Strengths and weaknesses of the marketing activities of the enterprise. Encyclopedia of Marketing. Strengths of a product organization

08.12.2019

Have you ever wondered what a good military leader does before a fight? He studies the field of the upcoming battle, looking for all the winning hills and dangerous swampy places, assesses his own strength and the strength of the enemy. If he does not, he will doom his army to defeat.

The same principles work in business. Business is a never-ending series of small and large battles. If you do not assess the strengths and weaknesses of your enterprise before the battle, do not identify market opportunities and threats (the very uneven terrain that becomes of great importance in the heat of battle), your chances of success will decrease dramatically.

In order to get a clear assessment of the strength of your company and the situation in the market, there is a SWOT analysis.

SWOT-analysis is the definition of the strengths and weaknesses of your enterprise, as well as the opportunities and threats emanating from its immediate environment ( external environment).

Strengths (S trainingths) benefits your organization;
Weaknesses (W eaknesses) your organization's shortcomings;
Capabilities (O pportunities) environmental factors, the use of which will create advantages for your organization in the market;
Threats (T hreats) factors that could potentially worsen your organization's market position.

The use of SWOT analysis will allow you to systematize all available information and, seeing a clear picture of the "battlefield", make informed decisions regarding the development of your business.

SWOT analysis in the marketing plan of your company

SWOT-analysis is an intermediate link between the formulation of the mission of your enterprise and the definition of its goals and objectives. Everything happens in the following sequence (see Figure 1):

You have determined the main direction for the development of your enterprise (its mission)
Then you weigh your strengths and assess the market situation in order to understand whether you can move in the indicated direction and how best to do it (SWOT analysis);
After that, you set goals for your enterprise, taking into account its real capabilities (determining the strategic goals of your enterprise, which will be devoted to one of the following articles).

So, after conducting a SWOT analysis, you will have a clearer idea of the advantages and disadvantages of your enterprise, as well as the situation in the market. This will allow you to choose the best development path, avoid dangers and make the most of the resources at your disposal, while taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the market.

Even if you are sure that you are already well aware of everything, we still advise you to conduct a SWOT analysis, as in this case it will help to structure the available information about the enterprise and the market and take a fresh look at current situation and opening prospects.

How to conduct a SWOT analysis

In general, conducting a SWOT analysis comes down to filling in the matrix shown in Figure 2, the so-called. SWOT Analysis Matrices. In the appropriate cells of the matrix, you need to enter the strengths and weaknesses of your company, as well as market opportunities and threats.

Strengths your enterprise, something it excels at or some feature that gives you additional features. Strength may lie in your experience, access to unique resources, advanced technology and modern equipment, highly qualified staff, high quality of your products, your reputation trademark etc.

Weaknesses in your business are the absence of something important to the operation of the business, or something that you are not yet able to achieve compared to other companies and puts you in a disadvantageous position. As an example of weaknesses, one can cite a too narrow range of manufactured goods, a bad reputation of the company in the market, lack of funding, low level of service, etc.

Market opportunities are favorable circumstances that your business can take advantage of. As an example of market opportunities, we can cite the deterioration of the position of your competitors, a sharp increase in demand, the emergence of new technologies for the production of your products, an increase in the level of income of the population, etc. It should be noted that the opportunities in terms of SWOT analysis are not all the opportunities that exist in the market, but only those that your company can use.

Market Threats Events that could adversely affect your business if they occur. Examples of market threats: new competitors entering the market, tax increases, changing consumer tastes, declining birth rates, etc.

Note: the same factor for different enterprises can be both a threat and an opportunity. For example, for a store that sells expensive products, the growth of household income may be an opportunity, as it will lead to an increase in the number of customers. At the same time, for a discount store, the same factor can become a threat, as its customers with rising salaries can move to competitors offering a higher level of service.

So, we have determined what should be the result of the SWOT analysis. Now let's talk about how to come to this result.

From words to deeds

Step 1. Determining the strengths and weaknesses of your enterprise

The first step of a SWOT analysis is to assess your own strengths. The first stage will allow you to determine what are the strengths and weaknesses of your enterprise.

In order to determine the strengths and weaknesses of your enterprise, you need to:

Make a list of parameters by which you will evaluate your company;
For each parameter, determine what is the strength of your enterprise, and what is weak;
From the entire list, select the most important strengths and weaknesses of your enterprise and enter them into the SWOT analysis matrix (Figure 2).

Let's illustrate this technique with an example.

So, you have already done a significant part of the work on the SWOT analysis of your enterprise. Let's move on to the second step, identifying opportunities and threats.

Step 2. Identify market opportunities and threats

The second step of the SWOT-analysis is a kind of “reconnaissance of the area” market assessment. This stage will allow you to assess the situation outside your enterprise and understand what opportunities you have, as well as what threats you should be aware of (and, accordingly, prepare for them in advance).

The methodology for identifying market opportunities and threats is almost identical to the methodology for determining the strengths and weaknesses of your enterprise:

Let's move on to an example.

