Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e- Implementing and
Controlling Marketing
Plans: Evolution and
Revolution
Text © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002550 Chapter 19
When a marketing manager has developed a good marketing plan, the challenge
of implementing it often involves hundreds, or thousands, of operational decisions
and activities. In a small company, these may all be handled by a few people, or
even by a single person. In a large corporation, literally hundreds of different peo-
ple may be involved in implementation. That may require a massive amount of
careful coordination and communication. Either way, when operational decisions
and activities are executed well, customers get what is intended. And if the origi-
nal plan is good, customers will be satisfied and come back again the next time the
need arises. However, even a great plan can leave customers unhappy, and switch-
ing to someone else’s offering, if implementation is poor.Implementation is especially critical in mature and highly competitive markets.
When several firms are all following basically the same strategy—quickly imitat-
ing competitors’ ideas—customers are often won or lost based on differences in
the quality of implementation. Consider the rental car business. Hertz has a strat-
egy that targets business travelers with a choice of quality cars, convenient online
reservations, fast pick-up and drop-off, accessories like cell phones, availability at
most major airports, and a premium price. Hertz is extremely successful with this
strategy even though there is little to prevent other companies from trying the
same approach. But a major part of Hertz’s success is due to implementation.
Customers keep coming back because the Hertz service is both reliable and
pain-free.
When a Hertz #1 Club Gold customer
calls to make a reservation, the company
already has the standard information
about that customer in a computer data-
base. At the airport, the customer skips
over the line at the Hertz counter and
instead just picks up an already-com-
pleted rental contract and goes straight
to the Hertz bus. The driver gets the cus-
tomer’s name and radios ahead to have
someone start the specific car that cus-
tomer will drive. That way the air conditioner or heater is already doing its job
when the bus driver delivers the customer right to the parking slot for his or her
car. Customers are certain they’re at the right place because there’s an electronic
sign beside each car with the customer’s name on it. When the customer returns
the car, an agent comes to the car, scans the customer’s contract with a hand-held
computer, and prints the receipt.
It’s all very smooth. Making this work—day in and day out, customer after cus-
tomer—isn’t easy. But Hertz has set up systems to make it all easier because that’s
what it takes to implement its plan and to keep customers loyal.^3As the Hertz example illustrates, marketing implementation usually involves
decisions and activities related to both internal and external matters. Figuring out
how the correct car will end up in the right parking slot, how the Hertz bus driver
will contact the office, and who will coordinate getting the message to the person
that starts the car are all internal matters. They are invisible to the customer—as
long as they work as planned. On the other hand, some implementation issues are
external and involve the customer. For example, the contract must be completed
correctly and be in the right spot when the rental customer comes to pick it up,
and someone needs to have filled the car with gas and cleaned it.Good implementation
builds relationships
with customers
Implementation deals
with internal or
external matters
Effective Implementation Means That Plans Work as Intended