MARKETING CONTROL

DEFINITION
1. Marketing control is a set of practices and procedures
employed by firms to monitor and regulate their marketing activities in achieving their marketing objectives

2. The aim of control systems is to evaluate the results of the marketing

plan so that corrective action can be taken if performance does not match objectives.

MARKETING CONTROL PROCESS

Establishing Criteria and Standards Measuring and Comparing Performance Performance Gap Analysis Corrective Measures

TYPES OF MARKETING CONTROL

TYPES OF MARKETING CONTROL

ANNUAL PLAN
Annual plan control ensures the company achieves the sales, profits and other goals established in its annual plan. There are four steps in this process.

 Sales analysis - Measures and Evaluates the actual sales with reference to the goals. Market Share Analysis - Evaluates the performance of the company with reference to the competitors.

Marketing Expenses to Sales Analysis Analyses various marketing expenses to sales like sales force to sales , advertising to sales , sales performance to sales, marketing research to sales, and sales administration to sales.
Financial Analysis identifies factors that affect the companys rate of return on net worth.

PROFITABILITY CONTROL
Companies can benefit from deeper financial analysis and should measure the profitability of their products, territories, customer groups, segments, trade channels, and order size. This information can help management determine whether to expend, reduce or eliminate any products or marketing activities.

Process Of Profitability Control Analysis

Identifying functional expenses
Assigning functional expenses to marketing entities Preparing a profit and loss statement for each marketing entities

EFFICIENCY CONTROL
Efficiency control involves micro-level analysis of the various elements of the marketing mix, including sales force, advertising, sales promotion, and distribution. For example, to understand its salesforce efficiency, a company may keep track of how many sales calls a representative makes each day, how long each call lasts, and how much each call costs and generates in revenue.

STRATEGIC CONTROL
Strategic control is concerned with controlling and guiding efforts on behalf of the strategy as action is taking place and while the end result is still several years into the future.

Pearce and Robinson point out that there are four types of strategic control-

Premise Control
Premise control is designed to check systematically and continuously whether or not the premises set during the planning and implementation process are still valid.

Implementation Control
Implementation control is designed to assess whether the overall strategy should be changed in the light of unfolding events and results associated with incremental steps and actions that implement the overall strategy.

Special Alert Control

A special alert control is the need thoroughly, and often suddenly, reconsider the firms basic strategy based on a sudden, unexpected event

Example In the wake of the consolidation of the market power by Hindustan Lever by taking over Tomco and the growing competition by the global majors, Godrej Soaps felt insecure and forged an alliance with Procter and Gamble.

Strategic Surveillance
Strategic Surveillance is designed to monitor a broad range of events inside and outside the company that are likely to threaten the course of the firms strategy.

Essential Features Of An Effective Evaluation And Control System

Objective Based. Economic. Objectivity. Simplicity.

Pervasiveness.
Communication and Involvement. Congruence. Operational.