Auditing Marketing Strategy Implementation Success

Abstract

Given the complexity of making marketing strategies work, a reliable tool for the determination of implementation success seems essential. Implementation success is multidimensional since it results from both successful implementation efforts and favorable environmental conditions (Bonoma 1985). Thus, determining implementation success via traditional quantitative and financial performance indicators is problematic for at least two reasons: First, implementation success does not affect quantitative figures directly (e.g., market shares or turnovers). Rather, the outcomes of implementation quality have an impact on quantitative figures with a temporal delay. Further, there is often no direct link between implementation efforts and quantitative performance indicators, given that factors other than strategy implementation (e.g., market environment) influence quantitative performance indicators. Put simply, traditional performance instruments do not suffice to determine whether strategic performance shortfalls stem from an inappropriate strategy, poor implementation efforts, or both (Mankins/Steele 2005). Similar problems are associated with performance frameworks developed for strategy implementation (e.g., the Balanced Scorecard; the 7S-framework). While these tools help to manage certain aspects of strategy implementation, they are based on a narrow understanding of strategy implementation success and have substantial deficiencies regarding a reliable analysis of the multidimensional nature of implementation outcomes. Thus, our study yields four overall categories of dimensions reflecting marketing implementation success: (1) implementation effectiveness, (2) implementation efficiency, (3) performance outcomes, and (4) strategic embeddedness. All categories consist of sub-dimensions reflecting marketing strategy implementation success. A list of implementation dimensions and the descriptions are listed in figure 2. Open image in new window “Implementing a marketing strategy is far more than just putting paperwork into action.” Given the multidimensional nature of implementation outcomes, a properly conducted marketing audit builds the backbone of a reliable implementation success determination. In general, marketing audits uncover marketing problems systematically and facilitate the formulation of plans to improve marketing performance (see Kotler/Keller 2012 for an introduction into marketing strategy audits). In contrast to conventional marketing controls that focus on retrospective target-performance comparisons, marketing audits allow for future-oriented, feed-forward strategy implications (Tomczak et al. 2009). The statement of one marketing manager indicates what most participants added by way of explanation: “Although it is difficult, you should try to assess implementation efforts apart from your strategy’s quality evaluation. The fact that it is difficult is not an excuse not to do it.” Based on our literature review, we have developed a marketing strategy implementation success audit that consists of two steps, performance measurement and performance diagnostic (Kotler/Keller, 2012). Open image in new window