Institutionalization as a marketing control mechanism

Among management activities, control is the most neglected. However, monitoring becomes a key player as the area of marketing has continually sought out metrics to measure its results. Upon analyzing the current perspective of marketing control, we conclude that it is contingential. As a result, some problems were identified. We suggest that a different, institutional perspective may be more adequate. For our analysis, we assumed as scope the perspective of service encounters. This choice was due to our belief that all businesses are - in essence - service-oriented, and that service encounters bring aspects of the external environment to the internal environment, as customers and contact employees are from the socio-cultural environment. With this in mind, the aim of this theoretical essay is to develop a marketing control process based on the meanings of the organization. However, we recognize that - as this is a long-term view - short-term interests may compromise it.