As a basis for assessing market opportunities and threats, you can take the following list of parameters:

Demand factors (here it is advisable to take into account the market capacity, the rate of its growth or contraction, the structure of demand for the products of your enterprise, etc.)
Competition factors (you should take into account the number of your main competitors, the presence of substitute products on the market, the height of barriers to entry and exit from the market, distribution market shares between major market participants, etc.)
Sales factors (it is necessary to pay attention to the number of intermediaries, the availability of distribution networks, the conditions for the supply of materials and components, etc.)
Economic factors (taking into account the exchange rate of the ruble (dollar, euro), inflation rate, changes in the level of income of the population, tax policy of the state, etc.)
Political and legal factors (the level of political stability in the country, the level of legal literacy of the population, the level of law-abidingness, the level of corruption in power, etc.) are assessed.
Scientific and technical factors (usually taken into account is the level of development of science, the degree of introduction of innovations (new products, technologies) in industrial production, the level of state support for the development of science, etc.)
Socio-demographic factors (you should take into account the size and age and sex structure of the population of the region in which your enterprise operates, the birth and death rates, the level of employment, etc.)
Socio-cultural factors (traditions and the system of values of society, the existing culture of consumption of goods and services, existing stereotypes of people's behavior, etc. are usually taken into account)
Natural and environmental factors (taking into account the climatic zone in which your company operates, the state environment, public attitude towards environmental protection, etc.)
And finally international factors(among them, the level of stability in the world, the presence of local conflicts, etc. are taken into account)

Further, as in the first case, you fill in the table (Table 2): in the first column you write the evaluation parameter, and in the second and third existing opportunities and threats associated with this setting. The examples in the table will help you understand how to list the opportunities and threats in your business.

Table 2. Identifying Market Opportunities and Threats

Evaluation parameters	Capabilities	Threats

1. Competition	Barriers to entry to the market have increased: from this year it is necessary to obtain a license to engage in this type of activity	A major foreign competitor is expected to enter the market this year

2. Sales	A new retail chain has appeared on the market, which in this moment chooses suppliers	Since this year, our largest wholesale buyer determines suppliers based on tender results

3. etc.

After filling in Table 2, as in the first case, you need to select the most important ones from the entire list of opportunities and threats. To do this, you need to evaluate each opportunity (or threat) in two dimensions by asking yourself two questions: “How likely is it that this will happen?” and “How will this affect my business?”. Select those events that are highly likely to happen and have a significant impact on your business. Enter these 5-10 opportunities and approximately the same number of threats into the appropriate cells of the SWOT analysis matrix (Figure 2).

So, the SWOT analysis matrix is completed, and you see before you a complete list of the main strengths and weaknesses of your enterprise, as well as the opportunities and dangers that open up for your business. However, that's not all. Now you need to take the final step and match your company's strengths and weaknesses with market opportunities and threats.

Step 3: Matching the Strengths and Weaknesses of Your Enterprise with Market Opportunities and Threats

Matching strengths and weaknesses with market opportunities and threats will allow you to answer the following questions regarding the further development of your business:

How can I take advantage of the opportunities that are opening up, using the strengths of the enterprise?
What weaknesses of the enterprise can prevent me from doing this?
What strengths can be used to neutralize existing threats?
What threats, exacerbated by weaknesses in the enterprise, should I be most wary of?

To compare the capabilities of your enterprise to market conditions, a slightly modified SWOT analysis matrix is used (table 3).

Table 3. SWOT Analysis Matrix

CAPABILITIES

1. Emergence of a new retail network
2. etc.

THREATS

1. Emergence of a major competitor
2. etc.

STRENGTHS

1. High quality products
2.
3. etc.

1. How to seize opportunities
Try to become one of the suppliers of the new network, focusing on the quality of our products

2. How you can reduce threats
Keep our customers from switching to a competitor by informing them about the high quality of our products

WEAK SIDES

1.High production cost
2.
3. etc.

3. What can prevent you from taking advantage of opportunities
The new chain may refuse to purchase our products, as our wholesale prices are higher than those of competitors

4. The biggest dangers for the firm
An emerging competitor can offer the market products similar to ours, at a higher price. low prices

Once you complete this matrix (which we hope our examples will help you with), you will find that:

determined the main directions of development of your enterprise(Cell 1 showing how you can take advantage of the opportunity);
formulated the main problems of your enterprise, to be resolved as soon as possible for the successful development of your business (the remaining cells of table 3).

Now you are ready to set goals and objectives for your enterprise. However, we will talk about this in one of the following articles, and now we will dwell on the question that is probably of interest to you:

Where can I get information for conducting a SWOT analysis?

In fact, most of the information needed to conduct a SWOT analysis is already at your disposal. Basically, this is, of course, data on the strengths and weaknesses of your enterprise. All you have to do is to collect all these disparate facts (taking reports from accounting, production and sales departments, talking with your employees who have the necessary information) and organize them. It will be better if you can involve several key employees of your enterprise in the collection and analysis of this information, since it is easy to miss any important detail alone.

Of course, information about the market (opportunities and threats) is somewhat more difficult to obtain. But even here the situation is not hopeless. Here are a few sources you can get useful information from:

results of marketing research, reviews of your market, which are sometimes published in some newspapers (for example, Delovoy Peterburg, Vedomosti, etc.) and magazines (for example, Practical Marketing, Exclusive Marketing, etc.);
reports and collections of the State Statistics Committee and Petersburgkomstat (information on the population, mortality and birth rates, age and sex structure of the population and other useful data);
finally, you can get all the necessary information by ordering a marketing research from a specialized company.

We will tell you more about the sources and methods of collecting information that you may need to conduct a SWOT analysis in the following articles. Now let's sum up all of the above.

Summary

SWOT analysis this is a definition of the strengths and weaknesses of your enterprise, as well as opportunities and threats coming from its immediate environment (external environment).

SWOT analysis will allow you to choose the best way to develop your business, avoid dangers and make the most of the resources at your disposal.

