Marketing Management, Millenium Edition - epiheirimatikotita.gr

attention away from using only labor or material standard costs to allocate full cost,and toward capturing the actual costs of supporting individual products, customers,and other entities.EFFICIENCY CONTROLSuppose a profitability analysis reveals that the company is earning poor profits incertain products, territories, or markets. Are there more efficient ways to manage thesales force, advertising, sales promotion, and distribution in connection with thesemarketing entities?Some companies have established a marketing controller position to improve marketingefficiency. Marketing controllers work out of the controller’s office but specializein the marketing side of the business. At companies such as General Foods,DuPont, and Johnson & Johnson, they perform a sophisticated financial analysis ofmarketing expenditures and results. They examine adherence to profit plans, help preparebrand managers’ budgets, measure the efficiency of promotions, analyze mediaproduction costs, evaluate customer and geographic profitability, and educate marketingpersonnel on the financial implications of marketing decisions. 31Sales Force EfficiencySales managers need to monitor the following key indicators of efficiency in their territory:■ Average number of calls per ■ Percentage of orders persalesperson per day100 sales calls■ Average sales call time per ■ Number of new customerscontactper period■ Average revenue per ■ Number of lost customerssales callper period■ Average cost per ■ Sales force cost as asales callpercentage of total sales■ Entertainment cost persales callWhen a company starts investigating sales force efficiency, it often finds areas forimprovement. General Electric reduced the size of one of its divisional sales forces afterdiscovering that its salespeople were calling on customers too often. When a largeairline found that its salespeople were both selling and servicing, they transferred theservicing function to lower-paid clerks. Another company conducted time-and-dutystudies and found ways to reduce the ratio of idle-to-productive time.Advertising EfficiencyMany managers believe it is almost impossible to measure what they are getting fortheir advertising dollars. But they should try to keep track of at least the followingstatistics:■ Advertising cost per thousand target buyers reached by media vehicle■ Percentage of audience who noted, saw or associated, and read most of eachprint ad■ Consumer opinions on the ad’s content and effectiveness■ Before and after measures of attitude toward the product■ Number of inquiries stimulated by the ad■ Cost per inquiryManagement can take a number of steps to improve advertising efficiency, includingdoing a better job of positioning the product, defining objectives, pretestingmessages, using computer technology to guide the selection of media, looking for bettermedia buys, and doing posttesting.chapter 22Managing theTotal MarketingEffort 705