Market Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control

Behind every successful product or service present in the market today, there is a story of
substantial market analysis on competitors and customers. It is the first and the most important step in
the development of any marketing plan.
In addition to being good at the marketing in marketing management, companies also need to
pay attention to the management. Managing the marketing process requires the four marketing
management functions analysis, planning, implementation, and control. The company first develops
company-wide strategic plans and then translates them into marketing and other plans for each division,
product, and brand. Through implementation, the company turns the plans into action. Control consists
of measuring and evaluating the results of marketing activities and taking corrective action where
needed. Finally, marketing analysis provides information and evaluation needed for all the other
marketing activities.
In today’s fast-paced business world, the ability to effectively manage the marketing process
from beginning to end has become an extremely important competitive advantage. Successful companies
know how to adapt to a continuously changing marketplace through market analysis and planning and
careful management of the marketing process.

The Marketing Process

Marketing is an ongoing business process that consists of four distinct stages which are analysis,
planning, implementation, and control.
1. Analysis - entails the gathering qualitative and quantitative data about the company’s products
and possible markets.
2. Planning – involves constructing strategies that the company can put into action to attain results
in the target market.
3. Implementation – the success or failure depends more or less on the work prepared in the
analysis and planning stages.
4. Control – company needs to be responsive of changing market conditions, competitors,
customers and fine-tune the marketing strategies for that reason.

The Market Analysis

A successful firm is the one which monitors and manages efficiently various forces living in its
immediate and external environment. These forces which affect its ability to produce, promote,
distribute, and deliver products and services to customers constitute the marketing environment of the
firm.
Managing the marketing function begins with a complete analysis of the company’s situation.
The company must analyze its markets and marketing environment to find attractive opportunities and
avoid environmental threats. The marketer should conduct a SWOT analysis, by which it evaluates the
company’s overall strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Goal is to match company’s strengths to attractive opportunities in the environment whilst
eliminating weaknesses & minimizing threats. Marketing analysis provides inputs to each of the other
marketing management functions.

Market Planning. It involves deciding on marketing strategies that will help the company attain its
overall strategic objectives. A detailed marketing plan is needed for each business, product, or brand. A
product or brand plan should contain the following sections: executive summary, current marketing
situation, threats and opportunities, objectives and issues, marketing strategies, action programs, budgets
and controls. A marketing strategy consists of specific strategies: target markets, positioning, the
marketing mix, and marketing expenditure levels.

Structure of Marketing Plans

• Executive summary
• Marketing situation (Strategic 4Cs) • Market, segments/consumers, needs, behavior
• Products = range, profits, trends
• Competition - reasonable detail
• Distribution channels
• Environmental factors (context)
• Internal analysis (corporation)
• SWOT Analysis
• Objectives + issues (key challenges)
• Marketing strategy
• Action programs (project plan & timetables)
• Budgets (spending & sales forecasts)
• Controls (targets & contingency plan to monitor progress, measure return on marketing
investment & taking corrective action)

A typical product or brand marketing plan begins with an executive summary that quickly
reviews major assessments, goals, and recommendations. The main section of the plan presents a
detailed SWOT analysis of the current marketing situation as well as potential opportunities and threats.
The plan next states major objectives for the brand and outlines the specifics of a marketing
strategy for achieving them. A marketing strategy consists of specific strategies for target markets,
positioning, the marketing mix, and marketing expenditure levels. It outlines how the company intends
to create value for target customers in order to capture value in return. It also explains how each strategy
responds to the threats, opportunities, and critical issues spelled out earlier in the plan.
In addition, the marketing plan should lay out an action program for implementing the marketing
strategy along with the details of a supporting marketing budget. The last section outlines the controls
that will be used to monitor progress, measure return on marketing investment, and take corrective
action.” (Kotler & Armstrong, 2012: p.54)

Market Implementation
The process that turns marketing plans into marketing actions in order to accomplish strategic
marketing objectives. Implementation involves day-to-day, month-to-month activities that effectively
put the marketing plan to work. Implementation addresses the who, where, when, and how. In an
increasingly connected world, people at all levels of the marketing system must work together to
implement marketing strategies and plans.
 Successful marketing implementation depends on how well the company blends its people,
organizational structure, decision and reward systems, and company culture into a cohesive action
program that supports its strategies. Finally, to be successfully implemented, the firm’s marketing
strategies must fit with its company culture – the system of values and beliefs shared by people in the
organization.

Market Control
The process of measuring and evaluating the results of marketing strategies and plans and taking
corrective action to ensure that marketing objectives are attained.
Operating control involves checking ongoing performance against the annual plan and taking
corrective action when necessary. Its purpose is to ensure that the company achieves the sales, profits,
and other goals set out in its annual plan.
Strategic control involves looking at whether the company’s basic strategies are well matched to
its opportunities. A major tool for such strategic control is a marketing audit. This is a comprehensive,
systematic, independent, and periodic examination of a company’s environment, objectives, strategies,
and activities to determine problem areas and opportunities.

