This assignment has 4 parts:
A. Three/1 and a half page audits
B. One/ 8 page Praxis paper (with 7 peer reviewed practioners or 7 scholarly journals.
You may choose a company of your choice to use for this paper.
The dates for completion of each assignment will be as follows:
July 1st- Macro Environment Audit
July 8th – Task Environment Audit
July 15th – Marketing Function and Strategy Audit
July 22nd – Praxis paper (8 pages and 7 peer reviewed scholarly journals
Application: Praxis Paper
Marketing Audit
Over the next 4 weeks, you will apply the knowledge you have gained from your study and research in order to develop a modified marketing audit for your own organization or another organization of your choice. You must conduct at least one first-person interview, so choose an organization for which this will be possible. You should arrange this interview as soon as possible. Remember, this should be someone in the marketing department who has an understanding of the overall marketing picture, but it does not necessarily need to be a high-level marketing executive.
A marketing audit is a comprehensive, systematic, independent, and periodic assessment of a company’s marketing environment, objectives, strategies, and activities with the goal of identifying potential opportunities and problem areas. The eventual objective of a marketing audit is to recommend a plan of action to improve the company’s marketing performance.
Your marketing audit will have the following characteristics:
• It should cover all major marketing activities of a business, not just a few trouble spots. In other words, it should paint a complete picture of marketing at the company.
• The marketing audit should be an orderly examination of the company’s macro and microeconomic environments, marketing objectives and strategies, and marketing activities.
• The best marketing audits come from people who are objective and assess each issue with a critical eye.
• The marketing audit provides a long-term view of the company’s marketing strategies.
Your Praxis Paper, due in Week 4, will be 8-10 pages in length and include an executive summary, followed by a thorough discussion of the focus identified for each week. With each of the main topics, you should conduct a review of the scholarly literature in order to set a context for your conclusions. You are required to include research from at least one first-person interview and at least seven peer-reviewed practitioner or scholarly journals. For this paper, you will submit four assignments to your Instructor:
• Due Week 1: details about the organization you have chosen, the individual you intend to interview, and an analysis of the macro environment audit.
• Due Week 2: analysis of task environment audit.
• Due Week 3: analysis of marketing organization and strategy audit.
• Due Week 4: your completed Praxis Paper.
Week 1 Assignment
Identify an individual or individuals in your chosen organization whom you will interview for this Praxis Paper. She or he should be an individual who understands the organization’s strategic use of marketing activities to achieve competitive advantage in the marketplace and is willing to meet with you to discuss these initiatives. This individual does not need to be the marketing director or other high-level individual; just someone who has an overall grasp of the company’s marketing activities. You should schedule an interview as soon as possible because you will need the information from the interview in order to complete the assignments in Weeks 2 and 3. For this week, you will need to complete the macro environment audit using information you gather through online research.
Macro Environment Audit (1 and a half pages)
The macro environment audit allows you to gain an understanding of the market in which the firm is operating and outside influences that may have an impact on how business is done. This work will also give you a foundation on which to build for your upcoming interview. Each of the following main areas must be addressed as part of this audit, but the questions listed are only guidelines as to the type of information you must gather in order to complete an analysis; they are listed to help you get started.
To describe and analyze the following elements, you will need to collect information on your chosen company or conduct outside research using online resources to assemble this data. You should cover each particular topic, but in a way that is most meaningful for the organization that you have selected.
1. Demographic
• What major demographic developments and trends pose opportunities for or threats to this company?
2. Economic
• What actions is the company taking in response to economic developments and trends?
3. Environmental
• What is the outlook for the cost and availability of natural resources and energy that are needed by the company?
• What concerns, if any, have been expressed about the company’s role in pollution and conservation, and what steps has the company taken?
4. Technological
• What major changes are occurring in product and process technology?
• What is the company’s position in relation to these technologies?
5. Political
• What changes in laws and regulations might affect marketing strategy and tactics?
• What is happening in the areas of pollution control, equal employment opportunity, product safety, advertising, price control, and so forth, that affects marketing strategy?
6. Cultural
• What is the public’s attitude toward the company’s products?
• What changes in customer lifestyles and values might affect the company?
Write a summary (1 and half page) describing the company for which you are completing the audit. Include the name and title of the individual you intend to interview, and write up your findings and analysis of the macro environment audit, using each numbered item as a heading for your paper. You should also review the scholarly literature so that you are able to include a description of the significance of the marketing audit in your completed Praxis Paper. You may also wish to review the scholarly literature to help you gain insights into any of the major issues you identify for your selected organization.
Application: Praxis Paper, Continued
Marketing Audit
Conduct an interview with the individual you identified in your chosen organization for the purpose of this week’s assignment. She or he should be an individual who understands the organization’s overall strategic use of marketing activities to achieve competitive advantage in the marketplace and is willing to meet with you to discuss these initiatives, but need not be a high-level executive. Complete the task environment audit from information gathered in your interview.
