Marketing analysis helps to measure the effectiveness of the strategy in the financial aspect

Target:

• evaluate the effectiveness of marketing programs in terms of return on investment in the business.

Result:

• Collection of data through all communication channels and departments in the company;
• Data processing, analysis;
• Comparison with competitors;
• Creation of structured templates for reporting in order to effectively analyze the activities of departments;
• Recommendations for the efficient allocation of budget and resources.

Marketing and analytics are those analysis tools that help measure the effectiveness of a marketing strategy in a financial aspect. Any advertising campaign and marketing initiatives require an investment of money. How to understand how correctly the budget was distributed? Which channels were the most effective? How much was spent and how much profit was made? Only using the data of each reporting period.

Planning business processes directly depends on the dynamics of data over the past period. But not all companies and divisions can provide such a report.

What are we doing?

We use special data collection methods that allow us to get a complete picture in all directions and aspects. We directly connect the received data with sales and profit, which makes it possible to understand which decisions were profitable and strengthen them, and which ones were unprofitable.

How can marketing analytics be useful to you?

• You'll get detailed information, backed up by figures and graphs on ongoing marketing programs in your company. This will make it possible to understand to what extent certain marketing tools and the channels were effective.
• Identify the most successful initiatives and analyze them in detail based on basic questions: “How many customers were attracted?”, “What was the profit?”, “What is the opinion of the brand among consumers?” etc.
• You will be able to predict the success of future campaigns and plan marketing activities more efficiently based on analytics data. Add new communication channels, adjust your strategy and tactics.

Marketing analysis is needed in order to:

• Get a holistic vision of the business;
• Improve company and financial management;
• More accurately predict and plan marketing initiatives;
• Increase the effectiveness of existing marketing programs through the correct allocation of resources;
• Increase company profitability and return on investment.

Have you still not studied the data on past campaigns, or do you understand that advertising costs have increased, but there is no return on advertising? We will study your company's business processes and show you how to properly spend marketing and advertising finances and how you can optimize the budget and increase the effectiveness of marketing initiatives.

Hello! In this article we will talk about such an important component of the marketing activities of an enterprise as marketing analysis.

Today you will learn:

• What is a marketing analysis of an enterprise;
• What are the stages marketing analysis organizations;
• What are the methods and types of marketing analysis of the company;
• How to apply marketing analysis by example.

What is marketing analysis

Any activity begins with planning. Planning, in turn, begins with analysis. The marketing activity of the enterprise is fully subject to these rules. Marketing analysis allows you to identify problems and find ways to solve them, provides basic information for making decisions regarding marketing complex.

Without a well-conducted marketing analysis, you run the risk of encountering the following problems:

• Get a product that will not be in demand;
• Meet insurmountable "barriers" when entering the market and when selling products;
• Face overwhelming for you;
• Choose the wrong market segment and product positioning;
• Make wrong decisions on each of the elements.

This is just small part problems that awaits you if you neglect the marketing analysis of the enterprise.

Marketing analysis of the company – analysis of information obtained as a result of a variety of marketing research to make decisions regarding the marketing mix and the company's behavior in a competitive market.

Marketing research - activities for the systematic collection of information necessary for making marketing decisions.

Marketing research is divided into "field" and "desk".

Field marketing research involves the collection of primary information using one of the following methods:

• Observation of the object of study. You can observe consumers in retail outlets, you can evaluate the display of goods and much more;
• Experiment. For example, changing the price of a product in only one point of sale in order to analyze the elasticity of demand. It is used to determine the influence of any factor on the purchase.
• Interviewing. This includes various surveys (telephone, Internet, mail).

Desk research involves examining existing data. Sources can be both internal information (accounting data, databases, reports, plans) and external information (statistical data, data from marketing, production and trade associations, databases of independent organizations).

The main stages of the marketing analysis of the company

Marketing research and marketing analysis are inextricably linked.

It is possible to represent any analytical marketing activity of an enterprise in the form of four stages of marketing analysis:

1. Marketing research planning. This stage includes setting goals for marketing research, determining the type of research, determining the audience or sources of information, determining the place of research, preparing tools for conducting research, designating deadlines and budgeting;
2. Collection of information. On the this stage there is a direct collection of information;
3. Analysis of the collected information;
4. Interpreting the received data into a report.

