Table of Contents

1. Letter of Acknowledgement………………………………..
2

2. History of Company……………….……………………… 3

3. Company Vision and Mission……………………………..

4

4. Marketing mix ………………………………………. 5

5. Product………………………………..

6. Price ………………………….

7. Place ………………………….9

8. Promotion …………………………………….. 11

9. Conclusion………………………………………………. 21

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all we are grateful to Allah, The Almighty bestowing us the will
and opportunity to accomplish the assigned project in the best way we
can.

Then we would like to express gratitude to our Prestigious Sir Mazhar

Ali who gave us this opportunity to make this INDUSTRIAL MARKETING
Report of our 4P’s OF INDUSTRIAL MARKET on IBM. His continuous
feedback and immediate replies to our queries made our work smooth
and easier.

Marketing Mix of International Business

Machines (IBM)
HISTORY OF COMPANY:

 International Business Machines (IBM) (NYSE: IBM) is an

American multinational computer, technology and IT consulting

corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States.

IBM is the world's fourth largest technology company and the

second most valuable global brand (after Coca-Cola). IBM is one

of the few information technology companies with a continuous

history dating back to the 19th century. IBM manufactures and

sells computer hardware and software (with a focus on the

latter), and offers infrastructure services, hosting services, and

consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers

to nanotechnology.

IBM has been well known through most of its recent history as

the world's largest computer company and systems integrator.

With almost 400,000 employees worldwide, IBM is second largest

(by market capitalization) and the second most profitable

information technology and services employer in the world

according to the Forbes 2000 list with sales of greater than 100

billion US dollars. IBM holds more patents than any other U.S.

based technology company and has nine research laboratories

worldwide. The company has scientists, engineers, consultants,

and sales professionals in over 200 countries. IBM employees

have earned five Nobel Prizes, four Turing Awards, nine National

Medals of Technology, and five National Medals of Science. As a

chip maker, IBM has been among the Worldwide Top 20

Semiconductor Sales Leaders in past years.

The company which became IBM was founded in 1896 as the

Tabulating Machine Company by Herman Hollerith, in Broome

County, New York (Endicott, New York or Binghamton, New York),

where IBM still maintains very limited operations. It was

incorporated as Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation on

June 16, 1911, and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in

1916 by George Winthrop Fairchild. CTR's Canadian and later

South American subsidiary was named International Business

Machines in 1917, and the whole company took this name in

1924 when Thomas J. Watson took control of it.

Since November 1910, a Hollerith subsidiary existed in Germany,

the DEHOMAG (Deutsche Hollerith-Maschinen GmbH), founded as

a license holder from the Tabulating Machine Company. In 1922,

the renamed CTR took over 90% of DEHOMAG, which was in

license debt due to the German inflation 1914-1923. In 1949

DEHOMAG finally took the name IBM Germany.

IBM has an important history of acquisitions and spin-offs.

Among the famous ones, German SAP was founded in 1972 by

five former IBM engineers. Chinese Lenovo became world-famous

after acquiring IBM's Thinkpad business in 2005.

 4 P’S IN IBM:

product

 Price

 Place

 promotion

Product:

To begin with, develop the habit of looking at your product as though

you were an outside marketing consultant brought in to help your

company decide whether or not it's in the right business at this time.

Ask critical questions such as, "Is your current product or service, or

mix of products and services, appropriate and suitable for the market

and the customers of today?"

Whenever you're having difficulty selling as much of your products or

services as you'd like, you need to develop the habit of assessing your

business honestly and asking, "Are these the right products or services

for our customers today?"

Is there any product or service you're offering today that, knowing

what you now know, you would not bring out again today? Compared

to your competitors, is your product or service superior in some

significant way to anything else available? If so, what is it? If not, could

you develop an area of superiority? Should you be offering this product

or service at all in the current marketplace?

Prices:

The second P in the formula is price. Develop the habit of continually

examining and reexamining the prices of the products and services

you sell to make sure they're still appropriate to the realities of the

current market. Sometimes you need to lower your prices. At other

times, it may be appropriate to raise your prices. Many companies

have found that the profitability of certain products or services doesn't

justify the amount of effort and resources that go into producing them.

