualities. Some recommendations are made for improving the tax service to achieve higher levels of service quality.     

The Changing Private Market System

Most marketing managers still function as if challenges such as scarcity of resources and “social responsibility” were simply temporary phenomena. But our “private” market system is evolving into a “public” system. Public policy and the goals of society play an expanding role in making strategy decisions.

Traditional efficiency is when a manager attempts to achieve the greatest output for a given combination of inputs. Under a contemporary definition of efficiency, each firm must produce and allocate goods and services in such a manner that the maximum possible societal utility is achieved. The marketing function is to be the “change agent.”

Marketing today is in a transition from a “passive” to an “active” phase of its ability to deal with the changes taking place. As traditionally, the marketing manager will make decisions within several areas: product offering, price, distribution and promotion efforts, including advertising and sales. The basic concept of the product will be changed to include not only physical goods, but also services, organizations, people, plans and ideas. Exchange will take place between two parties and will no longer be measured simply by a straightforward calculation of costs. Environmental quality, political considerations, consumer welfare, etc., must be evaluated along with profits in order to properly understand how well marketing is satisfying the needs of society.     

Marketing Accounting Services in the U.S. and Norway

Abstract

This study compares the general perceptions of marketing and the marketing experiences and training by accountants in the United States and Norway. The results of this study indicate there are differences in perceptions of marketing held by accountants in the U.S. and Norway and in their marketing practices. Accountants in the U.S. held stronger opinions on the importance of marketing accounting services, whereas accountants in Norway believed more strongly that reputation for quality work was more important than marketing. Over two-thirds of Norway accountants reported they did not use marketing concepts in their practice while over half of U.S. accountants indicated they did. A majority of Norway accountants indicated they did not need marketing because their clients come to them when they need their services. These findings demonstrate the importance of being cognizant of the differences in marketing professional services as accountants expand their understanding of global business and accounting practices.     

Social marketing: Conceptual and pragmatic observations from a current Australian campaign

In this paper the authors discuss the meaning of social marketing and its essential differences from “conventional” marketing. Further, by reference to a current campaign which seeks to maximize adoption by medical general practitioners of an “early intervention” package to prevent development of alcohol‐related problems in patients, the authors discuss the merits of the application of social marketing principles to such a public health campaign. The difficulties experienced in both the application of social marketing principles to this campaign and in empirically assessing the effectiveness of this and similar campaigns are also discussed. The authors conclude that, although the validity of social marketing as a theoretical construct is unimpeachable, there is much further work to be done in establishing empirically the effectiveness of the application of the principles of social marketing as a social change strategy.     

An Empirical Investigation of the Pricing of Professional Services (As Applied to Public Accounting)

Recently there has been escalating interest and attention focused on services marketing in marketing literature. Professionals, in particular, face additional marketing challenges because they have both an increased need and an increased ability to market their services. Yet, the pricing of professional services as an area of investigation in marketing has not been adequately researched. This paper examines the pricing issue in the context of public accounting services. The empirical investigation utilizes a multivariate approach to describe and quantify the fee structure of public accounting services. Empirical findings and then managerial implications are discussed.     

Some Attitudinal Predictors of Home-Shopping through the Internet

Economic and political imperatives of the 1980s have seen governments turn to private sector managerial techniques, practices and orientations to enable them to deliver services more efficiently and effectively. Among these is marketing which has received increasing attention as governments have looked to privatize, corporatize or simply introduce some level of “user‐pays” principle into their operations.

Despite the ambitious claims of the marketing discipline, the transposition of marketing to the public sector has not proved to be without problems. This paper reviews why such a transposition might be difficult. It also reviews the claim of marketing to be an appropriate discipline at all for widespread application in the public sector.

The paper concludes that marketers should be cautious as to the extent to which their discipline can be transposed or modified to assist governments identity, plan, deliver and evaluate services more efficiently and effectively.     

