Marketing Control: Definition, Types & Techniques Explained

Effective marketing control serves as a mechanism to monitor and evaluate various aspects of marketing, such as advertising, promotion, production, and product management. Marketing control is a vital component in achieving business success. To thrive in a competitive marketing environment, understanding the importance of marketing control is essential.

It enables businesses to assess the performance of their marketing efforts and accordingly make informed decisions based on data-driven insights. By implementing robust marketing control mechanisms, businesses can identify opportunities for improvement, optimize resource allocation, and maximize the return on investment.

Marketing Control Definition

Marketing control refers to the process of monitoring and evaluating marketing activities to ensure they align with the overall marketing objectives and strategies of a business. The effectiveness and efficiency of marketing efforts are measured using marketing control. It helps in identifying any deviations from the planned marketing activities, and taking corrective actions when necessary.

The essence of marketing control lies in its ability to provide feedback and insights that enable marketers to make informed decisions, optimize their marketing campaigns, and achieve desired outcomes. It helps businesses to track their marketing performance, allocate resources effectively, and adapt their strategies in response to changing market conditions.

Core Objectives Of Marketing Control

The objectives of marketing control are to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of marketing strategies, allowing businesses to optimize their resources and achieve their goals. Listed below are three important core objectives of marketing control:

Ensuring Effectiveness & Efficiency

Ensuring the effectiveness and efficiency of marketing efforts is the first core objective of marketing control. This means evaluating and monitoring the performance of various marketing activities to determine if they are achieving the desired outcomes. By measuring key marketing metrics such as sales, customer engagement, and brand awareness, businesses can assess the impact of their marketing strategies.

For example, they might track how many leads were generated through a specific advertising campaign or measure the conversion rate on their website. This information allows companies to identify areas that require improvement or adjustment in order to optimize their marketing performance.

Maintaining Consistency In Brand Messaging

Another important objective of marketing control is maintaining consistency in brand messaging across different channels. Consistency helps build trust and recognition among consumers, ensuring that they have a clear understanding of what a brand represents.

By monitoring all communication channels—such as social media, websites, advertisements, and packaging—companies can ensure that their messaging aligns with their brand values and resonates with their target audience. For instance, a company may use consistent visual elements like logos and color schemes across all platforms to create a cohesive brand identity.

Aligning Marketing Activities With Customer Needs

Marketing control also aims to align marketing activities with customer needs and preferences. Understanding consumer behavior is crucial for effective targeting and positioning strategies. Through market research, businesses can gain insights into their customers' desires, pain points, and purchasing behaviors.

By continuously monitoring customer feedback and conducting surveys or focus groups, companies can adapt their marketing efforts accordingly. For example, if customers express dissatisfaction with a product feature or pricing structure, marketers can make adjustments to meet those needs.

Types Of Marketing Control

There are several types of marketing control that organizations can utilize to monitor and manage their marketing activities. Listed below are four important types of marketing control:

Financial Control

One type is financial control, which involves monitoring and controlling the financial aspects of marketing campaigns. This includes budgeting, cost analysis, and return on investment (ROI) calculations. By implementing financial control, companies can ensure that their marketing efforts are cost-effective and align with their overall financial goals.

Strategic Control

Another type of marketing control is strategic control. This involves evaluating the strategic direction of marketing activities and ensuring they are in line with the company's overall objectives.

Strategic control involves analyzing market trends, competitive intelligence, and feedback from customers to make informed decisions about marketing strategies. It helps companies stay focused on their long-term goals and adapt their marketing efforts accordingly.

Operational Control

Operational control is another type of marketing control that focuses on day-to-day activities and processes. It involves setting performance metrics, monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs), and implementing corrective actions when necessary. Operational control ensures that marketing activities are executed efficiently and effectively to achieve desired outcomes.

Audit Control

Lastly, there is marketing audit control, which involves conducting periodic audits to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of marketing efforts. This includes evaluating marketing plans, strategies, and tactics to identify areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments.

