The marketing of an accounting firm involves many stipulations that engross ethics, trust, competition and discrimination. When examining the effect of open marketing of accounting it is important to view it from three perspectives: the client's, the firm's, and a society's. Additionally, two key areas that are affected by marketing must be addressed, these are concerning competition and ethical implications. The main focus is to show that marketing accounting firms is necessary, but in order to achieve maximum benefit to the firm, the client, and society, more stringent guidelines must be implemented at the firm level.
             The first, and most obvious, of the effected areas is competition. Within competition several points are discussed. Foremost, the implications advertising has on public accounting, the model of perfect competition versus the model of monopolistic competition. Secondly, the relationship between firm size and the firm's advertising expenditures. Thirdly, the effect of advertising on firm specialization, the implications of client turnover on public accounting practice.
             Before making the comparison, a brief explanation why the two models are chosen is in order. Monopolistic competition has been chosen for the pre-advertising era because it most closely resembles the market structure in an extreme sense. The elements of monopolistic competition are as follows: product differentiation, the presence of large numbers of sellers, and non-price competition. Although accounting services between firms offer very little service differentiation, the absence of advertising serves as a replacement because clients are not necessarily aware that other options are easily attainable. The post-advertising era is explained through the model of perfect competition for which the qualifications are as follows: very little or no service differentiation, many sellers, and price as the only means of distinguishing one firm's s...