MARKETING STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION AND CONTROL

The effectiveness of strategy implementation determines the outcome of marketing planning. The
management of the planning process may enhance implementation effectiveness by building
commitment and ownership of the plan and its execution .For example actively managing the
participation of different functions and executives from different specializations may improve the fit
between the plan and the companys real capabilities and resources and avoid implementation
barriers. Planning and execution are interdependent parts of strategic change.
Marketing managers increasingly function as boundary spanners both internally between functional
areas and externally with suppliers, organizational partners and customers. Additional efforts to
make the strategy implementation process more effective are a high priority in many companies.
Estimates suggest as many as 70% of new strategic initiatives in companies fail at the
implementation stage. Many companies now recognize that implementation capabilities are an
important corporate capability that requires detailed management attention.
Implementation process
A good implementation process spell out the
i.Activities to be implemented - ,
ii.Who is responsible for implementation,
iii.The time and location of implementation and
iv.How implementation will be achieved.
Barriers to successful implementation of marketing strategy
There are many barriers that stand in the way of successful implementation of marketing strategy,
some evident, some not . The barriers fall broadly into three separate categories
a. External pressures of the organization These are pressures emanating from the firms
external environmental i.e social, legal, economic, political, technological etc.
b. Internal pressures on the marketing function These are pressures from within the
firm. These are :
i. Leadership The ultimate success and implementation of any strategic plan will depend on the
degree to which top management buys into the process. This is especially evident where strategic
thrust of the plan involves any form of significant change. The organizations leadership may be
opposed to objectives of the marketing plan for a number of reasons i.e they may be from non
marketing disciplines, may feel that the need for change is not yet apparent or simply be more
comfortable with steady slate management style. Whatever reasons, unless strong leaders are
brought in to the vision and strategy completely, little progress is likely to be made.
ii. Organization culture There are many forms of organization culture and in truth, few of these are
customer or market focused. In organization with non market oriented culture, the chances of
successfully implementing a true marketing strategy must be limited.
Marketing in this type of firm tends to be all about marketing services often linked or even
subservient to all important sales functions. In product or production oriented organization, the
marketers role is to provide sales materials , product information and market analysis to support the
sales and production functions of the firm. The market or customer oriented organization is the
only one that sees the marketers role as the catalyst and change agent to focus the rest of the
organization activities or the one activity that really matters the customers.
iii. Organizational processes In many organizations, the existing organization processes are simply
not designed to be able to deliver the proposed marketing strategy as is intended. Too many
processes are designed for the convenience and administrative ease of those that work in them
rather than being designed in order to deliver satisfaction to customers. It is unrealistic to design
customer focused marketing strategy without spending sometime looking at the organizations
processes and ability to deliver on the promise that may be made to the customers. When dealing
with organizations, it is important to consider the soft cultural elements such as style , skills,
staffing and shared values as well as the traditional hard values.
iv. Functional policies Functional policies and procedures determine how the organizations staff
manage day to day business activities. The intended marketing strategy may fall short of these best
practice functional processes and encounter a blockage on path of implementation.
v. Resources - The proposed marketing strategy may require either the allocation of significant
additional resources to certain functions or even the appropriation of resources into different areas
of the organization. Successful implementation will depend on these resources being available. The
potential barrier here is likely to be either the resources simply not being available or that senior
management considers that other causes are more deserving.
Implementation takes place in an environment that is prone to changes hence it is important to be
flexible and build in an acceptable degree of contingency (additional resource to be called on)
within any implementation strategy.
vi. Evaluation and control procedures lack of appropriate monitoring and evaluation procedures in
an organization will be a significant block to the successful implementation of any strategy What
gets measured gets done.
Control ensures that what is supposed to be done is actually done. Astute management should
develop effective control systems.
c. Pressures within the marketing function itself These are a number of aspects of the
marketing department or function which can also act as potential blockage to the
development and implementation of marketing strategy.
i. Marketing interface with other functions How marketing interacts with other functions will
determine the successful implementation of the strategy.
ii. The role of marketers The role played by marketers in their organization determines the level of
implementation of strategy. In a market/ customer oriented organization, the role of marketer is to
identify, anticipate and satisfy customer needs profitably. Doing this needs much more than an in
depth knowledge of advertising and promotional methodology and techniques, the marketers key
area of responsibility is to understand the organizations customers and to feed this information back
to the organization and other functions so that people are able to act upon it profitably.
iii. Marketing feedback Successful implementation of marketing strategy depends on how much,
how relevant and how good information is and how well it is interpretated and acted upon.
Information (not lots of data) is critical, information and feedback on a plans progress is never 100%
accurate but it does act to both reduce certainty in planning and improve the quality of action.
Customers information is the marketing powerbase, although too few marketing professionals use it
as such.
Building Implementation Effectiveness
Managers are important facilitators in the implementation process and some are better
implementers than others. Planners and implementers often have different strengths and
weaknesses. An effective planner may not be good at implementing plans. Desirable implementation
skills include:
The ability to understand how others feel and good bargaining skills
The strength to be tough and fair in putting people and resources where they will be most
effective.