When conducting a full marketing analysis of a company, it is necessary to obtain and process information about the internal environment of the organization, the external environment of the organization and the meso-environment of the organization. When analyzing each of the environments, the specialist must go through the stages of marketing analysis described above.

Let's look at what methods and marketing analysis tools are used in the marketing analysis of each environment.

Types and methods of marketing analysis

There are four types of marketing analysis:

• Marketing Analysis external environment organizations;
• Marketing analysis of the meso-environment of the company;
• Analysis of the internal marketing environment of the enterprise;
• Portfolio analysis.

We will consider the methods of marketing analysis in the context of the type of marketing analysis in which they are applied. Let's start with an analysis of the external environment of the organization.

Methods for analyzing the external environment of the organization

External environment of the organization - the realities in which the organization operates.

The organization cannot change the external environment (but there are exceptions, for example, oil enterprises).

When analyzing the external environment of the organization, it is necessary to assess the attractiveness of the market. To assess the attractiveness of the market, it is effective to use such a method of marketing analysis as PESTEL-analysis.

Each letter in the name of the PESTEL analysis denotes an environmental factor that can either have a strong influence on the organization or not at all. Let's consider each factor.

P– Political factor. The influence of the political factor is assessed by answering the following questions:

• Is the political situation in the country stable? How does the political situation affect?
• What impact does the tax law have on your business?
• How does the social policy of the state affect your business?
• How does state regulation to your business?

E– Economic factor external environment. His assessment involves answering the following questions:

• How does the level of development of the country's GDP affect your business?
• How is the general economic situation affecting your business? ( the economic growth, stagnation, recession or economic crisis)
• How does inflation affect your business?
• How do exchange rates affect your business?
• How does per capita income affect your business?

S– Sociocultural factor requires answers to the following questions:

• How does demographics affect your business?
• How does the lifestyle of citizens affect your business?
• How does the attitude of citizens to leisure and work affect your business?
• How does the social distribution of income between family members affect your business?

T – Technological factor and questions for its analysis:

• What is the impact of government spending on research in your field?
• How does technological development industry to your business?

E– Environmental factor requires answers to the following questions:

• How protection legislation affects environment to your business?
• How does the volume of extracted natural resources affect your business? (consider the natural resources your business uses)
• How does the quality of extracted natural resources affect your business? (consider the natural resources your business uses)

L- Legal factor and questions to analyze its impact on your business:

• How does this or that law affect your business? (it is desirable to identify those laws that regulate activities in your market).

We recommend that you answer these questions using a scale of -3 to 3, where "-3" has a strong negative impact on the organization, "-2" has a moderate negative impact on the organization, and "-1" has a slight negative impact on the organization. organization, "0" - no impact, "1" - has a weak positive impact on the organization, "2" - has an average positive impact on the organization, "3" - has a strong positive impact on the organization.

As a result, you will get the total impact for each factor. Factors with a positive result have a favorable effect, with a negative – negative. If any factor has a very strong Negative influence, it is necessary to think about the feasibility of doing business in this area.

Methods for analyzing the mesoenvironment of an organization

The mesoenvironment of the organization is represented external factors that have a direct impact on the performance of the organization. The analysis of the meso-environment is aimed at assessing the attractiveness of the market and the level of competition in the market, determining the overall consumer demand.

The tool that most fully reflects the factors influencing the mesoenvironment was invented by Mike Porter and is called the 5 Forces of Competition Model.

Porter's 5 forces model of competition consists of five blocks. Each block is a separate factor in the impact of a competitive market on your organization.

The central block is “Competitive Environment”. This block contains all the current market players - you and your direct competitors.

You need to define the following competitive environment parameters:

• Major players and their market shares;
• Number of players;
• Level of market development;
• Strong and weak sides your closest competitors;
• Information about the costs of your competitors for various items of expenditure (production, marketing, and so on).

The second block is "The Threat of New Players."

