what are the constraints on marketing objectives?

Answer 1

It is hard to say what all of them are but here are a few general ones:
* Marketing objectives should be measurable. You cannot manage what you cannot measure. Spending money to promote company or product and dumping that expense into a goodwill asset account will only go so far before it becomes obviously bogus, you have to be able to figure a value for goodwill that the promotional program generates.
*Marketing objectives need a causative connection between the activity and results. If management wants more loyal customers but the marketing program is simply saying get more customers with the hopes that more of them will naturally stick, this is not a causative connection.
* Marketing objectives need an accounting connection between activity and results. This is commonly seen in little code numbers or peculiar mail box addresses. When something comes back they need to know what promotion or program brought the prospect. When people hit a website because of something in the news instead of efforts by a marketing program, then some of the adclick costs may need to be spun off and not charged to the marketing effort. And this brings me to:
* Organizational sharing. If people recognize the company or brand because of a good public relations campaign or because of a good marketing campaign, both may need to share the costs, but marketing probably doesn't deserve all the credit when sales increase.

How do you know what goes where and where the lines are drawn? That comes back to can't manage what you can't measure. Realizing that fundamental limitation on planning and process is an important constraint.