Marketing communications: essence and tasks for accounting

Marketing communications is a set of strategic and tactical measures to transfer information from a company to its target audience effectively. They include advertising, PR, digital marketing, and other tools used to build a brand image, stimulate demand for products or services, and maintain customer relationships. A business entity can increase its importance in the market through proper marketing communications, improve its reputation, and achieve competitive advantages. Therefore, proper management of marketing expenses is essential for ensuring financial stability and successful development of the company. At the same time, competent accounting ensures financial and management information clarity and supports strategic planning through accurate cost-benefit analysis. Based on this, the purpose of the study is to summarize the trends in accounting for activities aimed at implementing marketing communications. The following methods were used to conduct the study and to present its results: analysis, synthesis, generalization, specification, and deduction. The graphic method was used to visually present the information. The features of the marketing public relations (MPR) strategy are determined. The composition of marketing costs is considered. The specifics of advertising costs are analyzed. The life cycle of advertising and promotion costs is presented. The scientific novelty of the study is the proposed process of building accounting in the field of marketing communications, which is not a simple reflection of expenses in accounts and reports but includes a list of stages from the registration of expenses to the development of recommendations for making management decisions. The practical significance of the results is that this process can be adapted to the conditions of agro-industrial enterprises’ accurate accounting and management systems. Promising areas for further research are evaluating marketing communications costs in agricultural enterprises, which will improve their market positioning and promote further development. Keywords: marketing communications, advertising, accounting, reporting, marketing expenses.