The procedure for conducting a SWOT analysis in general view comes down to filling out a matrix that reflects and then compares the strengths and weaknesses of your enterprise and the opportunities and threats of the market. This comparison allows you to determine what steps can be taken to grow your business and what problems you urgently need to address.

The following materials were used in preparing the article:

Zavgorodnyaya A.V., Yampolskaya D.O. Marketing planning. St. Petersburg: Peter. 2002. 352p.

Kotler F. Marketing management. St. Petersburg, Peter Kom, 1998. 896p.

Solovieva DV Electronic course of lectures on modeling. 1999.

The implementation of the concept of marketing in the enterprise of the printing industry requires the creation of an appropriate marketing service. At present, without such a service, which provides marketing research to study the prospects for demand, consumer requirements for the publication and its properties, the trends of these requirements under the influence of various factors, it is difficult for manufacturers to survive in the competition. The ultimate goal of the functioning of marketing services is the subordination of all economic and commercial activities enterprises to the laws of existence and development of the market. Both manufacturers and consumers of printed products are interested in this.

Marketing services at enterprises have gone through several stages in their development, ranging from ordinary sales departments to special marketing departments.

But not all of them fully meet the requirements for modern organization marketing service. First of all, it depends on the role assigned to marketing in the enterprise. For the real implementation of marketing in an enterprise, it is not enough to create an appropriate service on it. The main thing is what is the status of this service, what role is assigned to it. The well-known American management specialist P. Drucker noted: “It is necessary to put a marketing specialist at the beginning, and not at the end. production cycle and integrate marketing into every phase of the business... Marketing should have an impact on design, release planning, economic analysis, as well as distribution, marketing and service delivery of the product.” Therefore, it is possible to say that an enterprise has reached the modern level of marketing only when marketing has become the basis of its activities. On fig. a diagram of the changing role of marketing in an enterprise is presented, which clearly shows how marketing, being one of the functions carried out by an enterprise, has gradually become its core.

All the problems associated with consumers of the offered goods fall into the field of view of the marketing service. Therefore, it is quite natural to recognize the function of coordinating (integrating) all the activities of the enterprise for the marketing department. In order for it to set the tone for production, it is necessary to make its status the highest among other divisions. This is the key to the real marketing orientation of the enterprise.

If the marketing department will have the same status as other departments of the enterprise, contradictions are inevitable. Such contradictions may arise: when developing a product (the developer is interested in the simplest and most economical edition, which may be unpopular on the market); in the production of the publication (the production manager is interested in reducing the production costs of the publication, which may worsen its quality, consumer properties); in the financial evaluation of results (the employees of the financial department strive to make a profit from each operation, while the enterprise is sometimes forced to invest heavily to conquer the market); on consumer credit (a consumer credit manager tries to avoid large debts on loans, establishes tighter lending conditions, while a marketing manager devotes a lot of effort to expanding the number of buyers), etc.

By virtue of given reasons other departments often reject the concept of marketing on the grounds that it, in their opinion, increases costs, complicates financial difficulties etc., although it is already recognized that the standard cause of the financial weakness of an enterprise is the lack of effective marketing.

It is possible to ensure the highest status of the marketing department in the enterprise different ways. It is possible, for example, to subordinate the marketing department directly to the director of the enterprise or his first deputy - the director of marketing. The latter must be a good marketing-oriented (i.e. marketing-minded) economist, innovator, broad-minded and non-standard approach to solve the problems facing the enterprise.

Depending on the scale of the enterprise, its features, products, sales markets, any other scheme can be adopted that can provide the marketing service with the highest status.

The effectiveness of the implementation of the marketing concept largely depends on the organizational structure of the marketing service. It can have many construction options. There is no universal scheme here. Marketing departments can be created on different bases. They are usually part of the commercial scope of the enterprise. However, at enterprises producing specific products, these elements sometimes become an element of the technical sphere. The printing industry should create a marketing department that best contributes to achieving marketing goals (identifying unmet customer demand, expanding the market geographically, finding new market segments, increasing profits, etc.).

At the same time, marketing structures largely depend on the size of the enterprise's resources, the specifics of the products manufactured and the markets in which they are sold, and the existing structure of enterprise management. Main Options organizational structures the marketing department at the enterprise can be:

§ functional;

§ commodity;

§ market;

§ mixed (commodity market).

The functional organization of the marketing service assumes that the responsibility for the execution of each functional task lies with an individual or group of individuals.

A functional organization is appropriate for enterprises with a small number of publications and markets. In this case, markets and produced publications are considered as homogeneous, for which specialized divisions are created. In addition to these, other departments can be created: marketing planning, product distribution management, new publications, etc. The functional organization of marketing is based on the division of labor according to established and newly emerging functions, on the specialization of workers. At small nomenclature output, the functional marketing organization is highly agile due to the ease of management. However, with the expansion of the range of manufactured products, production flexibility decreases, since the period of reaction to changes in external conditions increases. The functional structure of marketing is characterized by a weak flexibility of the strategy, since it focuses on achieving the current effect, and not on the introduction of innovations. Similar structure marketing activities does not promote dynamism and innovation. In general, such a structure is an effective form of organization only with the sustainable production of a limited range of publications. Its users may be small enterprises offering a limited number of titles of publications sold in a limited number of markets. This structure can also be used large enterprises producing publications unique in their technical specifications. functional marketing structure acts as the base for all other forms of organization of the marketing service.