It is represented by the following options:

• Existing market entry barriers (patents, licenses, government regulation, and so on);
• Required initial capital;
• Necessary costs for product differentiation;
• Access to distribution channels;
• Experience of existing companies on the market (the more experience, the less the threat of new players);
• Existing barriers to exit from the market (forfeit, liability to suppliers and consumers).

Third block - "Substitute Goods". Such companies are not your direct competitors, however, with high elasticity of demand, they can pose a big threat.

The parameters for assessing this factor are as follows:

• Degree of consumer loyalty to your product;
• The difference in price between your product and substitute products;
• The level of professionalism of consumers (the more professional the consumer, the weaker the parameter affects);
• The cost of switching to a substitute product.

The fourth block "The Power of Buyers in the Market" which lies in the ability of buyers to dictate their terms of cooperation.

This factor is represented by the following parameters:

• The number of buyers in the market (the fewer buyers, the greater their strength);
• The volume of product purchases by one consumer (the larger the purchase volume, the higher the impact);
• The presence of buyers' unions;
• The breadth of product selection (the greater the choice, the greater the power of influence).

The fifth block is presented the power of suppliers in the market.

The parameters for assessing this factor will be as follows:

• The degree of complexity of the transition from one supplier to another;
• The volume of purchases from one supplier;
• Availability of companies to replace existing suppliers;
• The degree to which the quality of raw materials affects your business.

Write down the data you have for each parameter, analyze the information and give points from "-3" to "3", depending on the degree of influence of each parameter. The extreme values ​​"-3" and "3" indicate a strong threat and a positive impact of the parameter, respectively, "0" means that the parameter does not affect your business. The total value of the factor will allow you to see the most "dangerous" factors, the influence of which must be neutralized in the near future.

Analysis of the organization's microenvironment

Analysis of the microenvironment of the organization is carried out to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your business. For this purpose, such an analysis tool as "Chain of Values".

The value chain displays all business processes that are implemented in the organization. Business processes are divided into main (during which production and distribution of products take place) and auxiliary (which provide the main activity with everything necessary).

We will not dwell on this model in detail, since it is quite simple. Let's depict it in the form of a table, where we denote all the business processes that need to be evaluated. The rows indicate auxiliary business processes, the columns - the main ones.

Assess every business process in your organization and you'll see where your product's key value is produced and what makes your product special. Those business processes that give your product more value are the most developed and have a positive impact on competitiveness - strengths your organization, the rest are weak.

Interim Analysis

SWOT -analysis represented by a combination of environmental factors of the organization (direct and indirect impact). SWOT-analysis is a matrix, the opportunities and threats of the external environment are displayed vertically, and the strengths and weaknesses of the organization itself are displayed horizontally. We will depict it for greater comfort.

We received opportunities and threats as a result of PESTEL analysis, and weaknesses and strengths - as a result of using the Porter's 5 Forces of Competition and Value Chain models, we write them out in columns and rows.

As a result, at the intersection of external and internal environment we have to write the following solutions:

• Intersection of strengths with opportunities: how strengths can be used to achieve opportunities;
• Intersection of strengths with threats: how can we use strengths to neutralize threats;
• Intersection of weaknesses and opportunities: how to overcome weaknesses using opportunities;
• The intersection of weaknesses and threats: how to minimize the impact of threats.

Business Portfolio Analysis

After we have researched the market and the company, we can evaluate various directions the organization's business or, more simply, the goods it produces.

At the moment there are quite a few a large number of various methods of portfolio analysis analysis, but the simplest and most popular of them - matrix BCG . Let's immediately visualize this tool.

Thus, we identified the most promising products in the range and chose a strategy for each of them.

The second component of portfolio analysis is staging life cycle each product range . This analysis allows you to select a product marketing strategy and eliminate unprofitable products.

Most often there are four stages:

• Product birth or market entry. These products are new to the market, have consistently positive sales growth rates, but either have no profit or have a negative profit. As a rule, such a product has few competitors;
• Growth. Products at this stage of the life cycle have the highest sales growth rates, but almost no profit. The competition at this stage is quite high;
• Maturity. The phase of the life cycle, when sales growth rates are falling, and profits and the level of competition in the market reach their maximum values;
• recession. Sales growth rates are approaching zero, profits are declining, and there are practically no competitors.

