Marketing Fundamentals MKT101A Report: Marketing Plan Stage 4

This report delves into the critical aspects of marketing, focusing on monitoring and controlling systems, the marketing process, and strategic analysis. It examines three key control systems: output control, which uses measurable results; behavior control, which emphasizes actions leading to results; and clan control, which leverages shared values and norms, particularly in creative environments. The report then outlines the marketing process, including creating a mission statement, conducting situational analyses (SWOT, PEST, and 5C's), formulating a marketing strategy, and setting a budget. The report also provides examples from the Canvas Wear brand to illustrate these concepts. Finally, the report highlights key marketing metrics for evaluating a marketing plan's effectiveness, such as traffic-to-lead ratio, sales revenue, return on investment, and landing page conversion rate. The report is based on the Marketing Fundamentals MKT101A course and aims to provide insights into marketing strategies and analysis.

Running head: Important Aspects of Marketing 1
Important Aspects of Marketing
Student’s Name
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MARKETING ESSENTIALS 2
Important Aspects of Marketing
Monitoring and Controlling Systems
Organizational marketing and control systems help executives track the performance of an
organization, areas of concern, and take action to deal with these concerns. The three monitoring
and controlling systems that can be used in the canvas design industry are: Output control, clan
control, and behavior control.
Output control is used for measurable results in any given organization (Liao 2005). In the case
of Canvas Design Co., Cam Werner, the founder embarked on output control to gauge the
performance of his Canvas Wear brand. For example, watching the number of visitors to his
website, the number of canvas wear products he produced in a week, and the number of clients
he would receive per month. In each of these examples, the executive needs to decide
performance level that is acceptable, inform employees about their expectations, and track
whether their performance is according to expectations, and finally make the required changes.
The marketing matrix associated with output control is traffic to lead ratio, sales revenue, and
return on investment. Traffic to lead ratio helps you understand your website traffic. How many
people show an interest in your canvas designs? A low or decreasing ratio is a sign that your
performance is poor. Sales revenue is the total sales for the year less the revenue from customers
derived through inbound marketing. Return on investment is necessary for evaluating your
monthly and yearly performance and to adjust your budget.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS 2
Kolvereid & Isaksen define behavioral control is a monitoring tool that focuses on the actions that
translate to results (2006). For example, the Canvas Wear brand started out with an owl logo and
it was well received consumers. The design of Werner’s website and the ability to generate leads
is also a part of behavioral control. In the canvas design industry, it is important that you design
a website with a strong call to action. It should creatively feature your designs and show how
different they are from competitors. Werner’s website showcases some of his popular designs
and the ones that have performed well. The marketing matrix involved with behavior control is
landing page conversion rate. A landing page should generate leads. The landing page should
showcase the most recent designs, special offers, and discounts to get entice prospects and
provoke them to action. For a higher conversion rate, you should be looking at your content,
reviews, and your CTA text.
Clan control is about shared traditions, value, expectation, and norms. Clan control is necessary
where creativity is required (Chua 2012). For example, Google relies on clan control. Employees
are allowed to spend some time in a week working on innovative projects. The same case can be
applied to the canvas design industry. When employees are allowed to come up with designs that
do not adhere to common standards and that are beyond what the industry covers, they are able
to be more creative and think out of the box. Canvas design has applied the clan control
approach to better his graphic designs and improve his business skills and craft. The marketing
matrix involved with clan control is return on investment and sales revenue. You will be looking
to see how the company’s policies on creativity translate to a high return on investment and
increased sales.

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Lessons from the Marketing Process
Through my assessments, I have learnt a lot about the marketing process. A marketing process
implies the measures that businesses use to spot customer concerns, market opportunities, and
come up with marketing solutions for their target audience. The first step when creating a
marketing process is to create a mission statement. All your marketing efforts need to be built
around fulfilling your business’s mission statement. In this case, the mission statement of the
canvas design company could be delivering unique, effective, and quality designs.
The second step in the marketing process is to conduct an analysis. You can either conduct a
SWOT analysis, PEST analysis, or a 5C’s analysis.
According to Helms et.al, swot analysis highlights your strong points, your weak points, market
opportunities, and acknowledges threats in your organization (2010). A pest analysis is more about the
environmental factors such as politics, social climate, the environment, and technology. The 5C’s
analysis is focused on your company, customers, collaborators, the climate of your marketing, and
your competitors.
When using the SWOT analysis, you will be aiming to answer questions regarding the
impressive aspects of your products or services, the processes that help you remain efficient,
what is preventing your progress, and what you need to improve.
The second phase of the SWAT analysis is to look out for opportunities and acknowledge threats
that prevent you from progressing.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS 2
A PEST analysis should answer questions on the political climate, economic climat, social
climate, and technological climate. When it comes to analyzing the political climate, you need to
look at any upcoming elections and how they could affect how your product is made or used.
You should also determine whether any upcoming legislation will affect your organization. You
need to look at the current outlook of the economy, the exchange rates of foreign countries, and
how much your clients are using on products and services. You should also focus on social
movements that your business should address and the sentiments of your current clients. There is
also the need to consider any tech tools that could improve how you conduct your canvas design
business.
Another analysis I have learnt through the marketing process is the 5C’s analysis. This is an
analysis that focuses on your company, all collaborators, your competitors, the climate, your
customers.
The next thing I learnt from the marketing process is to formulate a marketing strategy. I begun
by identifying my target audience. I went further to ensure my marketing goals are SMART. The
final step I learnt from the marketing process, is to set a budget. Your budget should determine
the strategies and resources you use.

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References
Chua, C. E. H., Lim, W. K., Soh, C., & Sia, S. K. (2012). Enacting clan control in complex IT projects: A
social capital perspective.
Helms, M. M., & Nixon, J. (2010). Exploring SWOT analysis–where are we now? A review of academic
research from the last decade. Journal of strategy and management, 3(3), 215-251.
Kolvereid, L., & Isaksen, E. (2006). New business start-up and subsequent entry into self-
employment. Journal of business venturing, 21(6), 866-885.
Liao, Y. S. (2005). Business strategy and performance: The role of human resource management
control. Personnel Review, 34(3), 294-309.