For enterprises that produce a large number of various publications that require specific conditions for production and marketing, a commodity organization of the marketing service is appropriate. At the same time, each type of publication has its own manager with a subdivision of employees who perform all the functional tasks of marketing.

Marketing of a particular product has recently become of great importance because in countries with a developed market, product differentiation has become one of the main factors of competition. In this regard, the activity of the product marketing manager is important. The scope of his duties in different enterprises is not the same. Let's consider the main functions of a marketing-managing publication at an enterprise in the print industry:

§ drawing up a plan and budget for marketing your publication;

§ forecasting possible changes in the publication market;

§ collecting information and studying the activities of competitors;

§ coordination of activities of all departments of the enterprise that affect the marketing of a particular publication;

§ control of prices and use of funds provided by the marketing budget;

§ the introduction of a new edition and the removal of the old one.

A commodity organization of a marketing service is much more expensive than a functional one. This is due to an increase in labor costs due to an increase in the number of employees. Therefore, it is common only in large enterprises, where the volume of sales of each product is sufficient to justify the inevitable duplication of work. A similar marketing structure in developed countries exists in large decentralized companies, where each branch specializes in the production of a particular product.

For an enterprise in the printing industry that sells its publications in different markets, where there are unequal consumer preferences, a market organization of the marketing service is appropriate.

The introduction of the position of market manager puts the needs of buyers in the spotlight. The main markets are assigned to the market managers, the latter cooperate with specialists from functional units in the development of plans for various areas of functional activity. Each market must have its own marketing strategy.

To determine the limitations of the commodity and market organization, large enterprises can apply the commodity-market organization of the marketing service. It involves a combination of product and market approaches using the matrix principle: product managers are responsible for sales and profit planning for their publications, and market managers are responsible for developing profitable markets for existing and potential publications. Such an organizational structure is appropriate for a wide range of publications and a large number of markets in which the company operates.

It should be borne in mind that there is no ideal organizational structure of the marketing service that would be suitable for any conditions. Each of the above forms of organization of the marketing service has both advantages and disadvantages (Table 9.1).

Table 9.1

Strengths and weaknesses of the organizational structures of the marketing service

Organization of the marketing service according to the market (regional) principle. Advantages and disadvantages. Application conditions

For enterprises that sell their goods in markets with different consumer preferences, and the goods themselves require special service, the market organization of the marketing service is expedient

Scheme of the organization of the marketing service on the basis of the market principle.

With this scheme, the needs of buyers in specific market segments are optimally taken into account. The main markets are assigned to the market managers, the latter cooperate with the specialists of the functional divisions in the development of plans for various areas of functional activity.

Many firms sell their range of products in different markets. For example, the Smith-Corona Company sells its electric typewriters in three markets - consumer, business, and public institutions. The use of market-based organization is desirable when different markets have different buying habits or different product preferences.

Organization according to the market principle is similar to the system of organization for commodity production. The market manager manages the activities of several managers for individual markets. The market manager is responsible for developing prospective and annual plans sales and other types of functional activities. The main advantage of this system is that the company builds its work in relation to the needs of consumers that make up specific market segments.

Reforming the commercial and production activities of enterprises in our country is an objective reality, a challenge of the time, which should be accepted with a full understanding of the whole range of problems and issues that can be solved with the help of marketing tools. Marketing work requires the organization of a specialized service at the enterprise. In the practice of commercial activity, various approaches to the organization of the marketing service have been used: functional, commodity, market, commodity-market. Consider the features, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the organization.

The functional organization of the marketing department is built on the principle of responsibility of individuals or a group of persons of the department for the implementation of a separate local or consolidated functional task of the department. This approach is very effective with uniformity and constancy.

Production and marketing functions of the enterprise, but when changing activities or when solving fundamentally new problems, a quick response to a changing market situation, it is less effective. This form of construction by the department is practiced by small firms that produce one or a limited name of products and sell products in a small market (market segment). However, large manufacturers of unique equipment also use this form of building a department. In table. 30 shows the strengths and weaknesses of building a marketing department according to a functional principle.

table 2

Strengths of the FD	Weaknesses of FD
Ease of management: each performer has a circle of responsibilities that does not intersect with others. An unambiguous description of the scope of duties of each employee. The possibility of functional specialization of marketers as a factor in the growth of their professional qualifications. Competition between individual functional areas as an incentive to increase work efficiency.	Decrease in the quality of work with the expansion of the product range Lack of a mechanism for searching for non-traditional types and activities of the company Competition between individual functional areas - "localism", the struggle for private interest, and not for the general interest of the company

The commodity organization of the marketing department is built on the principle of dividing marketing into separate enlarged product groups. With a commodity organization! (TO) for each product (product group) there is a head (head) of the sector with a certain staff of employees who perform all the functional tasks of marketing for this product. Such a structure of the department is effective for firms with a wide range of goods with the possibility of their sale on in large numbers homogeneous (identical) markets.

Commodity structure especially effective when:

b) the sales volume for each product is large enough to justify the cost of organizing a marketing service for this product (Table 3).

Table 3.- Strengths and weaknesses of building a marketing department on a product basis

A rather large disadvantage of a commodity organization, associated with the need for each employee of the department to perform a large "set" of duties, can be leveled using a combination of commodity and functional organization of building a department.

Commodity-functional organization of the marketing department is a combination of functional and product approaches, in which all functionaries of the department, performing their duties in the context of a particular product group, coordinate their actions.

