Published August 2004

Up-front audit can improve your marketing plan

This is the time (calendar vs. fiscal cycle) that many companies begin to lay plans for the coming year. Conducting an up-front marketing audit improves both the process and outcomes of strategic planning.

Mark Twain said, “Plan for the future, because that is where you are going to spend the rest of your life.”

A marketing plan should clearly define three areas: 1) where the company is today; 2) where management wants the company to be tomorrow; and 3) the strategic path between those two points.

If you don’t have an accurate assessment of where you are, your plan may miss the mark. I’ve done postmortems on marketing plans that were adequately resourced and well executed, yet they still failed to produce desired results.

Problems in strategic planning often stem from an inaccurate view of the company’s current situation — in terms of core competencies, target markets and competitive landscape. A marketing audit that evaluates these factors can increase the efficacy of the plan.

By conducting four exercises (in sequence) — SWOT analysis, market segmentation, product/market matrix and competitive comparison — you will assess the factors having the greatest potential impact on your business.

Exercise No. 1: You’ll begin by conducting a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats). Catalogue your internal (controllable) strengths and weaknesses from a marketing perspective. Be brutally honest as you evaluate all of your marketing elements, including product, price, distribution, promotion and infrastructure. After completing both lists, prioritize them. Then go through the same process on external (uncontrollable) opportunities and threats, e.g. consumers, competitors, economy, technology and government.

Exercise No. 2: Next you’ll segment the market. Look at your total market “pie” and divide it up into “pieces” (or customer groups) that are held together by common circumstances, situations, values and motives. The purpose of this exercise is to better understand the composition and characteristics of your core market. Demographic and geographic characteristics are the easiest to profile.

Exercise No. 3: After you’ve divided your market pie into segment pieces, align the most responsive and profitable market segments to your best product and service lines in a product/market matrix. Use a spreadsheet and enter your products/services in the first column and market segments in the second. Each row will document a product line adjoined to the appropriate market(s). This exercise will help you focus on the best market segments as opposed to the entire market.

Exercise No. 4: Finally, you’ll review key competitors to see how their strengths and weaknesses line up with yours. By this time, you’ve already chronicled your core competencies (No. 1), most responsive market segments (No. 2), and aligned your best-selling products to your most-profitable markets (No. 3). In this final exercise you’ll be looking for a competitive opening you can fill that distinguishes your brand.

Go through these four exercises and you’ll more than likely do a better job of defining your present situation. Armed with this real-time fact base, you’ll be better prepared to determine the best strategic path to accomplish your marketing objectives.

Andrew Ballard, president of Marketing Solutions Inc. in Edmonds, develops brand leadership strategies for businesses and teaches strategic marketing through Edmonds Community College. He can be reached at 425-672-7218 or by e-mail to andrew@mktg-solutions.com.

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