1

Marketing
Control System:

The problems
encountered in control
are usually as a result
of an inadequate
monitoring system, or
the reluctance of some
of the designers of the
plan to face up to early
problems, choosing to
continue in the hope
that the plan will be
successful

MARKETING CONTROL SYSTEM

Pressures external to an organisation:

This
emphasises the importance of categorising these PESTLE factors and carrying
out an effective risk analysis.

Pressures on the marketing function from

within an organisation: Far too many plans do not take into

account the prevailing organisational culture. It is unrealistic to design a

consumer-focused marketing strategy without considering an organisations
ability to deliver on its promise. Some organisations will have an existing
structure that is simply not designed to be able to deliver the proposed
marketing strategy as is intended

Pressures within the marketing function:

It is

often assumed that a marketing department is able to implement the

activities as set out in the marketing plan. This can be a problem when
organisations are planning to
expand their business, but havent considered how the marketing department
will carry this out.

EFFECTIVENESS
Need to include the following assessments in marketing audit:
1) The marketing environment assesses customers, competitors, distribution

networks and other external influences that may affect an organisation)

2) The marketing strategy needs to be assessed on the extent to which it
successfully builds upon an organisations opportunities and addresses
its threats.
3) How effective is the marketing department in working with and
coordinating with other departments, especially the sales department? For
example, does marketing communicate with finance to negotiate easier
finance for consumers to access, to help them purchase the organisations
products?

Understanding Effectiveness of
companys Marketing Strategy

EFFECTIVENESS (CONTD)
Need to include the following assessments:
4) How effective are the marketing systems in accessing, gathering,
analysing and disseminating marketing data? For example, if consumer
complaints go up, is the marketing system able to identify these
complaints, then analyse them and report back to the relevant departments
about the cause of these complaints and support them in making
decisions to correct thesituation?
5) Marketing productivity must be assessed using accounting tools to
measure the performance of marketing techniques, such as return on
investment.

Understanding Effectiveness of
companys Marketing Strategy

EFFICIENCY
The greater the outputs in comparison to inputs, the greater the efficiency
of the organisation

Marketing inputs: marketing expenses, number of

employees and investments made by an organisation to achieve

marketing and organisational objectives

Marketing outputs:

profits, sales (both in terms of units

sold and value) and cash flow

Organisations need to be efficiency

as well

1. Financial Control
Financial controls can include:

Profitability of each product range

Customer Profitability (which customers generate the most profit or not,
allowing an organisation to allocate its time and resources accordingly).

Revenue growth (which revenue sources are increasing or not, allowing an

organisation to take corrective action). next part is pg 134

Objectives need to be SMART

1. Financial Control (Contd)

Sales analysis measures:

Sales Transaction Analysis (e.g. sales record in terms of sales

volume; product type; geographical area, etc)

Cash Volume Sales Analysis (total financial value of sales to assess

costs, profits and sales levels)

Market Share Analysis (compares its market share to its competitors)

Sales Analysis Measures

1. Financial Control (Contd)

Marketing costs analysis :

Natural accounts analysis (e.g. financial records to

identify costs)

Functional accounts analysis (e.g. specific marketing functions, such as

sales pro motion cost)

Product, geographic area or customer analysis (assess

where it is currently maximising its profits, market growth or losses) next part 135

Marketing Cost Analysis

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2. Performance Control
Performance controls aim to assess th extent to which
non-financial objectives are met by the marketing
strategy
Ethical evaluation (such as reducing its carbon footprint, ensuring all
its suppliers pay a fair wage to its employees, and so on)

Legal evaluation (its marketing strategy adheres to both national and

international law)

Advertising evaluation (how effective it has been in contributing to

and achieving the objectives specified in an organistions marketing strategy)

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3. Strategic Marketing Control

The aim of marketing strategy is to contribute towards
achieving an organisations corporate objectives
Marketing strategy aims to achieve this through:

Segmentation
Targeting
Positioning
Segmentation and positioning objectives will act as an early
indicator on the extent to which the marketing objectives are
being achieved

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4 Stages in forecasting:

Understand the present. (This could include secondary research, such as sales figures and
customer retention rates, as well as primary research, such as potential customer buying intentions.)

Understand the environment (an organisation will attempt to identify

what opportunities and threats are likely to emerge over the coming 12 months)
3 objectives:
Any environmental analysis should provide information about any existing or potential changes in the environment.
The environmental analysis should allow managers to have sufficient information to assist them in decision making.
This process should encourage and allow for strategic decisions and thinking to occur within an organisation

Establish the forecast: (calculate and present the forecasts to the relevant departments)
Monitor the forecasts: (Over a specified period of time, note any variation from the forecast
and, if significant enough, undertake further analysis)

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Setting Sales Target

1. Establish the current conversion rate for sales (need to visit four
clients in order to get one sale then they have a conversion rate of 25%)

2. Establish how many prospects the organisations sales

force is capable of visiting in a week
3. Calculate how many calls need to be made, or how
many pieces of information need to be sent out, in order
to get a response for the sales team to follow up

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Setting Sales Target (Contd)

4. Ask the client to state how many new sales they need
in the next year
5. Calculate how many people they will need to see in
order to achieve their desired sales target.

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A budget must allocate resources to ensure the

organisation achieves its marketing objectives.
This should include costs related to:

implementing the marketing strategy

advertising costs
sales force training
development of distribution channels, and so on.