Having carried out the research, we need some generalization of all information obtained. Otherwise, there is no point in doing this. The paper, which is the result of all work done to collect necessary information, is a kind of a pass to the next level of work on improving activities of a firm. However, how to write this paper?
If this question is the subject of your essay, and you do not know what to write, consult specialists who are well versed in marketing papers.
Marketing specialists should analyze their effectiveness and provide high-quality presentation of the results of their work to the management. In the article we will talk about how to carry out an analysis of marketing activities of an enterprise and prepare a report on the work of a marketing department quickly and effectively, using standard and understandable indicators of evaluation. Applying this technique in your company (in your case, your imaginary company), you raise your professional status in the eyes of the manager (business owner) and can cope with marketing programs better.
There are four groups of indicators with which you can assess the quality of marketing in a company: indicators of sales level, quality of work with customers, quality of advertising campaigns, and effectiveness of marketing budgets spent. It is necessary to report on the marketing work regularly, but not too often. The best option is to prepare a marketing report quarterly.
The First Step: Analysis of Sales and Profits
Sales and profits are the two groups of figures from which any marketing report should begin. Compare performance of actual and target indicators of sales and profits, show dynamics of sales in relation to the previous reporting period and the same period last year.
Report on sales will look the most complete when you analyze the following indicators: sales in absolute and quantitative average price, profit and profitability of sales. It is better to divide the sales data by the main products or groups of products (product categories). So, you can assess the impact of each product of a firm on implementation of the sales plan.
If you have the opportunity to specify the dynamics of the market share of a product in a segment, introduce this indicator in comparison with the previous year and with the dynamics of key competitors.
With these figures you will show how the marketing programs have affected financial performance of business. A comparison with competitors will help a manager to assess the quality of growth. There are situations when the sales plan is not implemented, but the growth to the previous year is significant, and against the background of a general decline in the sales of competitors, the market share of the company looks good.
There is a very important thing. Do not be afraid to show negative figures: they just need to be justified. In the world of marketing there are different situations: overestimated plans, market stagnation, falling demand for key products, high activity of competitors. It is more important to understand the reason for the low indicators and take prompt corrective measures that will help stabilize a negative trend and increase competitiveness of products.
The Second Step: Analysis of Advertising Costs
The second important step in analyzing marketing activity of a firm is to estimate effectiveness of spending the advertising budget allocated for the promotion of the goods. In this analysis you will be helped by such indicators as total expenditure of the marketing budget, the indicator "profit – advertising costs", and A/S (Advertising to sales, %). With these figures you will show how far you have exceeded or if you have saved the budget, if you have achieved a net profit growth, and if your marketing budget is large.
Be sure to prepare the budget allocation for the main cost objects. This will help answer the question "Were advertising costs targeted? Did you not spend the whole budget on unnecessary and non-targeted activities?"
In order to analyze if spending the advertising budget is complete, fill this section of the report with information on comparative effectiveness of marketing programs conducted.
Comparative evaluation of all programs will help understand which activities worked more efficiently, and which ones should not be used in the further promotion of the goods. For such an assessment, you can take the following indicators: sales growth and profit from the event, the increase in the number of customers or the consumer base, the cost of attracting one customer (consumer).
You need to know the exact formula for each indicator, take them from trusted sources. Note that different websites offer different ways of calculating specific figures. In order to understand what you need, you should carefully study the issue. Perhaps you will have to look through thematic forums or even ask your teacher for help. If you are not sure you can operate with such statistical information, it is better to order a similar work on crazyessay.com.
The Third Step: Assessment of Quality of Promotion and Work with Consumers
After analyzing effectiveness of advertising costs, proceed to assess the one of working with customers and promoting the product. Quality of work with clients and product promotion is one of the key competencies of a marketer. If dynamics of sales and profit can be affected by many factors that do not depend on you, then dynamics of the indicators described in this section of the report can provide an exhaustive description of the work of a marketing department of a firm.
So, the quality of the work with consumers and product promotion can be assessed using the following indicators:
- Knowledge of the product indicates how noticeable your advertising messages are for the target audience;
- Consumption of goods indicates how attractive your product is to the target audience;
- Loyalty to the goods (repeated purchases) shows their quality;
- The general level of satisfaction with the product indicates conformity of the product to expectations of clients and your correct understanding of the target audience;
- The size of the customer base indicates whether or not your actions contribute to business growth;
- Sales and profit per customer indicate whether you attract the most solvent audience and whether the frequency and number of purchases increases;
- Number of points of sale indicates how effectively you work with distribution channels;
- Sales turnover indicates how intense or extensive your growth is.
Fourth Step: Preparation of the Executive Summary
The last step of any report on marketing activities of a company is preparation of a common table with all key indicators of the financial state of business. Such a table is called an ‘executive summary’ and is placed at the beginning of the general report. Here you specify only the most important indicators and dynamics of the previous year.
Analyze deviations, reasons for fulfillment and non-fulfillment of the plan in a separate paragraph.
The completion of any report on the work of a marketing department in a company is a plan of further actions, consisting of a program of corrective measures and a plan for a future period. The corrective action program includes any measures that answer the question "What should be done to exclude the detected negative aspects of the work of the marketing department?" Such actions can be programs aimed at implementing a sales plan, as well as product modification, exclusion of ineffective measures, change of a communication strategy, etc.
Plans for future events are also useful to discuss on general meetings devoted to marketing activities of a firm in order to provide the management with complete information about how you are going to develop a product.