The time lag in measuring the impact of marketing investment

Marketing investments aim to change consumer behaviors and increase firm value, but measuring this change can be challenging. In industries like cars, where purchase cycles are long or barriers to purchase exist, the payoff from marketing investments may take a while to materialize. This problem of not being able to calculate what we care about extends beyond marketing and affects management decisions as well. Despite having more data than ever before, there are still important decisions that lack data due to conceptual or practical reasons.