The market organization of the marketing service is the division of responsibilities of individuals of the department or their groups into separate markets. The principles of market division are practically the same as for market segmentation, i.e. selection markets goes from taking into account their realities. The use of a market organization by geographic markets is effective if the company produces a limited range of goods, but sells them in a sufficiently large number of markets that differ from each other in terms of sales (Table 32). Therefore, in real marketing practice, a market-functional organization is often used, sometimes it is called a regional-functional organization (RFO).

Table 4.- Strengths and weaknesses of the market organization of the marketing department

Its version is the segment organization. The segment organization of marketing departments provides for the assignment to each sector of a certain market segment with a dedicated circle of potential consumers.

To overcome the limitations of commodity and market organization, large enterprises that produce a wide range of goods and operate in many markets use a commodity-market organization. Commodity-market organization - a combination of product and market approaches using the principle of the matrix: product managers are responsible for planning sales and profits from the sale of their products, and market sector leaders are responsible for the prospects for the development of markets in the context of identified potential segments.

Thus, there are many options for organizing a marketing service in an enterprise, each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses.

When implementing marketing plans, there are many different deviations from the developed plans and programs, so the marketing department needs to constantly monitor the progress of the activities included in the plan.

Table 5.- Strengths and weaknesses of building a marketing department according to the commodity-market scheme of functioning

In marketing practice, there are the following types of marketing control:

Control:	Responsible for conducting	Target	Techniques and methods
for the implementation of annual plans	Top and middle management	Certificate of achievement of the results obtained	Market opportunity analysis, market share analysis, marketing/sales cost analysis, customer attitude monitoring
profitability	Marketing Controller	Finding sources of income and expenses	Profitability by goods, territories, market segments, trade channels, order volumes
strategic	Senior Management, Marketing Auditor	Are the most effective marketing opportunities used and how effectively?	Marketing audit

The stages of monitoring the implementation of annual marketing plans include the following activities:

1. It contains benchmarks broken down by months or quarters.

2. Carrying out measurements of indicators of the market activity of the company.

3. Identification of the causes of serious failures in the activities of the company.

4. Taking corrective action and closing gaps between goals and results.

Strategic control

From time to time, a company needs to conduct critical assessments of marketing effectiveness as a whole, reevaluate its overall approach to the market, using a marketing audit !!! - a comprehensive, systematic, impartial and regular study of the company's marketing environment, its objectives, strategies and operational activities in order to identify emerging problems and opportunities and make recommendations on an action plan to improve the firm's marketing activities.

table 2

Strengths of the FD	Weaknesses of FD
Ease of management: each performer has a circle of responsibilities that does not intersect with others. An unambiguous description of the scope of duties of each employee. The possibility of functional specialization of marketers as a factor in the growth of their professional qualifications. Competition between individual functional areas as an incentive to increase work efficiency.	Decrease in the quality of work with the expansion of the product range Lack of a mechanism for searching for non-traditional types and activities of the company Competition between individual functional areas - "localism", the struggle for private interest, and not for the general interest of the company

The commodity organization of the marketing department is built on the principle of dividing marketing into separate enlarged product groups. With a commodity organization! (TO) for each product (product group) there is a head (head) of the sector with a certain staff of employees who perform all the functional tasks of marketing for this product. Such a construction of the department is effective for firms with a wide range of goods with the possibility of their implementation in a large number of homogeneous (identical) markets.

A product mix is especially effective when:

b) the sales volume for each product is large enough to justify the cost of organizing a marketing service for this product (Table 3).

Table 3.- Strengths and weaknesses of building a marketing department on a product basis

The market organization of the marketing service is the division of responsibilities of individuals of the department or their groups into separate markets. The principles of market division are practically the same as for market segmentation, i.e. the allocation of markets comes from taking into account their realities. The use of a market organization by geographic markets is effective if the company produces a limited range of goods, but sells them in a sufficiently large number of markets that differ from each other in terms of sales (Table 32). Therefore, in real marketing practice, a market-functional organization is often used, sometimes it is called a regional-functional organization (RFO).

Table 4.- Strengths and weaknesses of the market organization of the marketing department

Thus, there are many options for organizing a marketing service in an enterprise, each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Table 5.- Strengths and weaknesses of building a marketing department according to the commodity-market scheme of functioning

In marketing practice, there are the following types of marketing control:

Control:	Responsible for conducting	Target	Techniques and methods
for the implementation of annual plans	Top and middle management	Certificate of achievement of the results obtained	Market opportunity analysis, market share analysis, marketing/sales cost analysis, customer attitude monitoring
profitability	Marketing Controller	Finding sources of income and expenses	Profitability by goods, territories, market segments, trade channels, order volumes
strategic	Senior Management, Marketing Auditor	Are the most effective marketing opportunities used and how effectively?	Marketing audit

The stages of monitoring the implementation of annual marketing plans include the following activities:

1. It contains benchmarks broken down by months or quarters.

2. Carrying out measurements of indicators of the market activity of the company.

3. Identification of the causes of serious failures in the activities of the company.

4. Taking corrective action and closing gaps between goals and results.

Strategic control

Marketing and controlling

Controlling is a comprehensive systematic assessment of all aspects of the enterprise's activities - the company, its divisions, managers and employees in terms of the timely and high-quality implementation of the planned strategic indicators, the identification of deviations and the adoption of urgent and energetic actions so that the milestones outlined by the plan are achieved with possible deviations of the economic situation.

Controlling acts as a means of improving the activities of the company, and so in a timely manner that it is possible to take preventive measures in relation to phenomena that threaten its very existence. Controlling does not mean control, but rather "keep under control at all times".

