Introduction
If your firm is a small or medium-sized ones, you undoubtedly have a basic marketing plan, but it’s unlikely that it’s been documented. You most likely have a website, some marketing materials (flyers) to leave with consumers, an inactive social media account, a sales crew, and marketing collateral like brochures.
There may be some sort of management system to help you figure out if you’re bringing in enough money to cover expenses and turn a profit, similar to a sales analysis done monthly or quarterly. If your business is typical of those of similar size, you probably don’t have the tools you need to analyze and evaluate your marketing efforts as part of your marketing control process. It is one of the crucial parts of a marketing job.
Marketing control is the measurement of a company’s marketing success in terms of sales revenue produced, market share acquired, and profit earned. In order to determine the deviation and make the necessary corrections, the actual outcome is compared to the standard provided in this instance.
In the process of marketing control, firm management or executives evaluate and examine their marketing initiatives and plans. The results are then used by management to modify or amend their marketing strategy as needed. Consider marketing management to be an aircraft’s navigation system.
The navigation system guides the aircraft in the direction of its target once the pilot sets the course. The plane may, however, veer off track due to weather patterns, and the pilot must make changes to keep it on course or the aircraft may land in another spot. You risk spending too much money, earning no sales, or both if you don’t keep an eye on your marketing efforts and make modifications as you go.
Objectives of Marketing Control
The following are the key objectives of marketing control;
Creation of new customers
The primary determinant of any business’ success is its customers. Market research, target market identification, product development, and the use of various marketing strategies, such as advertising and promotion, all contribute to the creation of new customers. Marketing control accesses the current position of the business and guides the business through customer acquisition. Marketing control helps businesses in drafting marketing related policies.
Customer retention and need satisfaction
For a firm to succeed today and in the future, it must have happy, recurring customers. As stated, this strategy starts by comprehending the needs, wants, issues, and preferences of the customer. Following effective comprehension, the company meets the requirements of the customer by delivering the appropriate product. Additionally, a happy customer will always be likely to make another purchase.
Enhancement and sustainability of business profitability
The goal of every firm is to be profitable enough to last over the long term. It is quite obvious that businesses should produce high-quality goods and services in order to sustain them over the long run. High customer satisfaction, client retention, and providing quality products all result in higher corporate earnings. Additionally, it highlights the necessity for businesses to continually raise product standards in order to compete in today’s competitive marketplace.
Raising consumers’ living standards
Giving clients and society a high quality of life is something that marketing is constantly concerned with. It might raise customers’ living standards by guaranteeing high-quality goods, satisfying supply and demand, assuring proper distribution, offering new and improved goods, creating jobs, preserving economic stability, etc.
Types of Marketing Control
Control does not refer to imposing one’s will on others; rather, it refers to increasing productivity by lowering the likelihood of mistakes and upholding the management’s standards.
Marketing managers can analyze marketing initiatives using one of four different types of marketing controls.
Annual Plan Control
The term “annual plan control” refers to the plans that are made for a year to control operational operations through the effective application of management by objectives. The organization’s top management often creates and oversees these programs. Sales analysis, market share analysis, marketing spend to sales ratios, financial analysis, and corrective actions are the five performance tools that managers use to monitor the status of targets in the annual plan.
Profitability Control
Companies conduct frequent research in addition to their annual plan control to ascertain the real profitability of their various products, markets, consumer groups, trade routes, and other marketing variables. The capacity to allocate marketing and other costs to suitable promotional entities and activities is necessary for this purpose. Marketing executives can use marketing profitability analysis to determine which existing marketing initiatives should be expanded, dropped, or scaled back.
Efficiency Control
The goal of efficiency control is to boost the effectiveness of marketing initiatives like direct marketing, advertising, sales promotion, and distribution. Marketing managers constantly monitor specific key ratios that show how well these tasks are being carried out, and they also put studies into practice to uncover ways to boost performance.
Strategic Control
To guarantee that the company’s marketing objectives, plans, and systems are best fitted to the current and anticipated marketing environment, marketing has the responsibility of exercising strategic control. In this context, the adoption of two tools—marketing efficiency rating review and marketing audit—is noteworthy.
Importance of Marketing Control
There are many key importances to applying the marketing control strategy in a business. They are as follows;
Coping with environmental changes through marketing efforts
The company is able to update its marketing strategy in response to environmental changes by routinely assessing performance as well as other environmental changes. It becomes even more crucial in light of the quick changes in consumer tastes, governmental policies, and the social, political, and technological landscapes.
Removing deviations in performance
The management can spot discrepancies from the planned program with the aid of a marketing control system. It identifies the problem and performance gap and, when necessary, takes corrective action.
Identification of weak performing factors
A performance evaluation aids management in determining who is to blame for subpar results. When an individual’s performance falls short of predetermined standards, they are given the chance to evaluate their own performance, and others are freed of their burden of inefficiency and ineffectiveness.
Managing organizational complexity
The vertical marketing structure has largely cemented its place in contemporary marketing. The organization’s size and expansion make control more difficult but still necessary. With increasing enterprise size, the area under control expands and poses a control issue. In order to ensure effective marketing management, a realistic, efficient, and yet easy marketing control system is helpful.
Assist in plan reformation
The marketing control system’s input aids in reevaluating performance criteria, marketing policies, and programs. This reappraisal aids in the marketing plan’s realistic reformulation.
Reference
