No, absolutely not, and that is why we are faced with a question that immediately and directly seems to have a logically affirmative answer, but reality shows us the opposite, since we want to be competitive but we really apply few strategic resources in achieving this goal. And if not, why are we not in the privileged situation enjoyed by a number of Spanish companies such as Zara, Imaginarium, Repsol, Loewe,…?
If you have started reading the article, it means that in principle you have been interested in the subject and you want to contrast professional criteria and different opinions, so I encourage you to continue reading and reflect on the true use that is given to Strategic Marketing in our country, since a Marketing Plan, no matter how hard some try, is not a set of specific actions for sale, advertising or promotion. It's much more than that. Marketing is a set of work tools whose objective is to discover what the market needs and act accordingly, laying the foundations for a beneficial and satisfactory relationship in the short, medium and long term. In general terms, we can say that their objective is to lead the way for hard and consistent work. A job that, given the dynamics of the market,in which the needs and desires of people continually change, it has to be constant over time. Only in this way can satisfactory responses be made to market demands at all times, as Philip Kotler says "Successful companies will be the few that make their Marketing change as fast as their market".
That is why today, the victory is given not by the struggle of products but of perceptions. So to know our situation in the market and the positioning in the customer's mind, we will have to regularly carry out a Marketing Audit.
I have been talking about the benefits of marketing auditing for so many years that I find it hard to believe that I still refer to it as a mirage. But, unfortunately, it is so, and even today the marketing audit is still the pending issue for Spanish companies. And I am extremely sorry, not for me, an outspoken advocate, but for the companies themselves, which are wasting one of the great strategic tools that marketing provides to position themselves successfully in an increasingly competitive market.
If for a moment they stopped to know what a marketing audit is, what it is and what its real benefits are, they would realize that, above all, it is a business ally. And what do the allies do? The answer seems evident, to collaborate with us in the buoyant moments, so that the situation becomes even more profitable; and cooperate with us in times of skinny cows like the current one, to help us overcome the greatest enemy that any company can have: the crisis.
Faced with this reality, two very clear questions arise. First, is a marketing audit necessary to do good strategic planning in the short, medium and long term? And second, what exactly is this tool capable of offering such excellent results?
Let's start with the last question. The marketing audit is neither more nor less than a working tool that allows the company to analyze and evaluate the programs and actions of the Commercial and Marketing area, as well as their adaptation to the environment and the current situation. Said in a more practical way, it examines all the areas of the company and finds out the opportunities and threats, or more importantly, indicates the areas of improvement on which to act to increase the profitability of the company.
But it must be made very clear that for a marketing audit to be truly effective it has to fulfill a series of mandatory conditions. It must be, in general lines:
Periodic. Although the frequency of the audit is subject to the size of the company, the truth is that a marketing audit can never be an isolated event, but must be carried out regularly and, as we have said before, regardless of the economic situation of the market or of the company.
Systematic. You must follow an ordered sequence in each of the phases necessary to make the diagnosis.
Complete. You must analyze each of the factors that influence each and every marketing variable and its effectiveness.
But in addition, an effective marketing audit must be independent, so as to ensure objective analysis. And the best way to achieve this objectivity is to entrust the audit to specialized professionals outside the company. External, but which in turn must be fully integrated with it. Furthermore, only good communication between company and auditor can bear the desired fruits.
Having seen what the marketing audit is and what it is, it is now time to answer the first question. Is a marketing audit necessary to do good strategic planning in the short, medium or long term? The answer, if we look around us and observe how Spanish companies continue to plan without having it, it could be no. But if we look at the results obtained in many cases and, above all, if we are realistic and demanding with our resources, the answer is YES. And it is "YES" if we want to make the most of all our possibilities to increase our profitability, if we want to discover our areas for improvement so that we avoid a possible future crisis, if we want to face a market crisis or if we even want to emerge quickly and successfully from our own internal crisis. In short, it is YES, whether we want to prevent or what we want to do is cure.
But the true usefulness of auditing begins when, knowing where we start, we can begin to create, plan and set objectives. Let's think and be aware that the competition may be closer than it seems. Providing that added value that makes us stand out from the rest and leading the market invariably involves adopting a Strategic Marketing perspective and only that is possible if we start to give a new dimension to the term "Marketing", well above specific and operational actions, therefore, if you have reached these lines of the article, I congratulate you because it belongs to the “target” that Marketing needs to accept the challenge of changes in the market.
In short, to position ourselves successfully in an increasingly competitive market, we must go one step further, enter the frontiers of strategic marketing and use the wide range of information and solutions that marketing audits offer us. It is high time that we began to take more advantage of the economic boom situations and that we began to face the crises with greater security. Of course, we have a perfect guide to action: the marketing audit.
