Digital Marketing Expenditure and Financial Performance: A Secondary-Data Comparative Analysis of Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Dabur, Britannia and Marico

Abstract: Over the past ten years, the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry in India has seen a significant reallocation of marketing budgets from traditional media to digital channels. This trend has been fueled by the rapid expansion of quick-commerce platforms, the growth of social media and influencer ecosystems, and the increasing penetration of smartphones and the internet. Using company disclosures, annual reports, investor presentations, and industry data released prior to 2025, this paper presents a secondary-data comparative analysis of the relationship between marketing/digital marketing expenditure and financial performance among five large, listed Indian FMCG companies: Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), ITC Limited, Dabur India Limited, Britannia Industries Limited, and Marico Limited. The study combines company-level findings within sector-wide digital advertising data from industry reports and analyzes trends in advertising and promotion (A&P) spending for FY2022–2023 and FY2023–2024 (plus a few FY2024–2025 indicators) with trends in revenue and profitability. The results show a generally positive but uneven relationship between marketing spend growth and financial performance: HUL and Dabur show parallel double-digit growth in both A&P spend and profit in FY2023–2024; Marico shows margin expansion along with a purposeful digital and premiumization tilt; and Britannia shows that category share-of-voice leadership and spend efficiency, rather than spend magnitude alone, can sustain revenue growth even with the sample's most modest advertising-intensity increase. In contrast, Dabur's early FY2024–2025 results. The study concludes that, while channel allocation, brand portfolio mix, and macroeconomic demand conditions play a mediating role, digital marketing investment is a required but insufficient driver of financial performance in the Indian FMCG sector. Future primary-data research directions and implications for marketing budget-setting are examined.

Keywords: digital marketing expenditure, financial performance, FMCG, India, secondary data, advertising-to-sales ratio, comparative analysis