Company Situation Analysis

It is a process which aims to disclose all opportunities (capacity) and the risks inherent in the
environment and assess the competitiveness of company's resources and existing market position. The
analysis is thus reduced to two issues:
• analysis of the market environment (competitive environment, development trends),
• analysis of business marketing resources (staff, market share, the attractiveness of the offer, the
price position of the company, distribution systems, promotional activities)

If we talk about “Situation Analysis” we also talk about “market audits”. Basically “Situation
Analysis” is same meaning with “market audits”.
An audit is the means by which a company can understand how it relates to the environment in
which it operates. It is the means by which a company can identify its own strengths and weaknesses as
they relate to external opportunities and threats. It is thus a way of helping management to select a
position in that environment
A market analysis will be made up of a range of factors relevant to the particular situation under
review, but would normally include the following areas:
• Actual and potential market size
• Trends
• Customer
• Customer Segment
• Distribution Channel

Marketing Audit
A marketing audit is a comprehensive examination and analysis of your marketing activities,
goals and objectives. By implementing an audit, you're able to take a look at the way your marketing
efforts are planned and managed, and how they are performing relative to the goals of your original
marketing plan.
It is essentially a great way to assess your marketing plan and ask yourself and your department
what's working and what's not. Then, you can make adjustments and corrections as necessary.
A market audit is useful for getting back in touch with your brand, products and services and re-
focusing your marketing efforts. It can also be used to remind you of your initial goals and objectives
and fine-tune your current efforts to be certain they align with those original objectives. Additionally,
you can see what's working and what isn't and re-invigorate your marketing efforts.
Components
A successful marketing audit should a couple of things:
• Comprehensive, in that it looks at all the marketing issues of a business
• Systematic, involving an orderly set of steps
• Independent, so that it cannot be influenced by those who developed and are implementing the
marketing plan
• Periodic, conducted with regular frequency. A good frequency is yearly or every two years.

A marketing audit should look at not only internal factors such as the efficiency of the marketing
department and their marketing plan, but also external factors including a company's customers,
competition and overall marketplace.
Among the fundamental components of a comprehensive and systematic marketing audit are the
following:
• Environmental audit: The environmental audit is where you focus on your customers and the
competition. What are your customers' demographics and buying habits? What are competitors
doing? What is the overall condition of your company's market?

Example: ABC Company knows that its customers are college-age and older and well-educated
and visit their stores and websites at least weekly. Their competitors lag behind them in terms of
number of products available and marketing efforts in social media. One competitor has recently
launched a new line that could be troublesome.

• Strategic audit: This is where you take a look at your current marketing plan and strategies and
how well or poorly, they are performing. Are the marketing objectives you set the appropriate
ones for your business? This is a very measurable part of the audit where you can observe the
strategies you've attempted to implement and if they are effective.

Example: ABC Company has chosen some effective marketing strategies and tactics to reach
their target audience, but needs to enhance their website for a better customer experience. One
marketing objective should be abandoned because it is not working efficiently.

• Organizational audit: The organizational audit is an internal look at the resources available to
you and your marketing department such as finances, time, production, labor, equipment and
more. It also allows you to take a look at the marketing team itself, revenue, effectiveness of the
marketing plan, products, pricing and distribution channels.

Example: ABC Company is operating well within their marketing budget for the year, but could
hire an additional staff member and purchase a new computer system. Sales are good and the
new product currently on shelves is being well-received and is priced competitively.

SWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis is a tool used in strategic planning to identify and ultimately, prioritize the
organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and strengths. The process involves a brainstorming
session where participants create a list for each of these areas based on previously gathered data and
information. Once the list is created, a ranking process is used to prioritize the items so that the top items
in each category can be used to provide basis for the development of objectives, strategies and tactics.
SWOT is an analytical framework that can help each company face its greatest challenges and find its
most promising new markets.
1. Strengths include internal capabilities, resources & positive situational factors that may help the
company serve its customers. It represents those specific characteristics of the business that offer
an advantage over its competitors.
 2. Weaknesses include internal limitations & negative situational factors that may interfere with
the company’s performance. These are characteristics that limit performance and could represent
an obstacle in achieving objectives.
3. Opportunities are favorable factors/trends in the external environment that the company may
be able to exploit to its advantage. This include external conditions that could help improve
performance or that can be capitalized upon or exploited.
4. Threats are unfavorable external factors/trends that may present challenges to its performance.
This indicates external conditions and situations that could hinder performance, so ways of
defending against them can be explored.

Competitor Analysis
Strategic groups are made up of organizations within the same industry that are pursuing
equivalent strategies, targeting groups of customers that have similar profiles.

Range of attributes to identify strategic groups:

• Size of the company
• Assets and skills
• Scope of the operation
• Breadth of the product range
• Choice of distribution channel
• Relative product quality
• Brand image

Competitor’s Objectives
Three important factors:
• Whether the competitor’s current performance is likely to be fulfilling their objectives.
• How likely the competitor is to commit further investment to the business.
• The likely future direction of the competitor’s strategy.

Competitor’s current and past strategies

Three area that should be explored:
• Identification of the current markets, or market segments, within which the competitor currently
operates.
• Identification of the way the competitor has chosen to compete in those markets.
• Comparison between the current strategy and past strategies can be instructive.
Competitor’s Capabilities
A number of areas need to be examined:
• Management capabilities
• Marketing capabilities
• Innovation capabilities
• Production capabilities
• Financial capabilities

Competitor’s Future Strategies & Reactions:

• Certain Retaliation: The competitor is guaranteed to react in an aggressive manner to any
challenge.
• Failure to React: Competitors can be lulled into a false sense of security in an industry that, over
a long period of time, has seen very little change.
• Specific Reactions: Some competitors may react, but only to competitive moves in certain areas.
• Inconsistent Reaction: These companies’ reactions are simply not predictable. Competitor’s
future strategies and reactions

Problems in Identifying Competitors

• Overlooking smaller competitors by placing too much emphasis on large visible competitors.
• Focusing on established competitors and ignoring potential new entrants.
• Concentrating on current domestic competitors and disregarding international competitors who
could possibly enter the market.