By raising their prices, they may lose a percentage of their customers,

but the remaining percentage generates a profit on every sale. Could

this be appropriate for you?

Sometimes you need to change your terms and conditions of sale.

Sometimes, by spreading your price over a series of months or years,

you can sell far more than you are today, and the interest you can

charge will more than make up for the delay in cash receipts.

Sometimes you can combine products and services together with

special offers and special promotions. Sometimes you can include free

additional items that cost you very little to produce but make your

prices appear far more attractive to your customers.

In business, as in nature, whenever you experience resistance or

frustration in any part of your sales or marketing activities, be open to

revisiting that area. Be open to the possibility that your current pricing

structure is not ideal for the current market. Be open to the need to

revise your prices, if necessary, to remain competitive, to survive and

thrive in a fast-changing marketplace.

Promotion:

The third habit in marketing and sales is to think in terms of promotion

all the time. Promotion includes all the ways you tell your customers

about your products or services and how you then market and sell to

them.

Small changes in the way you promote and sell your products can lead

to dramatic changes in your results. Even small changes in your

advertising can lead immediately to higher sales. Experienced

copywriters can often increase the response rate from advertising by

500 percent by simply changing the headline on an advertisement.

Large and small companies in every industry continually experiment

with different ways of advertising, promoting, and selling their

products and services. And here is the rule: Whatever method of

marketing and sales you're using today will, sooner or later, stop

working. Sometimes it will stop working for reasons you know, and
sometimes it will be for reasons you don't know. In either case, your

methods of marketing and sales will eventually stop working, and you'll

have to develop new sales, marketing and advertising approaches,

offerings, and strategies.

Place:

The fourth P in the marketing mix is the place where your product or

service is actually sold. Develop the habit of reviewing and reflecting

upon the exact location where the customer meets the salesperson.

Sometimes a change in place can lead to a rapid increase in sales.

You can sell your product in many different places. Some companies

use direct selling, sending their salespeople out to personally meet and

talk with the prospect. Some sell by telemarketing. Some sell through

catalogs or mail order. Some sell at trade shows or in retail

establishments. Some sell in joint ventures with other similar products

or services. Some companies use manufacturers' representatives or

distributors. Many companies use a combination of one or more of

these methods.

In each case, the entrepreneur must make the right choice about the
very best location or place for the customer to receive essential buying

information on the product or service needed to make a buying

decision. What is yours? In what way should you change it? Where else

could you offer your products or services?

Packaging

The fifth element in the marketing mix is the packaging. Develop the

habit of standing back and looking at every visual element in the

packaging of your product or service through the eyes of a critical

prospect. Remember, people form their first impression about you

within the first 30 seconds of seeing you or some element of your

company. Small improvements in the packaging or external

appearance of your product or service can often lead to completely

different reactions from your customers.

With regard to the packaging of your company, your product or

service, you should think in terms of everything that the customer sees

from the first moment of contact with your company all the way

through the purchasing process.

Packaging refers to the way your product or service appears from the

outside. Packaging also refers to your people and how they dress and

groom. It refers to your offices, your waiting rooms, your brochures,

your correspondence and every single visual element about your

company. Everything counts. Everything helps or hurts. Everything

affects your customer's confidence about dealing with you.

When IBM started under the guidance of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., he

very early concluded that fully 99 percent of the visual contact a

customer would have with his company, at least initially, would be

represented by IBM salespeople. Because IBM was selling relatively

sophisticated high-tech equipment, Watson knew customers would

have to have a high level of confidence in the credibility of the

salesperson. He therefore instituted a dress and grooming code that

became an inflexible set of rules and regulations within IBM.

As a result, every salesperson was required to look like a professional

in every respect. Every element of their clothing-including dark suits,

dark ties, white shirts, conservative hairstyles, shined shoes, clean

fingernails-and every other feature gave off the message of

professionalism and competence. One of the highest compliments a

person could receive was, "You look like someone from IBM."

Positioning

The next P is positioning. You should develop the habit of thinking

continually about how you are positioned in the hearts and minds of
your customers. How do people think and talk about you when you're

not present? How do people think and talk about your company? What

positioning do you have in your market, in terms of the specific words

people use when they describe you and your offerings to others?

