Strategic Marketing: Planning and Control, Third Edition

business unit (SBU) targets. The operational level relates to project or

departmental activities and encompasses financial and non-financial

information. The tactical level relates to group or individual performance

and focus is on productivity.

Good performance means that employees (at all levels) have a clear

view of what the priorities are, what they should be doing currently, how

their area of responsibility contributes to overall performance and what

levels of achievement are acceptable.

Management control will focus on: finance, performance appraisal and

benchmarking. The relative importance of each may vary with level of

management.

Financial measures will give both short- and long-term control data and

are fundamental to decision making. Performance appraisal examines the

personnel and human resource aspects of management. Finally, bench-

marking is a means of comparison and identification of best practice. As

Figure 14.5 illustrates, management control is applied to marketing in

order to establish marketing performance. Remember, performance is a

function of efficiency and effectiveness.

280 Strategic Marketing: Planning and Control

Management control

Marketing

performance

• Efficiency


• Effectiveness


• Finance
  Ratios, Budgets and Variances


• Performance Appraisal
  Review, Feedback and Counselling


• Bench Marking
  Best Practice and Standards
  Figure 14.5
  Management
  control related to
  marketing

■ Financial control

Financial control techniques are vital to successful strategy. Such tech-

niques apply to both the planning and operational phases of projects. We

will focus on three main financial control activities: ratios, budgeting and

variance analysis.

A basic understanding of financial terminology is required. Remember,

ultimately all business activities are measured in financial terms and man-

agers require a grasp of accounting terms. Key terms include:

● Assets: Items that have value to the business. Assets are sub-divided

into two categories: (i) Fixed assets– retained by the business, in the long

term, for continual use. Typical examples include buildings, machinery,