Marketing analysis of the enterprise on the example of the company "Gruzovichkof"

Let's analyze the activity of one of the real Russian companies. On the example of the cargo transportation company "Gruzovichkof". At the same time, we will be able to see how to correctly understand and read the marketing analysis of the enterprise.

Stage 1. We start with a PESTEL analysis, that is, we describe only the influencing factors (by questions) and put points. At the same time, we reduced the number of influencing factors by excluding the economic one, since it does not have any influence at all, and by combining the political and legal ones, since they are closely interconnected in this industry.

As we can see, the technological factor has the greatest positive impact, and the economic one has the negative one.

Stage 2. Conducting analysis using Porter's 5 Forces of Competition model.

We paint the parameters for each factor and put down points. Within a report, it's best to do this in a table.

Thus, the strength of suppliers and the strength of consumers have the greatest negative impact.

Stage 3. Conducting analysis through the application of the "Value Chain" model.

For Gruzovichkof, it will look like this:

Stage 4. Conducting a SWOT analysis, as a result of which we will receive general results and conclusions for all three analyzes.

We write out the strongest threats and opportunities from the PEST analysis and highlight the strengths and weaknesses based on the analysis using the Porter's 5 Forces of Competition and Value Chain models. We get a small plate.

On this, the general marketing analysis of the enterprise is over and we can summarize.

As a result of marketing analysis, we received:

• Full assessment of the attractiveness of the industry (market);
• Evaluation of the position of our company in this market;
• Revealed competitive advantages our product (company);
• Determined ways to apply our competitive strengths against competitors;
• Identified the main competitors, their strengths and weaknesses;
• Assessed the level of competition in the market;
• Got information base to determine the future strategy of the organization (marketing strategy).

The modern market is constantly changing and improving, and only those companies that own all the strategies and marketing tools can work successfully. The constant development and success of the company largely depends on the professionalism of the marketer and how targeted the marketing policy is in general.

Who are they and what do they do.

Marketing is not a profession, but a way of thinking that allows companies to make the right decisions for further development based on a thorough study of the market situation. Marketers-analysts are specialists who track everything latest trends contemporary market economy and at the same time able to navigate in the face of uncertainty. AT large organizations there are entire marketing departments, in smaller companies marketing activities can be done by one person.

The terms of reference of a marketing analyst are as follows: field research of a focus group, monitoring of the competitors' market, research of consumer preferences, participation in the formation assortment policy, reporting and much more. Marketer in big company also involved in planning product range, explores regional markets sales. A marketer generates ideas, knows how to find various information, manage people and events.

On the Russian market labor marketers appeared relatively recently in 1996, and became most popular after August 98th. Despite the novelty of this vacancy in the labor market, the demand for marketers is growing every day, and the profession is becoming more popular. Although it is at this stage in the development of the labor market that real professionals in the field of marketing are sorely lacking. Demand greatly exceeds supply. This is mainly due to the fact that, until recently, in Russian educational institutions practically no marketing specialists were trained.

Requirements for candidates.

Employers have quite strict requirements for candidates for the position of marketer. In such a profession, not only knowledge in the specialty is required, but also knowledge in related areas related to the profile of the company. Depending on the market, a marketer must know: the basics of economics, sociology, statistics, jurisprudence, the history of the development of trade and production, and current legislation. To professional qualities marketer can be attributed communication skills, structural and analytical thinking, the desire for improvement. To assess the professionalism of the candidate, first of all, the presence of successful experience in marketing research competitive companies. A marketing analyst must be fluent in organizational and analytical skills, as well as initiative and an excellent memory. Employers also actively welcome marketers with established business connections.

Starting to move along career ladder, a qualified specialist sooner or later reaches the position of head of the marketing department, in many companies such a specialist is also a deputy CEO on marketing policy. The salary of marketers depends on work experience, knowledge of languages ​​and the amount of responsibility assigned to him. In large Russian companies, a qualified marketing specialist can earn from $600-1000, Western companies The income of a marketer is about $800-1200 per month. Marketing director salary can range from $1500 to $5000 monthly.