In the famous book by Al Reis and Jack Trout, Positioning, the authors

point out that how you are seen and thought about by your customers

is the critical determinant of your success in a competitive

marketplace. Attribution theory says that most customers think of you

in terms of a single attribute, either positive or negative. Sometimes

it's "service." Sometimes it's "excellence." Sometimes it's "quality

engineering," as with Mercedes Benz. Sometimes it's "the ultimate

driving machine," as with BMW. In every case, how deeply entrenched

that attribute is in the minds of your customers and prospective

customers determines how readily they'll buy your product or service

and how much they'll pay.

Develop the habit of thinking about how you could improve your

positioning. Begin by determining the position you'd like to have. If you

could create the ideal impression in the hearts and minds of your

customers, what would it be? What would you have to do in every

customer interaction to get your customers to think and talk about in

that specific way? What changes do you need to make in the way
interact with customers today in order to be seen as the very best

choice for your customers of tomorrow?

People

The final P of the marketing mix is people. Develop the habit of

thinking in terms of the people inside and outside of your business who

are responsible for every element of your sales and marketing strategy

and activities.

It's amazing how many entrepreneurs and businesspeople will work

extremely hard to think through every element of the marketing

strategy and the marketing mix, and then pay little attention to the

fact that every single decision and policy has to be carried out by a

specific person, in a specific way. Your ability to select, recruit, hire

and retain the proper people, with the skills and abilities to do the job

you need to have done, is more important than everything else put

together.

In his best-selling book, Good to Great, Jim Collins discovered the most

important factor applied by the best companies was that they first of

all "got the right people on the bus, and the wrong people off the bus."

Once these companies had hired the right people, the second step was

to "get the right people in the right seats on the bus."

To be successful in business, you must develop the habit of thinking in

terms of exactly who is going to carry out each task and responsibility.

In many cases, it's not possible to move forward until you can attract

and put the right person into the right position. Many of the best

business plans ever developed sit on shelves today because the

[people who created them] could not find the key people who could

execute those plans.

The marketing planning process

Marketing process can be realized by the marketing mix in step 4. The

last step in the process is the marketing controlling. In most

organizations, "strategic planning" is an annual process, typically

covering just the year ahead. Occasionally, a few organizations may

look at a practical plan which stretches three or more years ahead.

To be most effective, the plan has to be formalized, usually in written

form, as a formal "marketing plan." The essence of the process is that

it moves from the general to the specific, from the vision to the

mission to the goals to the corporate objectives of the organization,

then down to the individual action plans for each part of the marketing

program. It is also an interactive process, so that the draft output of

each stage is checked to see what impact it has on the earlier stages,

and is amended.

Marketing planning aims and objectives

Behind the corporate objectives, which in themselves offer the main

context for the marketing plan, will lie the "corporate mission," which

in turn provides the context for these corporate objectives. In a sales-

oriented organization, the marketing planning function designs

incentive pay plans to not only motivate and reward frontline staff

fairly but also to align marketing activities with corporate mission.

This "corporate mission" can be thought of as a definition of what the

organization is, of what it does: "Our business is …". This definition

should not be too narrow, or it will constrict the development of the

organization; a too rigorous concentration on the view that "We are in

the business of making meat-scales," as IBM was during the early

1900s, might have limited its subsequent development into other

areas. On the other hand, it should not be too wide or it will become

meaningless; "We want to make a profit" is not too helpful in

developing specific plans.

Abell suggested that the definition should cover three dimensions:

"customer groups" to be served, "customer needs" to be served, and

"technologies" to be used. Thus, the definition of IBM's "corporate

mission" in the 1940s might well have been: "We are in the business of

handling accounting information [customer need] for the larger US

organizations [customer group] by means of punched cards

[technology]."

