Implementation Evaluation Control

On the tenth and final part of our marketing plan project, we were asked to describe our implementation evaluation control.

“Evaluation is also very important. Many companies fail to evaluate their sales promotion programs, and others evaluate them only superficially.”(Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation. Page 438)

In today's highly competitive business environment, budget-oriented planning or forecast-based planning methods are insufficient for a large corporation to survive and prosper. The firm must engage in strategic planning that clearly defines objectives and assesses both the internal and external situation to formulate strategy, implement the strategy, evaluate the progress, and make adjustments as necessary to stay on track.

“Formal evaluation forces management to develop and communicate clear standards for judging performance. It also provides salespeople with constructive feedback and motivates them to perform well.”(Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation. Page 426.)

The way in which the strategy is implemented can have a significant impact on whether it will be successful. In a large company, those who implement the strategy likely will be different people from those who formulated it. For this reason, care must be taken to communicate the strategy and the reasoning behind it. Otherwise, the implementation might not succeed if the strategy is misunderstood or if lower-level managers resist its implementation because they do not understand why the particular strategy was selected.

“Marketers should study buyers to find out how they actually evaluate brand alternatives. If they know what evaluative processes go on, marketers can take steps to influence the buyer’s decision.”(Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation. Page 154)

The implementation of the strategy must be monitored and adjustments made as needed.

Evaluation and control consists of the following steps:

1. Define parameters to be measured
2. Define target values for those parameters
3. Perform measurements
4. Compare measured results to the pre-defined standard
5. Make necessary changes

   
Following these steps are crucial in our company’s success.