With the internal and external environments evolving at the speed of Internet, "copying and pasting" marketing plans from one year to the next will not work. Very often, because companies feel they are doing marketing "stuff", they assume it is the correct thing to do. There is a high probability that ROMI is far from being optimized and companies are losing a competitive edge.
On the other hand, cutting drastically your company marketing budget due to the recession without a real and full marketing audit is a great method to accelerate the chances of business failure.
With the challenges ahead, companies should be proactive by doing smart marketing, not just any marketing. And they create smart marketing by evaluating all their opportunities, not just what they have been doing year in and year out. This is so much more important in today's economy than when the economy is at its best.
The real marketing audit should start with a strategy audit and then move to how marketing operations can better support the strategic initiatives. That's how you get to real ROI and how marketing becomes a revenue and not a cost center. The benefits of a marketing audit are threefold – a reduced spend on wasteful tactics, a positive ROI on marketing that actually works, and a better credibility of the marketing function across the organization.
Every company should implement a marketing audit at least once every 2-3 years, or whenever the business environment changes substantially. The marketing audit should be led by the highest executive level in the organization, typically the CEO or COO, and specific accountabilities should be placed on the CMO and CFO for its execution and actionability. If there is a lack of confidence in the objectiveness of the internal staff, then the recommendation is to hire an external consultant.
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