Marketing Plans, 9th Edition

CHAPTER 5THE CUSTOMER AND MARKET AUDIT PART 3: THE PRODUCT AUDIT

SUMMARY

• What we sell to the segments identified in Chapter 3
• What a ‘product’ is – throughout the chapter the word ‘product’ is used, but the guidelines provided apply equally to services
• What a brand is
• What the difference is between a successful and an unsuccessful brand
• Key diagnostic tools, specifically
  • lifecycle analysis
  • the Boston Matrix
  • the directional policy matrix
• The growing importance of category management
• Examples of all these tools in practice are provided in the form of mini case histories
• Exercises to turn the theory into actionable propositions

INTRODUCTION

It will be recalled that, at the beginning of Chapter 3, the diagram of the marketing process – repeated here as Figure 5.1 – indicated that Chapters 3, 4 and 5 would be concerned with Box 1, for clearly a marketing audit is concerned not just with to whom we sell but also with what we sell to them. Consequently, this chapter is concerned with this aspect of the audit.

Referring again to the output of the marketing planning process, shown in Figure 5.2, let us remind ourselves that we are still carrying out an audit in order to complete the following sections of the strategic marketing plan:

• How the market works
• Key segments and their needs (these sections were dealt with in Chapters 3 and 4)
• SWOT analyses
• Portfolio summary of the SWOTs

This chapter is principally concerned with what is sold to the customers – the ‘product’ – ...