Marketing control:

Because many surprises occur during the implementation of the marketing plan, the marketing department must practice constant marketing control. Marketing control involves evaluating the results of the marketing strategies and plans and taking corrective action to ensure that objectives are attained. Management fist sets specific marketing goals. It then measures it performance in the market place and evaluates the causes of many differences between expected and actual performance. Finally, management takes corrective action to close the gaps between its goals and its performance. This may require changing the action programs or even changing the goals. Operating control involves checking on going performance against the annual plan and taking corrective action when necessary. It purpose is to ensure that the company achieves the sales, profits and other goals set out in its annual plan. It also involves determining the profitability of different products, territories markets and channels. Strategic control involves looking at whether the company's basic strategies are well matched to its opportunities. Marketing strategies and programs can quickly become outdated, and each company should periodically reassess its overall approach to the market plane. A major tool for such strategic control is a marketing audit. The marketing audit is a comprehensive, systematic, and independent and periodic examination of a company's environment. Objectives, strategies, and activities to determine problem area and opportunities. The audit provides goods input for a plan of action to improve the company's marketing performance. The marketing audit covers all major marketing areas of a business, not just a few trouble spots. It assesses the marketing environment, marketing strategy, marketing organization, marketing systems, marketing mix, and the marketing productivity and profitability. The audit is normally constructed by an objective and experienced outside the party. The finding may come as a surprise and sometimes as a shock to management. Management then decides which corrective actions make sense and how when to important them. The marketing environment: managing the marketing function would be hard enough if the marketer has to deal the controllable marketing mix variables. But the company operates in a complex marketing environment, consisting of uncontrollable forces to which the company must adapt. The environment produces both threats and opportunities. The company must carefully analyze its environment so that it can avoid the threats and take advantage of the opportunities. The company's marketing environment includes forces close to the company that affect its ability to serve consumers, such as other company departments, channel members, supplies competitions, such as to the company departments, supplies and public. It also includes broader such economic forces, political and legal forces, technological and ecological forces, and social and cultural forces. The company needs to consider all of these forces when developing and positioning its offer to the market target.