The marketing aspect of controlling serves to achieve all the company's business goals. Initially, controlling was used to solve the tasks set within the framework of a profit-oriented enterprise. Practice has shown that a company survives in the market only by acting actively in the field of "personnel - company" and "economic environment of the company" on the basis of a clear plan. Therefore, within the framework of controlling, Special attention the development of programs for the improvement and development of the company's personnel, the constant growth of their qualifications, as well as the systematic improvement of the internal environment of the company, its organization.

As an important element of the firm's management, the controller will assist management in the process of defining and implementing strategic and operational development goals.

Controlling is an effective management tool in a company aimed at solving marketing problems. The task of the controller is to set in motion a mechanism that, despite deviations from the planned one, can achieve the goal in case of actual discrepancies with the plan. Comparison of actual and planned results is carried out in order to timely determine the location of difficulties with the implementation of the plan and to ensure that planned profit and achieving other targets through regulatory actions.

The regulatory activity of controlling is to signal deviations made in one area of activity to other departments, prompt them with the necessary actions, help to carry them out to achieve the planned milestones as a whole.

The controlling mechanism is based on the following principles:

Movement and braking. Creating and maintaining the conditions for success is associated with the concept of "innovation". It (as a change or renewal) takes place when something new, progressive is introduced into the work of the company. Controlling is obliged to actively influence those who slow down progress, to achieve constant renewal of all the activities of the company, especially in the field of marketing;

Timeliness. Controlling as a marketing philosophy is future-oriented and serves to identify new opportunities and risks for the firm early. The ability to respond in a timely manner to market changes depends on the time interval between the emergence of a new chance and risk and specific actions, as well as on the time required to develop a change in the plan and implement it;

strategic consciousness. It is implemented when any decisions and actions of the company are taken from the standpoint of compliance with strategic programs. Following this approach - the most important task controller. Strategic consciousness is a filter that prevents the implementation of operational decisions or modifies them if they do not correspond to the strategic plan;

Documentation. Its purpose is to create the possibility of checking whether the goals and objectives of strategic controlling were actually observed. Information should be provided in the form of a written communication, systematically, most fully and clearly.

Practice shows that marketing is the most "sore" place for most Russian enterprises. The problem of producing a product has long faded into the background, and the ability of an enterprise to sell its products is the most important indicator for potential investors.

Many enterprises are taking steps to reorganize or re-create the enterprise marketing system. What measures can be taken by the leaders of the enterprise to improve its efficiency?

Considering that most enterprises are in a difficult financial position, a number of marketers (A. Idrisov) recommends starting in the activity control system with actions that do not require significant costs. Usually these are measures of an organizational and managerial nature, which, if implemented purposefully, will allow the enterprise to significantly increase the efficiency of the marketing and sales service. Of course, it would be desirable to conduct a detailed market research, determine the potential of various consumer groups, assess the company's capabilities and competitive advantages, and develop a new marketing strategy that takes into account these advantages and market potential. This work can be carried out more effectively with the participation of management consultants. But the steps listed below can be done by the enterprise without outside help.

Assess the position of the Marketing Director (Marketing and Sales) in your company. If there are several such managers at your enterprise, determine one who will have not only full powers, but also bear full responsibility for the results of the company's activities in the market. Usually the manager responsible for marketing and sales is the second after CEO person in the company's management team. Required Analyze who and how performs the following functions in your enterprise:

Functions	Description
Strategy Development	Determination of directions for improving the old and development new products. Definition of key consumers and marketing policy.
Market research	Analysis of sales of products. Market research. Determination of the most attractive sales markets.
Promotion of products to the market	Exhibitions, presentations. Advertising. Stimulation of demand.
Sales to end consumers	Direct contact with customers (phone calls, personal visits). Determining the reaction of consumers to the company's products.
Sales to intermediaries	Contacts with intermediaries (phone calls, personal visits). Determining the reaction of intermediaries to the company's products.
Sales administrative support	Processing information about the sale of products or services. Logistics support for sales.
Logistics	Product delivery and storage management.
Payment management	Payment control, accounts receivable management.
Legal issues (contracting)	Preparation of contracts and other legal documents related to the sale of products or services of the enterprise).

It is necessary to appoint those responsible for the performance of these functions, give them authority and resources, determine the criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of their work and responsibility. The system of remuneration for employees of the marketing and sales department should be related to the results of the company's activities in the market.

Marketers should describe their products or services:

Product name;

Advantages and disadvantages;

The most important competitive advantages.

Define your consumers (target consumer groups). And assess the potential of each target consumer group.

For each target group of consumers it is necessary to formulate:

Reasons why customers buy your products and services;

Reasons why customers refuse to buy.

Describe the ways to promote products to target consumer groups, determine the most effective of them.

Analyze your pricing policy. How do the prices of your products differ from those of competitors?

Analyze the discount system taking into account the product distribution system.

Determine the typical sizes of transactions (large, medium, small), their volumes in monetary and physical terms.

Set priorities, focus your efforts and resources only on those products that make the most significant contribution to covering the total costs and only on those target groups of product consumers that have highest potential.

Determine the company's break-even point (the minimum allowable total sales) in monetary terms.

Calculate an individual sales plan for each employee.

Determine the minimum number of transactions that the company must make in the reporting period.

Analyze the productivity of the sales department: how many contacts are made monthly, how many customers buy products
and for what amount.

Determine the number of contacts that the company must provide in order to achieve the required sales volume.

