The marketing audit is an important element in the marketing plan for any product or service. In the modern competitive environment, it is highly important for the marketing team to fully understand the environment and the market they want to enter in order to implement a successful marketing plan.
The marketing audit is a process that examines the entire target market environment. It is a systematic and comprehensive analysis that can evaluate and interpret the nature of the marketing environment and the impact it can create on the product or the service. The purpose of conducting the marketing audit is to identify and sort through the available resources and decide on the strategies to implement the best marketing plan for a successful product launch.
It is important for businesses to identify the nature of the business environment and decide the best marketing method that suits their allocated budget while reaching the maximum possible target market. This helps the business to achieve a competitive advantage in the market segment.
Due to the changing nature of the business environment, it is important for the business to have a proper understanding of the current and future changes in the business environment. A thorough marketing audit acts as a benchmark for monitoring the current and future marketing activities and keep the activities aligned with the expected results from the marketing plan. It also helps to improve the efficiency and performance of the company’s marketing activities.
The marketing audit can be helpful for the management to set realistic and achievable marketing goals. There are several components that can be identified in a marketing audit.
Components of a Marketing Audit
01. SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis helps the business to identify the internal strengths and weaknesses of the business as well as to identify opportunities and threats in the external business environment. It provides an opportunity for the business to convert the internal weaknesses into strengths and threats into opportunities.
Apart from that, identifying the threats that can happen in the foreseeable future will be advantageous as the business can eliminate or minimize the negative impact that can happen by the threats. Opportunities should be used in favor of business activities and used to maximize productivity and efficiency.
02. Market Research
Market research should be conducted to understand the customer expectation from the product and to identify the unmet needs of the customers by the existing products. Apart from that, the most effective methods to reach the target market should be identified by proper market research in order to utilize the allocated marketing budget effectively.
03. PESTEL analysis
PESTEL analysis helps the marketing team to identify the external environmental factors. It explains the status of the Political, Environmental, Social, Technological, Economic, and Legal environmental factors that can create an impact on the marketing activities.
Since these external factors cannot be controlled by the business organization, strategies should be implemented to take the maximum advantage from the changing external environmental factors and to minimize impacts from the unfavorable factors.
04. Competitor Analysis
When entering a new market, the marketing team should have a proper understanding of the competition they have to face. Understanding the competition allows the marketing team to face the competition and survive in the market while aiming to achieve competitive advantages. It is important to use unique techniques than the competitors when marketing the product as it gives a high possibility for the product to get highlighted in the market.
The above-mentioned factors allow the marketing team to identify the nature of the market and implement strategies that will help the product to successfully enter into the market and survive in the flexible marketing environment.