The profession of a marketing analyst is considered very prestigious and promising. Over the past few years, the marketing policy of most Russian companies has become more thoughtful. This suggests the conclusion that the requirements for professionals responsible for the conduct of this policy are becoming more stringent over time. It will be difficult for a person who does not have a specialized education, relevant work experience and the necessary qualities to get a job. As in any specialty, the key to the success of a professional marketer-analyst is high-quality theoretical training and a lot of practice. Then it will be easier to find a job and the work will be paid accordingly.

A high-quality education and a marketing diploma can now be obtained in such metropolitan universities as the Academy. Plekhovanova, MESI, Graduate School Economy, State University management.

Summing up, we can say that marketing is one of the company management systems that allows you to take right decisions based on a thorough market analysis. Important marketing goals are to increase profits and optimize the activities of the entire company. Marketing is applied at different levels, from state to individual, and allows you to evaluate the real picture in relations with the market, production and consumer. And the business strategy and the dynamic development of the company as a whole depend on the professionalism and qualifications of a marketer.

Daria Storozheva

Assisted by:

Pavel Kharchenko,

Agency "Empire Kadrov",

Vera Nesterova

agency "Express Personnel".

There is no doubt that with the continuous improvement of analytical tools and methods in recent years, the arsenal of business leaders has significantly expanded with new decision support tools. Although modern methods complex analytics really allow you to accelerate business development and increase the return on investment in marketing (marketing return on investment, MROI), one gets the impression that organizations are literally lost from the variety of analytical tools on offer. As a result, representatives of enterprises, as a rule, opt for one approach to planning and performance management. However, after that, they quickly discover that even the most advanced technique, taken in isolation, has its limitations and drawbacks.

A variety of activities that spend marketing budgets, as well as work with different target audiences and investment horizons suggest that a more sophisticated approach is required to address this issue. In our experience, the best way to increase marketing effectiveness is to combine MROI tools in such a way that you can take advantage of the benefits of each. The benefits of applying such a strategy can be truly enormous: after analyzing more than 400 different client projects implemented over the past eight years in different industries and regions, we found that using an integrated analytical approach can reduce marketing costs by 15-20%. Globally, this would save as much as $200 billion, which companies could reinvest or attribute directly to profits.

Here is just one example. One American property and casualty insurance company improved its marketing performance by more than 15% annually between 2009 and 2012. During this period, she was able to keep marketing spending at the same level, although the costs in this area increased by an average of 62% in the industry. “Marketing analysis tools have allowed us to improve all the decisions made before,” said the marketing director of this company.

Analytics must be linked to strategy

When choosing analytical tools, a company should first of all proceed from its own corporate strategy. Without this reliance on strategy, companies often allocate their marketing budgets largely along the same lines as the previous year's budget or based on which lines of business or products performed well in recent quarters. This practice can result in a kind of competition, in which the most visible proposals or divisions that stand up loudly for their point of view are rewarded, and not at all those areas of activity that most need to develop or maintain their current positions.

Another necessary prerequisite for the formation of a portfolio of projects with high MROI is an understanding of consumer behavior patterns within target segments. Over the past five years, these models have changed so much that the old concepts of perception of consumer behavior - such as the "marketing funnel" - now generally do not work. If in the funnel concept main task was to maximize brand awareness, the analysis of the buying decision process takes into account the fact that consumer behavior is very dynamic and influenced by many different factors (for some additional considerations in this regard, see the box “Five questions to answer to maximize the return on investment in marketing").

Improving the quality of decisions made

Although the advent of new data sources has expanded the scientific possibilities of marketing analysis, creativity in this area still plays an important role: sober commercial judgment is needed to challenge or approve certain approaches, but to create new methods for using data or identify new opportunities for them. obtaining, you need to be creative. This kind of creativity is especially valuable because there is now an extremely wide range of access to data of varying quality. For example, if the data collected on the Internet allows us to analyze the characteristics of the audience covered in the smallest detail, then information about other consumers is often highly generalized and difficult to access. However, these complexities should not prevent the use of data to improve the quality of their decisions if marketers follow three simple guidelines.