Determine the number of contacts and customers that one sales person should provide.

Create a personnel motivation system that will orient marketing and sales staff to achieve results.

Analyze what the employees of the marketing and sales department do during the working day.

Based on the data from the analysis of the performance of tasks and functions, determine the composition and the number of employees in the marketing and sales departments.

Analyze the sales process and identify critical stages (finding contacts or communicating information to customers, generating interest, identifying customer needs, preparing an offer, receiving payment) that need improvement.

Develop a marketing plan:

What products to sell and to whom

Price policy

Distribution system

Product promotion methods, how you will inform customers about your products or services

Define a sales plan and other metrics against which you will evaluate the performance of the marketing and sales division.

The marketing service should regularly submit to the sales department the developed programs of marketing "attacks" focused on target consumer groups.

Despite the fact that this list of tasks looks impressive, this is only the beginning on the path to creating an effective marketing and sales service, but without their implementation it is hardly possible to succeed in the market.

Marketing budget

The marketing budget is one of the most challenging tasks that business leaders have to deal with. The marketing budget includes: expenses for market research (market, medium and long-term), for ensuring the competitiveness of the product, for information communication with customers (advertising, sales promotion, participation in exhibitions and fairs, etc.), for organizing product distribution and marketing network. Financial resources for the listed activities are drawn from the profit, which without such expenses would be much larger in terms of its mass, however, on the other hand, without spending on marketing it is unlikely that it will be possible to modern conditions sell enough units of the product to recoup the cost of research work and everything else related to its production, not to mention making a profit. Therefore, the allocation of funds for marketing is a solution to an optimization problem with a large number of variables, the influence of which usually cannot be accurately accounted for, that is, a typical prognostic problem. The influence of variables is also, as a rule, non-linear and must itself be determined empirically. That is why traditions, the experience of top managers of the firm and the analysis of marketing expenses of competing firms play such a large role in determining the marketing budget.

To estimate the order of magnitude of marketing spend, you can use the profit equation:

P=SW- ,

where P-profit, S-sales volume in pieces, W- list price, O - transport, commission and other costs for the sale of 1 unit of goods, BUT- the cost of producing 1 unit of goods, not related to marketing, but depending on the volume of production, F- fixed production costs that are not related to marketing and do not depend on the volume of production and sales, R

If we accept that when exporting finished products the usual return on capital invested in production, trade and marketing is 10%, this equation takes the following form

R+D = 0.91SW - .

However, the difficulty lies in the fact that the volume of sales S nonlinearly (and with some uncertainty) depends on R and D, although this dependence can be determined by the methods of regression analysis (a priori it can be argued that for each firm the regression equation is strictly individual).

Since the rate of profit depends on the market share occupied by the firm (with a share of less than 10%, this rate is approximately 11% for companies producing personal items, and 5% for industrial goods), with 20 - 30% of the market, the rate increases, respectively, to 12 and 16% depending on the type of goods, with 40% of the market - up to 22 and 27%; and with a market share of more than 40% - up to 25 and 30%, respectively) from the profit equation it follows that the cost of advertising or promoting a product should increase by as the firm establishes itself in the market.

A.P. Durovich notes that marketing practices use various methods determining the marketing budget. However, it is obvious that none of them is universal and perfect. Therefore, we confine ourselves to considering the most common.

The most common methods for determining a marketing budget are:

Financing "from opportunities";

Method of "fixed interest";

The method of "compliance with a competitor";

Maximum cost method;

Method based on goals and objectives;

Marketing program accounting method

Opportunity funding carried out on a “how much you can allocate” basis. This method is used by firms focused on production, not marketing. The share of the latter usually accounts for only what remains after the satisfaction of the demands of production as such (if anything remains). The only, but very dubious, advantage of the method is the absence of any serious conflicts with production units due to their unconditional priority. The imperfection of the method is obvious at first sight. First of all, this is the absolute arbitrariness of the allocation of specific amounts, their unpredictability from year to year and, as a result, the impossibility of developing long-term marketing programs, planning the marketing mix and all the activities of the company.

"fixed interest" method is based on deducting a certain percentage of the previous or expected sales volume. For example, a value of 3% of the previous year's sales is assumed. This method is quite simple and is often used in practice. However, it is also the least logical, since it makes the cause (marketing) dependent on the effect (sales volume). When focusing on the results of the completed period, the development of marketing becomes possible only on the condition of its previous success. If there is a market failure and the volume of sales decreases, then after this, the amount of deductions for marketing also falls proportionally. The firm is in a dead end.

Competitor matching method involves taking into account the practice and level of marketing costs of competing firms, adjusted for the balance of power and market share. For its implementation, a number of conditions must be present. First, you should choose a competitor that is close in resources, interests and market position. Secondly, it is required to at least approximately determine the size of its marketing budget, which is very difficult. If a competitor's advertising and promotion efforts are visible in the market and can be at least roughly identified, then the cost of marketing research and product development is difficult to estimate.

This method of developing a marketing budget makes it possible to use collective experience, but it does not differ in sustainable optimality. There is no guarantee that the competitor chosen by the company to follow is acting wisely enough, rationally forming its budget, and generally proceeds from the targets that we unwittingly attributed to it.

Maximum cost method suggests that marketing should be spent as much as possible. With all the apparent "progressiveness" of this approach, its weakness lies in the neglect of ways to optimize costs. Moreover, given the rather significant time interval between the implementation of marketing expenditures and the achievement of results, the use of this method can lead the company too quickly into insurmountable financial difficulties and, as a result, to abandon the marketing concept.

