Marketing Audit Sections for SLP04 is a marketing module that requires the students to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing promotional activities of an organization. Marketing promotional activities include personal selling, advertising, sales promotion and methods of setting prices that are used by the organization. This paper describes the areas of the Marketing Audit sections for SLP04 and Marketing Audit Sections for SLP05. Promotion Personal Selling Description of the sales force The sales force is composed of fifty young and active sales people.
This number is manageable on the basis of money required in the field. It is easier for the sales managers to control ten people and this will ensure the organizations demand of the sales force is met on timely basis (Oher, 97). The organization has opted for a small sales force for easy management by the ten managers. Each manager will control five sales people. It is easier for the managers to supervise five sales people where efficiency will be achieved in the organization in terms of sales promotion.
Fifty sales people are large enough to promote the products through out the country.
Organization of the sales force The sales force is organized on the basis of products. They are specialized in the particular products carried by the sales organization. The organization of the sales force on the basis of products ensures that each product line receives a higher degree of specialized attention. This organization also allows for decentralization of both authority and responsibility for each product line. It encourages decisions to be made closer to the problems with any particular product line.
Morale, effectiveness and ability of the sales force
The sales people are usually motivated trough compensation methods in terms of salaries and wages. The pay package given o the sales people make them recognize their value in the organization. Sales people are also provided with transport allowances to the areas of work. Since they travel a lot of their time they are provided with food allowance, accommodation allowance and enough time to accomplish their work without much supervision. Oher (94) argues that this is way of ensuring that the sales force is efficient in delivering its duties. The organization uses formulas to rank the sales people ability and their achievements.
The managers are able to realize the number of fields complete by the sales people for a given contact. The sales people are effective according to the ranking field’s profile. They are able to meet the organizations sales goals within the required time. Training the sales force The sales force is trained on ways of improving their strategies when dealing with customers. They are provided with enough knowledge of the organizations products. The organization also provides the sales force with details of identifying customer needs that will be addressing in the market place.
The sales force is also trained on how to apply professional selling skills. This enables the sales force to provide their services with a focused approach to professional selling. The organization identifies the areas of selling that needs more training by assessing individuals of the sales team. These strategies ensure that the organization meets the training needs of the sales force. Incentives for the sales force The organization participates very well in providing sales force incentives. They form an important role in the business and they always work for the organization in different ways.
They act as a motivating factor for the sales people when performing their duties. The sales people are given good salaries that motivate them since they realize their appreciation by the organization. The organization designs a goo way of remunerating the sales force in order to obtain the best results from the work of the sales force (Oher, 100). Sales force incentives are effective since they form the basic intuition of the true sales person. Sales people tend to compete for their work in order to be recognized for doing well.
They feel that their good work will enable them to reap more incentives from the organization. The organization has done its best in providing good incentives o the sales force to help them achieve their goal in the organization. Evaluation procedures for the organization Evaluation Support Form The organization uses an Evaluation form with which the sales person fills for evaluation. The managers provide the forms to the sales people to complete them. Sales people fill the forms after every trip from the field. These forms are retained by the managers after completion by the sales people.
The forms are reviewed and revised on annual basis by the organization management to evaluate the progress of the sales team. These forms provide enough evidence on the areas of improvement for the sales force. They are therefore very effective since any significant changes in is easily tracked by the manager then address it with the individuals. Counseling Sessions Counseling sessions are carried out by the organization where managers meet face to face with their sales people. Here the sales people are able to identify their areas of difficulties and how they need to be addressed.
Records are usually kept after very counseling session. These records are reviewed every year for evaluating the progress of the sales team. The counseling sessions are very effective in the sense that they provide the managers with direct information from the sales people where they express their experiences face to face. Areas of improvements are usually highlighted after the counseling sessions. Advertising Advertising objectives of the organization The organization outlines its objectives clearly for what is to be achieved by the organization by advertizing.
The advertising objectives of the organization include; 1. Reaching the customers through an integrated communication programmes. 2. Ensuring that organizational goals on selling are achieved through enhanced sales effectiveness 3. Increasing sales efficiency 4. Creating awareness of the available products in the organization to the customers Advertising Message effectiveness The organization is able to pass its massage clearly though advertising to its customers. The organization sets enough money which is to be used for advertising.