Creating and marketing Distinctive Competency in Small Public Accounting Firms

ABSTRACT

Small public accounting firms face fierce competition on a crowded and homogeneous playing field. A framework is available to help accounting firms stand out from the crowd and gain a competitive advantage. Distinctive competencies are skills, activities or capacities that a business is uniquely good at in comparison to its competitors. This article discusses the various kinds of distinctive competencies and the primary competencies suitable for small public accounting firms. The discussion includes the requirements for creating a competitive advantage, steps to creating distinctive competencies, and marketing implications. The conclusion includes suggested research needs.     

Marketing in five “simple” questions!

Peters (1987) describes how after some of his seminars he is asked “But what do I DO?”. This question is also often directed at people who have been introducing marketing ideas to businessmen—particularly businessmen whose work does not bring them into contact with customers. This article explains how anybody can start to think in marketing terms by asking five simple questions about the organisation they work for. “Simple” to ask, but requiring disciplined thought if answers are to be found which lead to appropriate managerial actions. “Difficult” to answer not least because the answers to each question affect the answers given to the others. In doing so it also introduces a number of basic but important marketing concepts.     

A Tax Perspective of Professional Services Marketing: The Acquisition of Customer Based Intangibles

ABSTRACT

The present study attempts to discuss: (1) how the allocation of the purchase price to individual assets affects the after-tax cost of acquiring a professional services marketer; (2) define the “customer based intangibles” affected by the Supreme Court ruling; (3) discuss the tax conflict between goodwill and customer based intangibles; (4) review the recent Supreme Court ruling and set forth the tests and conditions which must be met in order to gain a deduction; and (5) discuss the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1993 and its impact on acquisition of customer based intangibles after August 10, 1993. In addition, the present study will discuss the environmental implications of the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1993 will have on the professional services marketing sector.     

Professional Tax Service Marketing from a Consumer Buyer Behavior Perspective

Professional services marketing such as accounting and legal services are often received as less smhisticated than product marketing. The prime message promulgated from existing research has often focused on the need for professional service firms to establish formal marketing technique; This paper investigates professional services marketing of tax services from a consumer behavior perspective and the implications of developing a marketing plan. Clearly, professional service providers are operating in a different consumer environment and the marketing implications are significantly different from product marketing.     

Jurisdictional Issues for Electronic Marketing

ABSTRACT

As the Internet continues to grow as an important marketing channel, the laws governing this medium require attention. Once a website goes “live,” a continuous presence is established anywhere a consumer can access the Internet and the possibility arises of being sued in a remote state or foreign country. Jurisdiction entails the power of a court to hear a given case and to require that businesses and/or individuals try the case before the court and face its judgment. An understanding of online jurisdictional issues can help marketers protect their online interests and avoid costly lawsuits. This paper considers the current body of law about jurisdiction to better understand how it may impact online business and marketing practices. Suggestions are offered to help online marketers prevent problems that can arise from jurisdictional exposure.     

Marketing Cues and Perceptions of Service Quality in the Selection of Accounting Firms

Abstract

This study tests the survey responses of clients of accounting firms to determine what marketing cues influence their selection of firms and what relationship these cues have on the perceived service quality of the firms' products. The study argues that three marketing cue factors are influential in the clients' selection of accounting firms. Using Principle Components Analysis, three factors were identified: Factor 1, termed Internal Factors-Tangibles includes the following cues: fees, physical facilities, appearance/dress of employees, convenience of location, and available parking. Factor 2, termed Internal Factors-Intangibles includes reputation of the firm, professional quality of employees, and “my own personal experience with other accounting firms.” Factor 3, termed External Factors comprises the opinion of friends/relatives, manner of employees, and word-of-mouth reputation. The relationship betwecn the resultant cues and perceived service quality measures suggests that the intangible and external factors have more influence than tangible factors on the perceived service quality of accounting firms.     

