MARKETING INVESTMENT EFFICIENCY AS A DRIVER OF CUSTOMER EQUITY IN COMMERCIAL BANKS: A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC FINANCIAL FRAMEWORK

The rapid digital transformation of financial services has increased the strategic importance of customer-oriented marketing investments in commercial banks. Banks increasingly allocate significant resources to customer acquisition, retention programmes, digital communication, personalised offers, loyalty mechanisms, customer analytics, brand development and omnichannel interaction. However, conventional marketing performance indicators such as reach, conversion, number of new customers and campaign response rates do not fully explain whether such investments create sustainable economic value for the bank. This study proposes a customer-equity-based framework for evaluating the financial efficiency of marketing investments in commercial banks. The framework integrates marketing performance indicators with customer lifetime value, retention probability, cross-selling potential, cost-to-serve, expected financial losses and risk-adjusted profitability. The study argues that the ultimate purpose of bank marketing should not be limited to maximising customer acquisition or transaction activity, but should focus on increasing the long-term economic value of customer relationships. A Marketing-Generated Customer Equity approach is introduced to distinguish the value created through marketing activities from the existing value of the customer base. In addition, the paper proposes Customer Equity Marketing Return on Investment and Customer Equity Conversion Efficiency as financial indicators for comparing different marketing initiatives. The proposed methodology provides commercial banks with a basis for allocating marketing resources among customer acquisition, retention, digital engagement, product penetration and relationship development programmes according to their ability to generate incremental risk-adjusted customer equity.