Tools for marketing decisions in agribusiness - Agribusiness Management - page 179

The marketing audit
Nearly every agribusiness and certainly all publicly owned companies have fi nancial audits
performed regularly by outside auditors to ensure that there are no discrepancies or over-
sights that could cause serious problems for the business and/or investors in the business.
Similarly, a marketing audit is an objective examination of a company's entire marketing
program. The marketing audit examines the fi rm's marketing objectives and its plan for
accomplishing these objectives in light of its resources, the market conditions, and its dis-
tinctive strengths and weaknesses ( Figure 8. 1 ). In the market planning process outlined in
Chapter 6 , the marketing audit plays a key role in the evaluation stage of the process. It is a
tool that fi rms can use to better understand past marketing efforts in order that future efforts
will be even more effective.
The fi rst step in a marketing audit is to carefully analyze how the agribusiness is doing
with each product or service it markets. This step involves estimating total market potential,
determining the fi rm's share of the market, and attempting to identify what factors are
responsible for the fi rm's market position with each product or service.
Here the fi rm will re-examine its marketing goals for each of its products or services
and assess what progress they have made toward achieving the goal. Areas where the fi rm
falls short of the goal should be carefully explored to better understand why performance
was poor. Did the fi rm miss the mark when assessing the needs of the target market?
Analyze
Market success
of each product
Review
Market
conditions
Identify
Distinctive
competencies
Evaluate
Marketing plan
and objectives
Study
Human resources
and organization
Figure 8.1 Marketing audit procedures