Towards a paradigm shift in marketing? An examination of current marketing practices

In recent years, the traditional Transaction approach to marketing has been challenged to the point where a number of authors have suggested that a “paradigm shift” is occurring. The “newparadigm” is commonly referred to as Relationship Marketing, and has been used to reflect a number of different types of relational marketing activity, including Database, Interaction and Network marketing. This paper investigates current marketing practice to clarify the relevance of these alternative approaches using four case studies and a survey of 134 firms. The results do not support the notion of a complete “paradigm shift”. Rather, the findings show that for many firms, transactional marketing is relevant and practised concurrently with various types of relational marketing. It is concluded that while relational marketing issues are currently receiving attention from academics and practitioners alike, the role of transactional marketing should not be ignored or underestimated.     

Marketing management and marketing research

Abstract

A sample of marketing graduates was surveyed to identify the factors that caused some of them to feel that they had become ‘professional marketers’ consequent to their early experiences of work in graduate marketing positions. A model of the possible determinants of the form of ‘workplace identity’ that a marketing graduate would assume was developed and tested. The model hypothesised that: (i) a firm's approaches to training and management development, mentoring, appraisal and reward; (ii) the natures of the tasks allocated to graduate marketing recruits and the task culture prevailing within an enterprise; and (iii) specific characteristics of the individual employee affected the emergence of particular types of workplace identity. Levels of each category of professional identity observed among the sample members were then correlated with job and organisational satisfaction and commitment, self-assessed operational performance, and intention to remain with an enterprise.     

Marketing and Internet Professionals' Fiduciary Responsibility: A Perspective on Spyware

ABSTRACT

While Internet usage has become a widely accepted marketing vehicle, ethical issues continue to develop without clear guidance. Today controversies abound regarding “passive devices” technologies for collecting information about Internet users. Passive data collection techniques include such software devices as adware, cookies, spyware, and web bugs. This paper reviews these software devices and presents a “cultural lag” perspective to explain the lack of clear ethical guidelines for their use. Fiduciary considerations are proposed as a basis for ethical guidelines, codes of ethics of major computer programming, information systems, and marketing professional associations are reviewed, and recommendations are offered to facilitate the development and acceptance of appropriate guidelines.     

Account Planners' Views on How Their Work Is and Should Be Evaluated

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the nature of green advertising, thus demonstrating that the concept is far more complex than the extant marketing literature suggests. Green is characterized here as a two dimensional concept with political (reformism to radicalism) and human positional (anthropocentric to ecocentric) dimensions. It is argued here that there are at least five different types of green, including environmentalism, conservationism, human welfare ecology, preservationism, and ecologism. To understand the greenness of an advertisement, it is useful to position it within this framework; and each type suggests a different human position with respect to nature and a different political orientation. The proposed framework is useful for defining terms such as “green,” “environmental,” and “ecological” which are often used interchangeably in the marketing and advertising literature.     

Mapping the consumer‐subject in advertising

Traditionally marketing communication‐or more specifically advertising‐has been framed in terms of products/ services, needs and wants of consumers as if these were real givens, existing independently of the forms and acts of marketing communication itself. From this perspective, advertising is merely seen as a purveyor of information about products/services/needs between producers and consumers but hardly as actively implicated in shaping, not only the relation between the processes of production and those of consumption, but also the conception of the consumer‐subject. This paper makes a brief diachronic account of advertising with a view to highlighting how the consumer‐subject is represented. Whereas early advertising conceives of the consumer‐subject as a “rational” decision‐maker, aware of its needs and desire, more recent advertising constitutes the consumer‐subject in a hyperreal, dream‐like world, which seduces and spellbinds it.     

Reducing Turnover in Public Accounting Firms: An Internal Marketing Strategy

ABSTRACT

If one considers that public accounting firms are involved in a labor-intensive service, dependent on staff members for their input, the seriousness of high employee turnover levels becomes evident. Thus, it is imperative that public accounting firms find a means to retain experienced accountants if they are to successfully service clients. This requires a change in philosophy for accounting firms. Previous research has focused primarily on determining the reasons employees give for leaving/remaining with a firm. This is generally where the process ends. Few accounting firms lake the next step which involves the development of an internal marketing plan to reduce turnover.