Five questions to answer to maximize your marketing ROI

To understand how you can maximize your marketing return on investment (MROI) with today's advanced analytics tools, you need to answer the following five questions.

1. What challenges have your brand faced from changes in consumer decision-making patterns?
2. Does the distribution reflect marketing budget by line of action assessing the potential of the MROI?
3. In what areas is it necessary to conduct an in-depth analysis to determine the optimal set of marketing activities? What compromise decisions should you make?
4. What do you think would be the ideal comprehensive analytical tool that allows you to organize data from all the sources of interest to you?
5. What steps can you take immediately?

1. Find optimal analytical approaches

In order to properly design a marketing mix, organizations must weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each of the many tools and methods to determine which ones to use. the best way enable them to implement their corporate strategy. When it comes to analytical methods, the most preferred, in particular, are the following options.

Heuristic approaches such as the Reach, Cost, Quality (RCQ) methodology. The RCQ methodology involves looking at each touchpoint through the lens of its constituents (number of target customers reached by services, costs per unique visitor, and finally quality of service) based on evidence and structured analysis. This approach is often used when the MMM method is not considered appropriate or feasible, for example, when the amount of data is not large enough, when the level of spending remains more or less constant throughout the year (as happens, for example, with sponsorship), or when we are talking about constant sustainable interaction, in which it is difficult to isolate secondary investment results. The RCQ technique allows the use of the same evaluation criteria for all interaction points, which facilitates subsequent comparison. This technique is quite easy to use - often it does not require any additional tools, except for the model in Excel format. In practice, however, the differences between channels make it difficult to pinpoint the economic value of each touchpoint. In addition, the RCQ method does not allow taking into account additional influencing factors and interactions, and its effectiveness strongly depends on the correctness of the initial assumptions.

2. Apply various tools in a complex

Although some companies prefer to use only one analytical method, maximum results can be achieved when MROI tools are used together. This integrated approach, which involves the collection and analysis of direct marketing data, minimizes the errors and inaccuracies inherent in each MROI estimation method, and gives business leaders the flexibility to adjust budgets in favor of those activities that provide the maximum return on investment.

The formation of generalized data reflecting the results of applying several analytical methods at once allows marketers to compare the effectiveness of different approaches based on common criteria. In the future, the company can regularly summarize the results obtained, and managers are able to rely on these results to monitor the effectiveness of marketing in real time and, as necessary, make adjustments.

3. Make the analytical approach the basis of work in the field of marketing and sales

There are frequent cases when project teams Outsource analytics to outside organizations or outsource it to in-house analytics departments. However, when analysts formulate their findings, these same project teams are sometimes reluctant to use them because they do not fully understand the numbers presented or do not fully trust them.

To overcome this problem, marketers must work closely with data scientists, market analysts, and digital analysts to critically examine assumptions, formulate assumptions, and refine quantitative metrics. In addition, companies must cultivate among their own employees a kind of "translators" who can understand the language of analytics and speak the language of business. For example, one financial company appointed consultants within the marketing division to bring together the creative and analytical components of this structural unit. These consultants have helped analysts understand business challenges and creatives to understand how analytics can inform marketing programs. As a result, thanks to this cooperation, the duration of the development of activities focused on improving the MROI was cut in half.

Efficiency and flexibility also play an important role. The findings from the analysis of the purchase decision process and the target structure of the marketing mix should be taken into account when determining the structure of media channels. Actual results should be compared with targets as they become available, and the structure and budget of marketing activities should be adjusted accordingly.

For example, attribute modeling can be especially useful for quickly adjusting marketing campaigns because digital channel spending can be adjusted almost immediately. As our research shows, the leading market players can redistribute up to 80% of digital marketing spend during one campaign.

The demands on business leaders to ensure the return on their marketing investment are ever-increasing. They have at their disposal not only the data to make the most effective decisions, but also the appropriate analytical tools. We believe that a comprehensive approach to analysis is key to identifying market data and driving sales growth ahead of the market.

Marc Singer- Senior Partner at McKinsey, San Francisco
Alexander Sukharevsky- senior partner of McKinsey, Moscow