Perhaps the most important factor in successful marketing is the

"corporate vision." Surprisingly, it is largely neglected by marketing

textbooks, although not by the popular exponents of corporate

strategy - indeed, it was perhaps the main theme of the book by Peters

and Waterman, in the form of their "Superordinate Goals." "In Search

of Excellence" said: "Nothing drives progress like the imagination. The

idea precedes the deed."If the organization in general, and its chief

executive in particular, has a strong vision of where its future lies, then

there is a good chance that the organization will achieve a strong

position in its markets (and attain that future). This will be not least

because its strategies will be consistent and will be supported by its

staff at all levels. In this context, all of IBM's marketing activities were

underpinned by its philosophy of "customer service," a vision originally

promoted by the charismatic Watson dynasty. The emphasis at this

stage is on obtaining a complete and accurate picture.

A "traditional" - albeit product-based - format for a "brand reference

book" (or, indeed, a "marketing facts book") was suggested by Godley

more than three decades ago:

 1. Financial data—Facts for this section will come from

management accounting, costing and finance sections.

2. Product data—From production, research and development.

3. Sales and distribution data - Sales, packaging, distribution

sections.

4. Advertising, sales promotion, merchandising data - Information

from these departments.

5. Market data and miscellany - From market research, who would

in most cases act as a source for this information. His sources of

data, however, assume the resources of a very large

organization. In most organizations they would be obtained from

a much smaller set of people (and not a few of them would be

generated by the marketing manager alone).

It is apparent that a marketing audit can be a complex process, but the

aim is simple: "it is only to identify those existing (external and

internal) factors which will have a significant impact on the future

plans of the company." It is clear that the basic material to be input to

the marketing audit should be comprehensive.

Accordingly, the best approach is to accumulate this material

continuously, as and when it becomes available; since this avoids the

otherwise heavy workload involved in collecting it as part of the

regular, typically annual, planning process itself - when time is usually

at a premium.

Even so, the first task of this annual process should be to check that

the material held in the current facts book or facts files actually is

comprehensive and accurate, and can form a sound basis for the

marketing audit itself.

The structure of the facts book will be designed to match the specific

needs of the organization, but one simple format - suggested by

Malcolm McDonald - may be applicable in many cases. This splits the

material into three groups:

1. Review of the marketing environment. A study of the

organization's markets, customers, competitors and the overall

economic, political, cultural and technical environment; covering

developing trends, as well as the current situation.

2. Review of the detailed marketing activity. A study of the

company's marketing mix; in terms of the 7 Ps - (see below)

3. Review of the marketing system. A study of the marketing

organization, marketing research systems and the current

marketing objectives and strategies. The last of these is too

frequently ignored. The marketing system itself needs to be

regularly questioned, because the validity of the whole

marketing plan is reliant upon the accuracy of the input from this

system, and `garbage in, garbage out' applies with a vengeance.

  Portfolio planning. In addition, the coordinated

planning of the individual products and services can

contribute towards the balanced portfolio.

 80:20 rule. To achieve the maximum impact, the

marketing plan must be clear, concise and simple. It

needs to concentrate on the 20 percent of products

or services, and on the 20 percent of customers, that

will account for 80 percent of the volume and 80

percent of the profit.

 7 Ps: Product, Place, Price and Promotion, Physical

Environment, People, Process. The 7 Ps can

sometimes divert attention from the customer, but

the framework they offer can be very useful in

building the action plans.

It is only at this stage (of deciding the marketing objectives) that the

active part of the marketing planning process begins. This next stage

in marketing planning is indeed the key to the whole marketing

process.

The "marketing objectives" state just where the company intends to be

at some specific time in the future.

James Quinn succinctly defined objectives in general as: Goals (or

objectives) state what is to be achieved and when results are to be

accomplished, but they do not state "how" the results are to be

achieved. They typically relate to what products (or services) will be

where in what markets (and must be realistically based on customer

behavior in those markets). They are essentially about the match

between those "products" and "markets." Objectives for pricing,

distribution, advertising and so on are at a lower level, and should not

be confused with marketing objectives. They are part of the marketing

strategy needed to achieve marketing objectives. To be most effective,

objectives should be capable of measurement and therefore

"quantifiable." This measurement may be in terms of sales volume,

money value, market share, percentage penetration of distribution

outlets and so on. An example of such a measurable marketing

objective might be "to enter the market with product Y and capture 10

percent of the market by value within one year." As it is quantified it

can, within limits, be unequivocally monitored, and corrective action

taken as necessary.

