Implementation and control of marketing plan

Implementation and control of marketing plan
See also
Effective system of control Personnel strategy Strategic management system Change management model Personnel controlling Controlling Management by control Strategy deployment Documentation

The implementation and control of marketing plans - is a process which should ensure the achievement of the strategic objectives adopted by the company. A special role in this process plays a function of organizing and directing people. It involves preparing comprehensive list of activities to be performed, people responsible for this activities and resources needed.

Controlling of marketing plans - the main objective is the current monitoring and evaluation of the marketing activities of the company, recording and reporting of deviations to management, which takes decisions based on this information.

The process of the implementation of the marketing plan

During the process of the implementation of the marketing plan managers must ensure efficient use of capital, human and marketing resources of the company. Selection of the strategy has a significant impact on the subsequent functioning of the company, because its organizational structure must be adapted to strategy. Strategic marketing effectiveness largely depends on the level of involvement of executive leadership in the implementation of marketing tasks. In the implementation of the marketing plan very important factor are the skills, attitudes and behaviours of the staff.

Quality of management depends on:

• leadership - top management involvement in the planning process,
• coordination - to ensure harmonious cooperation between the organizational units,
• communication - vertical and horizontal information flows,
• human resources - personnel selection, training and evaluation,
• organizational resources - IT systems, buildings, management methods,
• motivating - the creation of incentive climate in which staff undertake actions to achieve the purpose of the company,
• organizational structure - relations between organizational units, processes, and formalization,
• organizational culture - market focus, values, customer orientation of personnel,

Fig. 1. Process of control of marketing plan

Marketing plan control process

Marketing plan control process includes the following phases (fig. 1):

• setting the values of indicators, which are the subject of observation and measurement (e.g. sales volume, market share, stock rotation, etc.)
• determining the tolerance ranges from planned values,
• measurement of the values of indicators,
• comparison of planned values to actual values, to determine deviations and give explanation of their causes,
• formulation of proposals to eliminate the detected deviations or change of values of indicators.

Types of controls in marketing plan implementation

The essential types of marketing control are:

• control of the annual plan - performed by mid-level management (method: analysis of sales, market share, financial indicators, etc.)
• control of profitability - performed by marketing controller (method: the profitability of the product, area, customer segment, etc.)
• control of efficiency - performed by marketing executives, line managers and HR departments (method: the effectiveness of the sales staff, advertising, sales, promotion, distribution)
• strategic control - performed by top management or marketing auditor (method: ranking of the effectiveness of marketing, marketing audit, evaluation of marketing excellence, an overview of the ethical and social responsibility of the enterprise)

Problems with implementation and evaluation of effective control systems are often caused by:

• high cost of implementation (IT software and hardware, data acquisition, human costs),
• strict control may reduce motivation, decrease creativity and innovation.

References

• Cooper, L. G. (2000). Strategic marketing planning for radically new products. Journal of marketing, 64(1), 1-16.
• Davids, M., & Newcomb, K. (2006). Planning for Marketing Success: Turning the Wheel by Creating a Task-Oriented, Executable Marketing Plan, 21, 22.
• Jain, S. C. (1993). Marketing planning and strategy. Cincinnati South-Western Publishing Company 1985..
• Kang, K. C., Donohoe, P., Koh, E., Lee, J., & Lee, K. (2002). Using a marketing and product plan as a key driver for product line asset development. In Software Product Lines (pp. 366-382). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
• Perreault, W. D. (2010). Essentials of marketing: A marketing strategy planning approach.
• Piercy, N. F., & Morgan, N. A. (1994). The marketing planning process: behavioral problems compared to analytical techniques in explaining marketing plan credibility. Journal of Business Research, 29(3), 167-178.
• Wood, M. B. (2008). The marketing plan handbook. Pearson Prentice Hall.

Author: Krzysztof Wozniak