Effectiveness in focusing on the critical aspects of performance in managing marketing
activities
The ability to create a necessary informal organization or network to match each problem
with which they are confronted.
In additional to skillful implementers, several factors facilitate the implementation process. These
include:
Organizational structure Certain types of organizational structure aid implementation.
Product managers or multifunctional coordination teams are useful implementation methods.
Management may create implementation teams consisting of representatives from the business
functions and /or marketing activities involved. Flat, flexible organization structures offer several
advantages in implementation, since they encourage inter functional cooperation and
communication .These designs are responsive to changing conditions.
Incentives Various rewards may help achieve successful implementation. Special incentives
such as contests,recognition and extra compensation are used to encourage salespeople to push new
products. Since implementation often involves teams of people, creation of team incentives may be
necessary. Performance standards must be fair and incentives should encourage something more
than normal performance. Focusing incentives on the achievement of overall plan goals rather than
individual efforts is particularly relevant.
Communications Rapid and accurate movement of information through the organization is
essential in implementation. Both vertical and horizontal communications are needed in linking
together the people and activities involved in implementation. Meetings, status reports and informal
discussions help to transmit information throughout the organization. Computerized information
and decision support systems like corporate intranets help to improve communication speed and
effectiveness.
Problems often occur during implementation and may affect how fast and how well plans are put
into action. Examples include competitors actions, internal resistance between departments, loss of
key personnel, supply chain delays affecting product availability (e.g supply, production and
distribution problems) and changes in the business environment. Corrective actions may require
appointing a person or team for trouble shooting the problem, increasing or shifting resources or
changing the original plan.

STRATEGY CONTROL
Control can be defined as attempting to guarantee behavior and systems conform to, and support,
predetermined corporate objectives and policies.
The basis of control is ability to measure. It compares what should happen with what actually
happened or is likely to happen. Given the importance of measurement, a tendency exists to
measure what is easy to quantify rather than what is important. Project managers must guard
against this and focus on the key areas. Good control systems often detect and rectify problems
before they become significant and managers should remember that prevention is better than cure.
It is important to be proactive rather than reactive.
The control process entails the following steps:
i.Set targets ideally these is integrated into overall marketing planning.
ii.Predetermining the method of measurement- performance appraisal
iii.Measured results are compared with the predetermined targets and corrective action if
required is undertaken
Control should be carried out in both the inputs and the outputs. This helps management to
optimize the process and take strategic view. Typical inputs include:
Finance: investments, working capital and cash.
Operatives: capacity, usage, efficiency and application of machines, systems and other assets.
People: Numbers, quality and skills of staff.
Output is measured in terms of overall system performance. Performance is derived from
combination of efficiency and effectiveness.
Efficiency: How well utilized are the inputs? Do we make maximum use of finances,
minimize cost and operate at optimal levels of capacity.
Effectiveness: Are we doing the right things? This relates to actual performance and will
include sales revenue, profit, market share and measures of customer satisfaction.
It is better to pursue effectiveness.
What makes an effective control system?
Control systems require careful design. Generic principles exist which are common to all effective
control mechanism. It is important to retain a degree of flexibility and common sense.
Six principles to ensure effective control.
Involvement It is achieved by encouraging participation in the process. Management can
achieve desired results through consultation. Staff could contribute to setting targets. Their
development needs could be considered along with the required tasks. Correctly applied, this
enhances morale, promotes ownership and develops skill base of employees.
Target setting: The target criteria should be objective and measurable. How this is assessed
needs to be communicated and agreed in advance. Targets needs to be challenging but achievable.
Focus : It recognizes the differences between the symptoms and the source of the problem.
While it may be expedient to treat the symptoms, tackling the source of the problem should
eliminate it once and for all.
Effectiveness: The tendency exists to measure efficiency as opposed to effectiveness.
Efficiency is the usage and productivity of assets. Effectiveness is about doing the right things. In
reality we tend to apply efficiency measures to areas easiest to measure. The system should measure
what is important not what is easy to quantify. The measurement should be accurate, valid and
consistent.
Management by exception: Management attention is directed to areas of need. Identifying
what constitutes an exception to the norm is useful exercise in its own right. The process involves
setting tolerances and benchmarks for normal operations. Management action becomes a priority
when pre set limits are breached.
Problems of Control
Three problems are commonly associated with the control systems.
The system can be costly. The benefits of control and subsequent improvements are outweighed by
the cost of the control mechanism. This often relates to large bureaucratic systems- layer upon layer
of administration is built upon each. This is self serving rather than customer focused, often
absorbing resources that would be more effectively deployed in core activities.
Control systems stifle effort and creativity such systems promote uniformity and conformance to
pre set targets. They become barriers to innovation.
Control promotes a view of inspection as opposed to developments- systems often deal with the
symptom rather than the root of the problem. This leads to constant fire fighting and looking for
quick fixes as opposed to developing a better overall method of operation. The effect is to filter and
/or suppress information from those with the power to radically overhaul a poor system.