The marketing objectives must usually be based, above all, on the

organization's financial objectives; converting these financial

measurements into the related marketing measurements.He went on

to explain his view of the role of "policies," with which strategy is most

often confused: "Policies are rules or guidelines that express the 'limits'

within which action should occur."Simplifying somewhat, marketing

strategies can be seen as the means, or "game plan," by which

marketing objectives will be achieved and, in the framework that we

have chosen to use, are generally concerned with the 8 P's. Examples

are:

1. Price - The amount of money needed to buy products

2. Product - The actual product

3. Promotion (advertising)- Getting the product known

4. Placement - Where the product is located

5. People - Represent the business

6. Physical environment - The ambiance, mood, or tone of the

environment

7. Process - How do people obtain your product

8. Packaging - How the product will be protected

(Note: At GCSE the 4 Ps are Place, Promotion, Product and Price and

the "secret" 5th P is Packaging, but which applies only to physical

products, not services usually, and mostly those sold to individual

consumers)

In principle, these strategies describe how the objectives will be

achieved. The 7 Ps are a useful framework for deciding how the

company's resources will be manipulated (strategically) to achieve the

objectives. However, they are not the only framework, and may divert

attention from the real issues. The focus of the strategies must be the

objectives to be achieved - not the process of planning itself. Only if it

fits the needs of these objectives should you choose, as we have done,

to use the framework of the 7 Ps.

The strategy statement can take the form of a purely verbal

description of the strategic options which have been chosen.

Alternatively, and perhaps more positively, it might include a

structured list of the major options chosen.

One aspect of strategy which is often overlooked is that of "timing."

Exactly when it is the best time for each element of the strategy to be

implemented is often critical. Taking the right action at the wrong time

can sometimes be almost as bad as taking the wrong action at the

right time. Timing is, therefore, an essential part of any plan; and

should normally appear as a schedule of planned activities.Having

completed this crucial stage of the planning process, you will need to

re-check the feasibility of your objectives and strategies in terms of the

market share, sales, costs, profits and so on which these demand in

practice. As in the rest of the marketing discipline, you will need to

employ judgment, experience, market research or anything else which

helps you to look at your conclusions from all possible angles.

[edit] Detailed plans and programs

At this stage,you will need to develop your overall marketing strategies

into detailed plans and program. Although these detailed plans may

cover each of the 7 Ps (marketing mix), the focus will vary, depending
upon your organization's specific strategies. A product-oriented

company will focus its plans for the 7 Ps around each of its products. A

market or geographically oriented company will concentrate on each

market or geographical area. Each will base its plans upon the detailed

needs of its customers, and on the strategies chosen to satisfy these

needs. Brochures and Websites are used effectively.

Again, the most important element is, indeed, that of the detailed

plans, which spell out exactly what programs and individual activities

will take place over the period of the plan (usually over the next year).

Without these specified - and preferably quantified - activities the plan

cannot be monitored, even in terms of success in meeting its

objectives.It is these programs and activities which will then constitute

the "marketing" of the organization over the period. As a result, these

detailed marketing programs are the most important, practical

outcome of the whole planning process. These plans must therefore

be:

• Clear - They should be an unambiguous statement of 'exactly'

what is to be done.

• Quantified - The predicted outcome of each activity should be, as

far as possible, quantified, so that its performance can be

monitored.
 • Focused - The temptation to proliferate activities beyond the

numbers which can be realistically controlled should be avoided.

The 80:20 Rule applies in this context too.

• Realistic - They should be achievable.

• Agreed - Those who are to implement them should be committed

to them, and agree that they are achievable. The resulting plans

should become a working document which will guide the

campaigns taking place throughout the organization over the

period of the plan. If the marketing plan is to work, every

exception to it (throughout the year) must be questioned; and

the lessons learnt, to be incorporated in the next year's .

