Marketing Audits

Many companies have stated their desire to become more customer focused. The first step in turning this vision into reality is to undertake an audit of the current marketing function and process. The goal of the marketing audit is to assess the effectiveness of a company's marketing function and process, and provide recommendations for improvement.

Philip Kotler introduced the concept of the marketing audit in his classic article, "The Marketing Audit Comes Of Age". Since that time Kotler Marketing Group has put the principles he articulated into practice.

The issues that are addressed as part of the marketing audit include:
How well is the present role of marketing defined?
Is there adequate cooperation between marketing and other functional areas?
Is the right information gathered? How good is it? How effectively is it used?
Are the right processes in place? (for example: market planning, new product development, etc.) How effective are they?
How well are basic marketing concepts understood? How well is the understanding translated into practice?

The audit methodology consists of in-depth interviews with company executives and managers. In addition, interviews are conducted with other stakeholders; For example, customers, board members and Wall St. analysts.

Initiatives are recommended that are designed to make the client organization more responsive to the markets and customers it wishes to serve.

KMG also conducts specialized marketing audits for companies selling in business-to-business technology markets, for whom it is important to make a value-based case to their customers. For more information, see our ROI-Based Marketing services.