Method based on goals and objectives requires a coherent system of clearly formulated goals and objectives. The essence of the method is to calculate the costs to be made within the framework of individual marketing activities that ensure the achievement of the relevant goals. Therefore, in such cases, it is often necessary to reconsider the goals set. In general, the implementation of specific calculations using this method is quite complex and time consuming. Maybe that's why only a few companies turn to him.

Marketing program accounting method involves careful consideration of the costs of achieving specific goals, but not in themselves, but in comparison with the costs of other possible combinations of marketing tools, i.e. when implementing other "chains" of marketing strategy alternatives.

Taking into account the shortcomings inherent in each of the above methods separately, it should be noted that the budget drawn up on the basis of an integrated approach using individual elements of all the methods considered will be the most justified. This method of budgeting can be based, for example, on the orientation to the implementation of the task, taking into account the actions of competitors and the funds that the company can allocate for marketing.

When determining the budget, it is necessary not only to determine the total costs, but also to distribute them both among the main areas of marketing activity (market research, product development, advertising, sales promotion, etc.), and within them.

Marketing planning

8.1 Goals and objectives of planning in marketing

The practice of domestic business shows that many firms are still working without officially adopted plans. In most start-up firms, managers are so busy that they simply do not have time to do planning. In small firms that have accumulated some work experience, managers, intuitively feeling the need for a plan, at the same time believe that formal planning can be dispensed with, and therefore it cannot be of significant importance. They don't want to take the time to prepare a plan in writing. The market is changing too fast for the plan to be of any use, they say, and it will end up gathering dust on the shelf. It is for these and a number of other reasons that many firms do not use formal planning. Large firms evaluate the value of a marketing plan in a completely different way.

However, formal marketing planning offers a number of benefits. In particular, M. Branch lists these benefits in the following order:

1. Planning encourages leaders to think ahead.

2. It leads to a better coordination of the efforts undertaken by the firm.

3. It leads to the establishment of performance indicators for follow-up.

4. It forces the firm to define its goals and policies more clearly.

5. Planning makes the firm more prepared for sudden changes.

Any planning begins with strategic planning. The strategic planning process consists of developing an enterprise program, formulating its tasks and goals, analyzing the business portfolio and advanced planning organization development. The mission statement of the enterprise should be market-oriented, realistic, motivating, specific in the sense that it directs the firm to the most promising opportunities available.

In view of the foregoing, strategic planning requires an assessment of each of the enterprises that make up the enterprise in order to conclude on the feasibility of their expansion, preservation, termination or use of the achievements of their activities.

To ensure the growth of the firm, strategic planning requires identifying market opportunities in areas where the firm needs to have a clear competitive advantage. Such opportunities can be identified on the paths of intensive growth in the scale of modern market activity, such as deeper penetration into the market, expanding the boundaries of one's market or improving the product, as well as on the paths of integrative growth within the industry and on the paths of diversification growth.

“After the development of general strategic plans,” says F. Kotler, “each production enterprise will have to develop own plans marketing by goods, brands of the market. The main sections of the marketing plan are: a summary of benchmarks, a statement of the current marketing situation, a list of dangers and opportunities, a list of tasks and problems, a statement of marketing strategies, action programs, budgets and control procedures.

Flexible scheduling eliminates lock-in planning periods and can change activities quite arbitrarily as changes occur in the market and in the enterprise itself. It allows you to flexibly respond to market fluctuations. The lack of a marketing plan deprives the company of clear, stable targets.

The strategic plan of the enterprise determines which industries it will be engaged in, and sets out the tasks of these industries. Now for each of them it is necessary to develop their own detailed plans. If the production includes several assortment groups, several products, brands and markets, a separate plan should be developed for each of these positions. That is why we are confronted with production plans, product release plans, branded product release plans and market activity. All these plans are collected in one - "marketing plan".

Strategic planning must meet the specific needs of both marketing and other functional areas. This is not always easy, as the goals and needs of different functional units are different.

The orientation of the various functional areas is as follows:

1. Marketing - attracting and retaining a loyal consumer group through a unique combination of product, distribution, promotion and price.

2. Production- full use manufacturing capabilities, reducing relative production costs and maximizing quality control.

3. Finance - operating within the established budget, focusing on profitable products, controlling credit and minimizing the cost of borrowing for the company.

4. Accounting - standardization of reporting, careful detailing of costs, standardization of transactions.

5. Technical Services - development and adherence to specific specifications, limiting the number of models and options, focusing on quality improvement.

6. Supply- acquisition of materials in large homogeneous lots at low prices and maintenance of small stocks.

7. Legal Services- ensuring the security of the strategy from the government, competitors, participants in distribution channels and consumers.

Top management must ensure that each functional unit is willing to balance points of view in the process of making joint decisions and participate in this process. Friction between services is inevitable, but it can be reduced by openly discussing differences and encouraging contact between individual divisions; look for people who bring technical and marketing knowledge together; create cross-functional working groups committees and management development programs; develop the goals of each department, taking into account the tasks of other services (for example, evaluate the heads of marketing departments not by exceeding sales targets, but by the accuracy of forecasts). This is reasonable enough. Suffice it to say that in the practice of foreign firms, deviations in the accuracy of the forecast in one direction or another by more than 5 - 10% indicate the unprofessionalism of the marketer.

Strategic planning is management process achieving and maintaining a stable balance between the goals, capabilities and resources of the organization and new market opportunities.