Content of the marketing plan

A marketing plan for a small business typically includes Small Business

Administration Description of competitors, including the level of

demand for the product or service and the strengths and weaknesses

of competitors

1. Description of the product or service, including special features

2. Marketing budget, including the advertising and promotional plan

 3. Description of the business location, including advantages and

disadvantages for marketing

4. Pricing strategy

5. Market Segmentation

Medium-sized and large organizations

The main contents of a marketing plan are:[4]

1. Executive Summary

2. Situational Analysis

3. Opportunities / Issue Analysis - SWOT Analysis

4. Objectives

5. Strategy

6. Action Program (the operational marketing plan itself for the

period under review)

7. Financial Forecast

8. Controls

In detail, a complete marketing plan typically includes:[4]

1. Title page

2. Executive Summary

3. Current Situation - Macroenvironment

o economy

o legal
 o government

o technology

o ecological

o sociocultural

o supply chain

4. Current Situation - Market Analysis

o market definition

o market size

o market segmentation

o industry structure and strategic groupings

o Porter 5 forces analysis

o competition and market share

o competitors' strengths and weaknesses

o market trends

5. Current Situation - Consumer Analysis [5]

o nature of the buying decision

o participants

o demographics

o psychographics

o buyer motivation and expectations

o loyalty segments

6. Current Situation - Internal

o company resources
  financial

 people

 time

 skills

o objectives

 mission statement and vision statement

 corporate objectives

 financial objective

 marketing objectives

 long term objectives

 description of the basic business philosophy

o corporate culture

7. Summary of Situation Analysis

o external threats

o external opportunities

o internal strengths

o internal weaknesses

o Critical success factors in the industry

o our sustainable competitive advantage

8. Marketing research

o information requirements

o research methodology

o research results
9. Marketing Strategy - Product

o product mix

o product strengths and weaknesses

 perceptual mapping

o product life cycle management and new product

development

o Brand name, brand image, and brand equity

o the augmented product

o product portfolio analysis

 B.C.G. Analysis

 contribution margin analysis

 G.E. Multi Factoral analysis

 Quality Function Deployment

10. Marketing Strategy [6]

- segmented marketing actions and market

share objectives

o by product,

o by customer segment,

o by geographical market,

o by distribution channel.

11. Marketing Strategy - Price

o pricing objectives

o pricing method (e.g.: cost plus, demand based, or

competitor indexing)
 o pricing strategy (e.g.: skimming, or penetration)

o discounts and allowances

o price elasticity and customer sensitivity

o price zoning

o break even analysis at various prices

12. Marketing Strategy - promotion

o promotional goals

o promotional mix

o advertising reach, frequency, flights, theme, and media

o sales force requirements, techniques, and management

o sales promotion

o publicity and public relations

o electronic promotion (e.g.: Web, or telephone)

o word of mouth marketing (buzz)

o viral marketing

13. Marketing Strategy - Distribution

o geographical coverage

o distribution channels

o physical distribution and logistics

o electronic distribution

14. Implementation

o personnel requirements

 assign responsibilities
  give incentives

 training on selling methods

o financial requirements

o management information systems requirements

o month-by-month agenda

 PERT or critical path analysis

o monitoring results and benchmarks

o adjustment mechanism

o contingencies (What if's)

15. Financial Summary

o assumptions

o pro-forma monthly income statement

o contribution margin analysis

o breakeven analysis

o Monte Carlo method

o ISI: Internet Strategic Intelligence

16. Scenarios

o Prediction of Future Scenarios

o Plan of Action for each Scenario

17. Appendix

o pictures and specifications of the new product

o results from research already completed

Measurement of progress

The final stage of any marketing planning process is to establish

targets (or standards) so that progress can be monitored. Accordingly,

it is important to put both quantities and timescales into the marketing

objectives (for example, to capture 20 percent by value of the market

within two years) and into the corresponding strategies.

Changes in the environment mean that the forecasts often have to be

changed. Along with these, the related plans may well also need to be

changed. Continuous monitoring of performance, against

predetermined targets, represents a most important aspect of this.

However, perhaps even more important is the enforced discipline of a

regular formal review. Again, as with forecasts, in many cases the best

(most realistic) planning cycle will revolve around a quarterly review.

