Marketing Management, Millenium Edition - epiheirimatikotita.gr

MARKETINGmemoMarketing Effectiveness Review Instrument (continued)Operational EfficiencyM. How well is the marketing strategy communicated and implemented?0 — Poorly. 1 — Fairly. 2 — Successfully.N. Is management doing an effective job with its marketing resources?0 — No.The marketing resources are inadequate for the job to be done.1 — Somewhat.The marketing resources are adequate but they are not employed optimally.2 — Yes.The marketing resources are adequate and are employed efficiently.O. Does management show a good capacity to react quickly and effectively to on-the-spot developments?0 — No. Sales and market information is not very current and management reaction time is slow.1 — Somewhat. Management receives fairly up-to-date sales and market information; management reaction time varies.2 — Yes. Management has installed systems yielding highly current information and fast reaction time.Total ScoreThe instrument is used in the following way.The appropriate answer is checked for each question.The scores are added—the total will be somewhere between 0 and 30.The followingscale shows the level of marketing effectiveness:0–5 None 11–15 Fair 21–25 Very good6–10 Poor 16–20 Good 26–30 SuperiorSource: Philip Kotler,“From Sales Obsession to Marketing Effectiveness,” Harvard Business Review, November–December 1977, pp. 67–75. Copyright © 1977 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College; allrights reserved.The Marketing AuditCompanies that discover weaknesses should undertake a thorough study known as amarketing audit. 34708part fiveManaging andDelivering MarketingPrograms■A marketing audit is a comprehensive, systematic, independent, and periodicexamination of a company’s—or business unit’s—marketing environment,objectives, strategies, and activities with a view to determining problemareas and opportunities and recommending a plan of action to improve thecompany’s marketing performance.Let us examine the marketing audit’s four characteristics:1. Comprehensive: The marketing audit covers all the major marketing activitiesof a business, not just a few trouble spots. It would be called a functional auditif it covered only the sales force, pricing, or some other marketing activity.Although functional audits are useful, they sometimes misleadmanagement. Excessive sales force turnover, for example, could be a symptomnot of poor sales force training or compensation but of weak companyproducts and promotion. A comprehensive marketing audit usually is moreeffective in locating the real source of marketing problems.2. Systematic: The marketing audit is an orderly examination of the organization’smacro- and micromarketing environment, marketing objectives andstrategies, marketing systems, and specific activities. The audit indicates themost needed improvements, which are then incorporated into a correctiveaction plan involving both short-run and long-run steps to improve overallmarketing effectiveness.3. Independent: A marketing audit can be conducted in six ways: self-audit, auditfrom across, audit from above, company auditing office, company task forceaudit, and outsider audit. Self-audits, in which managers use a checklist to