Marketing audit control helps companies identify strengths and weaknesses in their marketing activities and make data-driven decisions to optimize their performance. Overall, these types of marketing control provide organizations with the tools and insights they need to effectively manage their marketing activities and drive success.

Marketing Control Techniques & Processes

Effective promotion of products or services requires implementing appropriate marketing techniques and processes that are essential to achieve their marketing goals. These strategies involve various methods, such as market research, advertising, branding, and customer relationship management.

Clear Objectives & Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Setting achievable and clear objectives along with the key performance indicators (KPIs) are essential marketing control techniques. By defining specific goals, marketers can assess the effectiveness and track progress toward achieving their marketing objectives. Clear objectives provide a sense of direction and purpose, helping marketing managers align their strategies with overall business goals.

For example, if a company aims to increase its market share by 10% within the next year, it can establish KPIs such as measuring customer acquisition rates or tracking sales growth. These measurable metrics enable managers to monitor the success of their marketing initiatives and make informed decisions based on real-time data.

Conducting Regular Market Research

Market research plays a crucial role in effective marketing control. By conducting regular research, marketers can gather valuable insights about consumer preferences, market trends, and strategies of competitors. This information helps them make informed decisions about product development, pricing strategies, promotional activities, and more.

For instance, through surveys or focus groups, companies can collect feedback from customers regarding their satisfaction levels with products or services. This data allows marketers to identify areas for improvement or potential gaps in the market that can be capitalized on.

Implementing Feedback Mechanisms

Implementing feedback mechanisms is another vital aspect of marketing control. By actively seeking feedback from customers, companies can identify areas where improvements are needed. This could involve conducting customer satisfaction surveys or monitoring online reviews and social media comments.

Image credit: Freepik

Feedback mechanisms not only help companies address any issues promptly but also allow them to identify opportunities for innovation or new product development based on customer needs and preferences.

For example, if a company receives negative feedback regarding a particular product feature through online reviews or customer support channels, they can take immediate action to rectify the issue or consider modifying the product in future iterations.

Strategic & Profitability In Marketing Control

Let us now look into the topic of evaluating long-term strategic initiatives in marketing control and the importance of assessing them.

Evaluating Long-Term Strategic Initiatives

Evaluating long-term strategic initiatives is an essential aspect of marketing control. It involves assessing the potential impact of these initiatives on a company's profitability. By carefully analyzing the proposed strategies, businesses can make effective decisions about whether to pursue them or not.

For example, let's consider a large organization that is planning to expand its product line into a new market segment. Before moving forward with this initiative, they would need to evaluate its potential profitability. This evaluation might involve conducting market research, analyzing customer preferences and behaviors, and estimating the costs associated with entering the new market segment.

By thoroughly evaluating the long-term strategic initiative, companies can determine whether it aligns with their overall corporate strategy and has the potential to generate profits in the future. This evaluation process helps businesses make informed decisions about resource allocation and ensures that they are investing their time and resources in initiatives that have a higher likelihood of success.

Assessing Pricing Strategies

Another critical aspect of marketing control is assessing pricing strategies to ensure optimal profit margins, as it directly impacts revenue generation and cost recovery. Therefore, businesses must carefully analyze their pricing strategies to maximize their profit margins.

When assessing pricing strategies, companies need to consider various factors such as production costs, competition, customer demand, and perceived value. A balance between prices that are attractive to customers while also generating enough revenue to cover costs and achieve desired profit levels is important.

For instance, let's imagine a business that manufactures high-end luxury goods. To maintain premium positioning in the market while ensuring profitability, they would need to implement pricing strategies that reflect exclusivity while still appealing to their target customers' willingness to pay.

By regularly monitoring and evaluating pricing strategies, companies can identify opportunities for price adjustments or promotions that could lead to increased profitability. This control mechanism allows them to adapt to changing market conditions, respond to competitive pressures, and optimize their profit margins.