Best of all, at least in terms of the quantifiable aspects of the plans, if

not the wealth of backing detail, is probably a quarterly rolling review -

planning one full year ahead each new quarter. Of course, this does

absorb more planning resource; but it also ensures that the plans

embody the latest information, and - with attention focused on them so

regularly - forces both the plans and their implementation to be

realistic.
Plans only have validity if they are actually used to control the

progress of a company: their success lies in their implementation, not

in the writing'.

Performance analysis

• The most important elements of marketing

performance, which are normally tracked,

are:

Sales analysis

Most organizations track their sales results; or, in non-profit

organizations for example, the number of clients. The more

sophisticated track them in terms of 'sales variance' - the deviation

from the target figures - which allows a more immediate picture of

deviations to become evident.

`Micro-analysis', which is simply the normal management process of

investigating detailed problems, then investigates the individual

elements (individual products, sales territories, customers and so on)

which are failing to meet targets.

Market share analysis

Few organizations track market share though it is often an important

metric. Though absolute sales might grow in an expanding market, a

firm's share of the market can decrease which bodes ill for future sales

when the market starts to drop. Where such market share is tracked,

there may be a number of aspects which will be followed:

• overall market share

• segment share - that in the specific, targeted segment

• relative share -in relation to the market leaders

• annual fluctuation rate of market share

• also the specific market sharing of customers.

Expense analysis

The key ratio to watch in this area is usually the `marketing expense to

sales ratio'; although this may be broken down into other elements

(advertising to sales, sales administration to sales, and so on).

Financial analysis
The "bottom line" of marketing activities should at least in theory, be

the net profit (for all except non-profit organizations, where the

comparable emphasis may be on remaining within budgeted costs).

There are a number of separate performance figures and key ratios

which need to be tracked:

• gross contribution<>net profit

• gross profit<>return on investment

• net contribution<>profit on sales

There can be considerable benefit in comparing these figures with

those achieved by other organizations (especially those in the same

industry); using, for instance, the figures which can be obtained (in the

UK) from `The Centre for Interfirm Comparison'. The most

sophisticated use of this approach, however, is typically by those

making use of PIMS (Profit Impact of Management Strategies), initiated

by the General Electric Company and then developed by Harvard

Business School, but now run by the Strategic Planning Institute.

The above performance analyses concentrate on the quantitative

measures which are directly related to short-term performance. But

there are a number of indirect measures, essentially tracking customer

attitudes, which can also indicate the organization's performance in

terms of its longer-term marketing strengths and may accordingly be

even more important indicators. Some useful measures are:

 • market research - including customer panels (which are used to

track changes over time)

• lost business - the orders which were lost because, for example,

the stock was not available or the product did not meet the

customer's exact requirements

• customer complaints - how many customers complain about the

products or services, or the organization itself, and about what

Use of marketing plans

A formal, written marketing plan is essential; in that it provides an

unambiguous reference point for activities throughout the planning

period. However, perhaps the most important benefit of these plans is

the planning process itself. This typically offers a unique opportunity, a

forum, for information-rich and productively focused discussions

between the various managers involved. The plan, together with the

associated discussions, then provides an agreed context for their

subsequent management activities, even for those not described in the

plan itself. Additionally, marketing plans are included in business plans,

offering data showing investors how the company will grow and most

importantly, how they will get a return on investment.

Budgets as managerial tools

The classic quantification of a marketing plan appears in the form of

budgets. Because these are so rigorously quantified, they are

particularly important. They should, thus, represent an unequivocal

projection of actions and expected results. What is more, they should

be capable of being monitored accurately; and, indeed, performance

against budget is the main (regular) management review process.

The purpose of a marketing budget is, thus, to pull together all the

revenues and costs involved in marketing into one comprehensive

document. It is a managerial tool that balances what is needed to be

spent against what can be afforded, and helps make choices about

priorities. It is then used in monitoring performance in practice.

The marketing budget is usually the most powerful tool by which you

think through the relationship between desired results and available

means. Its starting point should be the marketing strategies and plans,

which have already been formulated in the marketing plan itself;

although, in practice, the two will run in parallel and will interact. At

the very least, the rigorous, highly quantified, budgets may cause a

rethink of some of the more optimistic elements of the plans.