Horti-Business Management (2+0)

Managing the Marketing Effort

• The final step in the marketing process is organizing the marketing resources and then implementing and controlling the marketing plan. The company must build a marketing organization that is capable of implementing the marketing plan.
• Marketing department are typically headed by a marketing vice-presidents who performs three tasks. The first is to coordinate the work of all of the marketing personnel. The second task is to work closely with the other functional vice-presidents. The third task is selecting training, directing, motivating and evaluating personnel. Managers must meet with their subordinates periodically to review their performance, praise their strengths, point out their weaknesses, and suggest ways to improve.
• There are likely to be surprises and disappointments as marketing plans are implemented. For this reason, the company needs feedback and control. There are three types of marketing control:
• Annual-plan control is the task of ensuring that the company is achieving its sales, profits, and other goals. First, management must state well-defined goals for each month or quarter. Second, management must measure its ongoing performance in the market place. Third, management must determine the underlying causes of any serious performance gaps. Fourth, management must choose corrective actions to close gaps between goals and performance.
• Profitability control is the task of measuring the actual profitability of products, customer groups, trade channels, and other sizes. This is not a simple task. A company’s accounting system is seldom designed to report the real profitability of products, customer groups, trade channels and order sizes. This is not a simple task. A company’s accounting system is seldom designed to report the real profitability of different marketing entities and activities. Marketing efficiency studies try to determine how various marketing activities could be carried out more efficiently.
• Strategic control is the task of evaluating whether the company’s marketing strategy is appropriate to market conditions. Because of rapid changes in the marketing environment, each company needs to reassess periodically its marketing effectiveness through a control instrument known as the marketing audit.