Customer-Centric Measures In Marketing Control

Customer-centric measures in marketing control are strategies and techniques implemented to prioritize the needs and preferences of customers, ensuring their satisfaction and loyalty.

Surveys And Online Reviews

Surveys and online reviews are effective tools for collecting feedback. Surveys provide a structured way to obtain specific information from customers. They can be conducted through various channels such as email, website pop-ups, or social media platforms.

By asking targeted questions, companies can uncover valuable insights about customer satisfaction levels, preferences, and areas for improvement. Online reviews offer a platform for customers to share their experiences and opinions publicly.

Monitoring these reviews allows businesses to gauge sentiment and identify trends in customer feedback. Positive reviews can highlight what customers appreciate most about the brand, while negative reviews provide opportunities for corrective actions.

Monitoring Customer Retention Rates

Customer retention rates serve as a crucial metric in marketing control. It indicates the percentage of customers who continue to do business with a company over time. High retention rates suggest satisfied customers who are loyal to the brand.

Monitoring retention rates allows businesses to assess the effectiveness of their marketing efforts in keeping customers engaged and satisfied. A decline in retention rates may indicate underlying issues that need attention.

By analyzing data related to customer churn, companies can identify patterns or common reasons why customers choose not to continue their relationship with the brand. This insight helps drive corrective actions aimed at improving overall satisfaction levels and reducing churn rate.

Conclusion

In conclusion, marketing control is a crucial aspect of any successful marketing strategy. It involves monitoring and evaluating various marketing activities to ensure that they align with the overall goals and objectives of the organization.

The core objectives of marketing control include optimizing marketing performance, enhancing profitability, and improving customer satisfaction. To excel in today's competitive market, it is essential for businesses to prioritize marketing control.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is marketing control?

Marketing control refers to the process of monitoring and evaluating marketing activities to ensure they align with predetermined goals and objectives. It involves measuring performance, identifying areas for improvement, and making necessary adjustments to optimize marketing strategies.

2. Why is marketing control important?

Marketing control is important because it allows businesses to measure how effective their marketing efforts have been going in the direction they wished. By monitoring key metrics and analyzing results, companies can ascertain what works and what doesn't, enabling them to make informed decisions, allocate resources efficiently, and maximize the return on investment.

3. What are the types of marketing control?

There are various types of marketing control:

Strategic Control: Evaluating long-term goals and overall marketing strategy.
Operational Control: Monitoring day-to-day activities and tactics.
Financial Control: Assessing budget allocation and cost-effectiveness.
Marketing Audit: Comprehensive assessment of all aspects of the marketing function.

4. How can I implement effective marketing control?

To implement effective marketing control, you can implement the stages listed below:

Set clear objectives aligned with business goals.
Establish relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success.
Regularly monitor KPIs using data analytics tools or software.
Analyze results to identify trends, patterns, and areas requiring improvement.
Take corrective actions based on insights gained from analysis.

5. What are some common challenges in implementing marketing control?

Common challenges in implementing marketing control include:

Lack of accurate data or inadequate measurement systems.
Difficulty in attributing specific outcomes solely to marketing efforts.
Inconsistent tracking across different channels or platforms.
Resistance to change within the organization or lack of buy-in from stakeholders.
Balancing short-term tactical gains with long-term strategic objectives.

Alekhya Chakrabarty

Unstop

Alekhya Chakrabarty is a father, a doodler, a trivia buff, a sports fanatic and a lifelong student of marketing. Alekhya is the VP of Marketing & Growth at Unstop, the engagement and hiring platform which connects students and graduates with opportunities. He has over a decade and a half of experience in driving revenue and building brands with the likes of Nestle, HUL and ITC. He is an alumnus of IMT Ghaziabad and in his last stint he was leading the marketing function at Sunstone, a higher education startup. Alekhya has been recognised as a ‘Top Voice’ on LinkedIn for Digital Marketing & Brand Management. He runs a marketing podcast titled East India Marketing Company to drive conversations around growth, content, culture and commerce.