Marketing Plan Control Methods
Marketing plan control involves setting standards based on plan, measuring performance against plan and correcting deviations. For budgeting purposes and for monitoring the performance of a marketing plan, effective marketing controls are necessary.
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Budgeting
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One common control method is the marketing budget. According to a report on the University of Northern Iowa website, the budget's purpose is to control revenue and expenses. The budget also includes standards of performance, such as sales levels, percent marketing penetration and advertising effectiveness. The budgeting process should allow enough time for all affected by the budget to participate in the process. Individuals involved could include the chief financial officer (CFO), head of sales, advertising manager and director of manufacturing. Involving these individuals may make them more committed to the budget they helped develop. According to the Northern Iowa website, budgeting methods for measuring expenses could include a percent of budget gross sales, percent of the previous year's gross sales, per unit sales and projected cash flow.
Mailing Piece Control
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If an outside mailing service is given an order to mail 10,000 pieces, requiring the mailing service to provide a receipt for postage from the post office would provide assurance the mail has been sent. Another validating method is to seed the mailing list. Seeding involves inserting into the mailing list the name of a fictitious company with an authentic address so receipt of the seed item could be verified. This seeding method also indicates whether a third party is using a mailing list without permission.
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Invoice Reviews
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Invoices should not be paid until a marketing manager approves them. In addition, the Client and Profits X Support Center website recommends that media insertion orders be checked against corresponding invoices to ensure a media outlet is not overcharging. If multiple insertion orders are billed on one invoice, each insertion order should be inspected and compared with the invoice line item. If an overcharge occurs, an adjustment from the media outlet should be requested.
Sales Forecasts
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As part of the marketing planning and control process, sales forecasts should be compared with actual sales so the percent of sales revenue spent on marketing is kept within acceptable limits. One way to determine the percent of sales that should be devoted to marketing is to research industry statistics to find out what other companies in the same industry are doing. If the percentage is excessively high, the sales department should be queried and advertising expenditures for the remainder of the year should be reduced.
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