Note: If this is the only opportunity you will have to meet with this individual, then you should also include the topics presented in Week 3 during your interview. You will not need to turn in that written portion until the end of Week 3, but you should take advantage of the time you spend in your interview to gather all necessary information. Be sure to ask the individual at the conclusion of your interview if you may contact her or him by e-mail if you have follow-up questions.
Task Environment Audit (1 and a half page)
Each of the following main areas needs to be addressed as part of this audit, but the questions listed are only guidelines as to the type of information that you are interested in gathering. It is important to cover each particular topic, but in a way that is most meaningful for the organization that you have selected. Keep in mind the role of the marketing information system as it relates to record tracking, marketing intelligence, data management, etc. If the company does not utilize a MIS, find out how they are tracking information.
1. Markets
• What is happening to market size, growth, and profits?
2. Customers
• What are the customer segments?
• How do customers rate the company and its competitors on reputation, product quality, and price?
• How do different customer segments make their buying decisions?
3. Competitors
• Who are the major competitors?
• What are their objectives, strategies, strengths, weaknesses, and sizes?
4. Distribution and Dealers
• What are the main trade channels for bringing products to customers?
• What are the efficiency levels and growth potentials of the different trade channels?
5. Suppliers
• What is the outlook for the availability of key resources used in production?
• What trends are occurring among suppliers?
6. Facilitators and Marketing Firms
• What is the cost and availability outlook for transportation services, warehousing facilities, and financial resources?
• How effective are the company’s advertising agencies and marketing research firms?
Write a summary (1 and and half page) of your findings and analysis, using each numbered item as a heading for your paper. You should also review the scholarly literature so that you are able to include a description of the significance of the marketing audit in your completed Praxis Paper. You may also wish to review the scholarly literature to help you gain insights into any of the major issues you identify for your selected organization.
Application
Praxis Paper, Continued
Marketing Audit
Identify an individual in your chosen organization to be interviewed for the purposes of this week’s assignment or use information gathered through last week’s interview. She or he should be an individual who understands the organization’s strategic use of marketing activities to achieve competitive advantage in the marketplace and is willing to meet with you to discuss these initiatives. Complete the marketing function and strategy audit from information gathered in your interview.
Marketing Function and Strategy Audit (1 and a half page)
Each of the following main areas needs to be addressed as a part of this audit; the questions listed are only guidelines to help you gather the essential information to assist in your analysis. It is important to cover each particular topic, but in a way that is most meaningful for the organization that you have selected.
When the questions result in a simple affirmative or negative answer, please elaborate on how you reached your conclusion.
Marketing Function and strategy Audit 2 pages (July 15th)
1. Products
• What are the company’s product line objectives?
• What areas of product and brand strategy need improvement?
2. Price
• What are the company’s pricing objectives, policies, strategies, and procedures?
3. Distribution
• What are the company’s distribution objectives and strategies?
• Is there adequate market coverage and service?
4. Integrated Marketing Communications
• What are the organization’s advertising objectives?
• Are the advertising media well chosen?
• Is there effective and sufficient use of sales promotion tools such as samples, coupons, displays, and sales contests?
• How is the company using direct, online, and database marketing?
Strategy Audit
1. Business Mission
• Is the business mission clearly stated in market-oriented terms?
• Is it feasible?
2. Marketing Objectives and Goals
• Are the company and marketing objectives and goals stated clearly enough to guide marketing planning and performance measurement?
• Are the marketing objectives appropriate, given the company’s competitive position, resources, and opportunities?
3. Strategy
• Has the management articulated a clear marketing strategy for achieving its marketing objectives?
• Has the company developed an effective positioning and marketing mix for each target segment?
Write a summary (2–3 pages) of your findings and analysis in the marketing function and strategy audit. Use each numbered item as a heading for your paper. You should also review the scholarly literature so that you are able to include a description of the significance of the marketing audit in your completed Praxis Paper. You may also wish to review the scholarly literature to help you gain insights into any of the major issues you identify for your selected organization.
Application
Praxis Paper, Continued
Marketing Audit
Your Praxis Paper is due this week. You should combine all information gathered over the past 3 weeks into one organized, cohesive report. You should also include a brief executive summary and set each week’s content in the context of the relevant literature. End the paper by responding to the following:
• Identify at least three short-term steps that the company can take to improve its overall marketing effectiveness. Provide details of specific activities in which the company should engage.
• Identify at least three long-term steps that the company can take to improve its overall marketing effectiveness. Provide details of specific activities in which the company should engage.
• In addition, include a discussion of the importance of the marketing audit that references scholarly literature and explain how the audit can help a company identify key issues.
Remember to include all references (in correct APA format), both scholarly and first-person interview, that you have used in your research.
See instructions for the entire assignment under Week 1, Application. (See Week 1 in these notes)
Book used for this class is:
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. (2016). Marketing management (15th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
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