What We’ve Learned Since Accounting Marketing Was Legalized by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1977

 

For good, bad or indifferent.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared in the September 1980 issue of The Virginia Accountant. It is one of the first articles – if not the very first article – on the advent of legalized marketing for accountants after Bates v. State Bar of Arizona. It is as viable today as it was then.

by Bruce W. Marcus
Professional Services Marketing 3.0

When, a few years ago, the codes of ethics were changed to allow straightforward marketing by profes­sionals, there came into play a new configuration of circumstances and activities that will reverberate throughout the accounting profession for years to come.

Bruce W. Marcus
Bruce W. Marcus

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For generations, concepts of probity have pervaded public accounting. Accountants were to be not merely independent, but well beyond the fray of public quarrel of exposure. The sword of the CPA has always been independence and, it was long felt, independence is compromised by public debate. And now comes mar­keting, the crux of which is visibility.