Ever Changing Markets
Mind-boggling to observe how small business around me continue doing business as usual. I’m convinced that its going to punish them. Infect, I see small business outfits closing everyday. I walk around and probe what the real reasons are. I’m no closer to the truth, but what I can report is that business skill transaction, administration and the lack of marketing seem to be the major reasons why we small business fail. I speak out of experience. I cannot tell you how many times I failed in business. The reason why I continued to fail (UNTIL NOW) was because of a lack of developing or possessing a Solitary Dream. The characteristic of the Eagle. What we (entrepreneurs) do all the time is prostitute (to devote to corrupt or unworthy purposes) our vision and purpose. If we continue with this behavior, it will castigate our ultimate fortunes.
That old familiar market place isn’t what it used to be and we are witnessing tremendous market changes around us. While it was relatively easy to create a sustainable competitive advantage in the past this is no longer possible in today’s fierce competitive environment. Competitors are bringing new products and services to the market place every day and the customers are also new. These new customers don’t care about old understandings or old ways of doing business. What they care about is a company that can give them what they want, where they want, how they want and at acceptable prices. This calls for a considerable mind shift that poses new challenges for companies. Gone are the days that you could simply go out and say “here is my product or service, come and buy it” and applying the “any color as long as it is black” marketing philosophy.
The Market Confrontation
All enterprises are now confronted with the new acronym Apps. If you don’t have an App, your business will be penalized. What is required today is a new breed of efficiency driven marketing champions, even as a small company. It is a fact that successful companies worldwide have moved marketing centre stage in their organizations and are prospering as a result. In an effort to do so, more and more companies are conducting regular marketing audits to assess the utilization of scarce marketing resources and the effectiveness and impact of present marketing strategies. In this process we have witnessed the evolution of web-based marketing; we observe the move from companies being cost driven, to being production driven to being sales driven to finally being market driven.
It is fascinating to note that by law companies are required to conduct financial audits every year and the reason is to provide peace of mind regarding the allocation of funds and to ensure that there is adequate control of financial matters for the shareholders (if you have them). Yet there are many companies out there who have never conducted a marketing audit.
Symptoms of low Marketing Productivity
The following factors are indicative of low marketing productivity:
Lack of a formal marketing plan
Markets are not clearly segmented (divided)
Too much of the wrong and too little of the ‘right’ market information
The marketing department ‘does marketing’
Marketing takes place in isolation
Confusion between marketing strategies and marketing tactics
Marketing performance is not analyzed or measured
Lack of a marketing champion and driver of the marketing campaign
Insufficient knowledge of the market, competitors and clients
Little or no communication with the market and clients
Lack of or insufficient market orientation
It is astonishing how many marketing managers and companies still don’t understand the impact of adopting a market orientation, what it means, how to achieve it and the relationship between a market orientation and commercial success. Well there is good news as there is a direct relationship – in fact the tougher the economic climate or the fiercer the competition the greater this relationship becomes.
Market Audit Process
A marketing audit entails a systematic assessment and analysis of the marketing resources in a company which is conducted through interviews with the management team, questionnaires to obtain feedback from customers, review of market information, competitive intelligence, impact of marketing strategies, sales and marketing results as well as an overview historic performance in terms of sales, market share and marketing strategies compared to those of competitors. The outcome and results of a marketing audit is commonly used to reformulate marketing strategies or to adjust marketing plans to ensure the more productive utilization of marketing resources. Truth be told, small business organizations to note take the trouble to understand their business and what is around them, hence the high level of business shutting down. If I have learned something, especially in the last four years of business is that a business (owner) must do regular audits of the entire business and marketing is fundamental or even the bloodline of your enterprise existence.
Anthony Phillip Williams
Editor: SMME XCLUSIVE MAGAZINE
0726272080
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