Marketing Audit Approach - Ikea

Marketing Audit Approach - IKEA

Marketing Audit Overview

“What is a marketing audit? Quite simply, it is a detailed analysis of the elements that constitute or influence a company’s efforts to profitably market its products- today and in future when both market and products may undergo radical change” ( John, Alexander, & Theodore, 1969). The marketing audit helps to understand the fundamentals of a company’s marketing planning process. Auditing is not only conducted not only at the planning stage and also conducted during various stages until the implementation of the marketing plan.

Organization

The selected organization for the marketing Audit is IKEA Group. As part Phoenix University marketing course, the author of this document (hereafter referred as “author”) will review the marketing process of IKEA and will provide an audit report at the end of the course.

Marketing Audit Approach

This document aims to provide an approach to the marketing audit process and will also detail out the steps that need to be performed to accomplish the same.

The final project document will have an executive summary, which provides a summary of the marketing audit purpose, key findings, major highlights, conclusions and recommendations. This is a high level summary and can be presented to the company’s top management. It is imperative that the author to ensure the summary has no conflicting information with the detail audit.

Company Overview

The first step of marketing audit is to understand the company’s vision, products and marketing strategy. In respect to IKEA Group, the information can be obtained from student info website provided by IKEA Group.

Marketing Environment Analysis

The next part of Audit process is to understand the business environmental aspects of the company. As part of the marketing audit project the author is going to analyze and provide detailed information on the following key environmental aspects

п‚ѕ Customers

п‚ѕ Demographics

п‚ѕ Markets

Each category will be analyzed using IKEA student info website, IKEA group corporate website, resources from University of Phoenix library and articles from magazines. The key questions that the author will address are

Customers: Need to evaluate and understand the nature of IKEA’s customers such as

п‚ѕ Customers need and how to satisfy them

п‚ѕ The perception of IKEA brand

 What customers “value” and how IKEA can provide the “value” to their customers

 What is the “buyer decision process” and consumers behavior?

 The nature of market’s segmentation, target and IKEA’s position.

Demographics: Need to evaluate and understand consumers’ average age, levels of population, and gender.

п‚ѕ How have the technology played a part in marketing?

п‚ѕ How internet technology helped IKEA in marketing?

п‚ѕ The way in which the good are manufactured and provisioned to the consumers

п‚ѕ Usage of technology and media for marketing

Markets: Need to evaluate and understand the market condition for IKEA. Specifically the following

п‚ѕ Has the market been expanding for IKEA products or contracting, or stable?

п‚ѕ Which segments have greatest potentials? Has this been varied in terms of local and international markets?

п‚ѕ Has IKEA made any changes to adjust to the market?

Additionally, the author will also use SWOT analysis and situation analysis to provide a detail report on IKEA’s current position in the market.

Marketing Objectives

The marketing plan for an organization will always start with one or more objectives. As part of this marketing audit the author will understand and address IKEA’s objectives by reviewing IKEA’s vision, business idea and market positioning statement from the student info website. The