This ensures that the objectives that were set for the advertised are accomplished effectively. Communication with the customers is effective with the use of extensive advertising media. Themes, graphics and copy effectiveness The organization uses good themes when advertising that will capture the attention of customers. They also include the use of graphics that provides enough demonstration of the products. There is also copy effectiveness in advertising whereby enough copies are provided to the customers and in good quality. Advertising media used
The organization uses different advertising media such as bill boards, printed flyers, radio and television adverts. The use of covert advertising is available in the organization where products are fixed in entertainment and media. They also use television commercials, infomercials and celebrity branding. The organization uses Ad tracking method to tack the effectiveness of the advertising media. The advertising media is very effective especially with the use of television commercials and celebrity branding whom people can associate with the product.
There increases in the sales due to the use of effective advertising media. Public Relations program As Oher (95) asserts that the organizations publicity program involves the identification of the target audience. The sales persons then modify the information that is going to be given to the audience. The sales people then compile the media list that will be helpful when reviewing information. They can use bill boards and TV shows. They are required to know their customers and integrate all other methods of advertising.
They ask the right questions to the customers and giving directs answers to the customers for their questions. They also take the responsibility to flow up their customers through the mails. This advertising program is very effective for the organization because it yields god results for the organization profits. Many customers are interactive with the sales people. They get enough information for their and are convinced to use the organizations products. Sales Promotion Sales promotion techniques The sales people direct their sales to the consumers and this is usually referred to as consumer sales promotions.
The techniques used by the organization on consumer sales promotion include price deals where the organization decides to reduce the prices to the customers (Oher, 92). The organization also uses a loyal reward system where consumers can collect credits for purchases and exchange tem for rewards. They also use price park deal where the packaging offers the consumers a certain percentage extra product fro the same price. The organization also uses loss dealer as a sales promotion technique Marketing Audit Sections for SLP05 The Marketing Audit Sections for SLP04 covered various areas concerning personal selling sales promotion and advertising.
The organization has tried to exploit these marketing promotional activities to their best although much is required to be done on the pricing of the organization products. Most of the activities give a positive outcome to the organization. The organization should always aim at increasing its profits by exploiting the promotional activities to the maximum. More should be done on promotion to give the organization a strong customer base. Price How prices are set in the organization The organization takes the precaution to set the prices of the products considering the goals of the company.
Prices are set to fit the realities of the market place and support the product’s position as well as consistent with the product mix. They take the time to learn the expectations of the customer on the price of the products. The organization uses promotional pricing to price their products. Here they consider pricing as the key element of the marketing mix. The customers usually expect high prices for quality products. However, this method is not the best method of setting prices since quality cannot be measure on some products. The effect of price increase on the organizations profits
The organizations profits would not go up since customers will expect the rise in prices to be accompanied by better quality of the product. Temporary price promotions The organization uses temporary price promotions to encourage customers to buy their products. These temporary are effective since customers enjoy discounted and competing brands of products. There are Sales increases during the promotion period for each discounted products. However, the sales start decreasing after the promotion period for each brand. Both the brand loyal and non loyal consumers responded to a discount promotion by buying more (Oher, p.
92). A high discount usually played a big role in increasing the market share of the products than low discounts. Customers usually start switching to the discounted products during the promotion period. The customers make timing to purchase products at their discounted period. However, the discounted products may come with low quality hence reducing the quantity purchased by the customers. Temporary time promotion usually doesn’t have a lifetime effect to the organization. Customers usually respond at the time when the promotion is on and stop after the end of the promotion.
Conclusions and recommendations Marketing promotional activities are important to the increases in profits of the organization. They form the basis with which marketing audits are made. Organizations should strive to meet all the requirement of the audit programs in marketing. They should have available information concerning personal selling activities, sales promotion activities, pricing and advertising. If these areas are well developed by the organization then good results will be achieved. References Oher James. The employee assistance handbook, New Jersey: Wiley. com, 1999, pp. 92-108
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
