will fall into five categories; financial resources, managerial skills, technical
resources, organisation and information systems. Once this overview has
taken place the specific marketing activities of the organisation should be
evaluated. This can be undertaken by an internal marketing audit.
■ The internal marketing audit
The internal marketing audit is specifically aimed at reviewing the mar-
keting activities of the enterprise and is split into five distinct areas (Kotler
et al., 1996):
1 Marketing strategy audit: This analysis examines the organisation’s cur-
rent corporate and marketing objectives to establish if they are rele-
vant and explicit. The current strategy is evaluated in terms of its fit
with the set objectives. This element of the audit also highlights whether
adequate resources have been allocated for the successful implementa-
tion of the strategy.
2 Marketing structures audit: This examines the structure of the marketing
function and its relationship with other areas of the business. In particu-
lar the profile that the marketing function has, within the business, is
reviewed. For instance, is the head of marketing a member of the board
of directors? This is an indicator of how influential marketing consider-
ations are in strategic decisions. Communication both within the mar-
keting function, and between marketing and other functions, should
also be analysed to see how effective the function is at co-ordinating its
activities. The internal structure should be examined to establish whether
marketing activities are carried out efficiently.
3 Marketing systems audit: This part of the audit inspects the planning
systems, control measures and new product development processes in
the organisation, as well as examining the information systems that
support these activities.
4 Productivity audit: This element of the audit examines the organisation’s
activities using financial criteria such as profitability and cost effect-
iveness applied to assess the relative productivity of products, market
sectors, distribution channels and geographic markets.
5 Marketing functions audit: This element of the audit looks in detail at all
aspects of the marketing mix: the products and services the organisation
produces, pricing policy, distribution arrangements, the organisation
of the sales team, advertising policy, public relations and other promo-
tion activities.
One other area that should be examined is the organisation’s innovation
activities. These abilities may have been identified at the initial stage in
the audit when wider organisational resources were reviewed. However
this area is of increasing importance to organisations and deserves further
attention.
Internal analysis 95