A marketing audit is essentially 'fitness check' performed on the marketing function within your organisation to establish how well equipped it is to meet future business objectives.

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Carrying out the marketing audit provides the opportunity to review and appraise your marketing activity, enabling you to assess past and present performance as well as providing the basis for evaluating possible future courses of action.

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Because the business environment is constantly changing, the marketing audit should be used as a reference tool, with ongoing updates reflecting changes in the external environment and your own internal business experiences.

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Our audit process is conducted in three stages.

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Stage 1 – Insight Workshop 
 

This initial step in the audit process brings together members of your management team to collectively work through key areas. The aim of this meeting is to gain a clear picture of your business, industry sector, marketing objectives and needs. In this meeting we would typically expect to discuss the following and produce a SWOT analysis:

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External Factors:

• Economic, political, social, cultural, technological, legal, environmental, demographic and ethical trends

• The scope of your market, industry, sector, segmentation and current trends

• Competitors, products and prices

• Suppliers and distribution channels

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Internal Factors:

• Your organisational structure and culture

• Corporate, sales and marketing objectives

• Budgets, sales plans and targets

• Target markets

• Your product / service offer

• Pricing

• Current promotion and marketing communication mix

• Your sales process, CRM programme and/or customer touch points

• Brand positioning

• Current marketing messages

• Potential barriers to communication (internal and external)

• Policies on CSR, sustainability, diversity, equality…etc.

• Future plans (diversification, merger, acquisition etc.)

• Current marketing collateral, assets and activities

• Core competencies within the marketing team

• Industry accreditations, quality standards and memberships

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Stage 2 – Desk research and interviews

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This is the detailed information gathering stage and will be directed by the findings during the insight workshop. It usually involves a combination of the following:

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• Reviewing your documents, collateral, digital media and relevant records

• Database and IT systems relating to the marketing function

• Completing questionnaires

• Scheduled face to face short interviews with sales and marketing staff at various line management levels

• Scheduled telephone interviews with randomly selected customers, clients, stakeholders

 

Stage 3 – Production of a marketing report and optional presentation.

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The final step in the marketing audit process is to write a preliminary report which identifies areas of strength and weakness or concern. It will conclude with a market position summary.

After review and agreement we would be happy to present the findings to your management team via a PowerPoint presentation. Or you may wish to communicate findings through other means.