Essay: Company and marketing evaluation of performance

Today, most of the companies are consumer focused. Every company wants to provide best out everything keep in mind about their sales and profits too. At the same time, they have to focus on customer satisfaction and after sales care. The post-purchase management includes:

• Customer Satisfaction: It is very important that customer should be satisfied after he has done the purchase. If the product is not performing well as promised at the time of purchase then it will lead to dissatisfaction of the customer. If it is over performing than the expectation, the satisfaction level will also be high. If the performance matches with the expectation then the buyer will be satisfied. When a company tries to provide more customer services and also lowering the price of the product, so that, they can attain customer satisfaction then the company will move towards the loss rather than profits. So, the best way is to invest and put more efforts in Research and Development and in manufacturing of products to increase company’s profits as well as customer satisfaction.
• Quality in Service and product: The quality in products and services is must as the buyer is paying for it. There is a strong correlation between the quality in services and products, profits of the company and satisfaction of the buyer. For example, if the buyer is purchasing a products and he is satisfied then he will come again or he can be a loyal customer for future. So, the quality is the most significant feature in the products and services.
• Fast Solutions for Complaints: Most of the companies provides the best products to their customers but sometimes the process does not go very smooth. It becomes necessary for the companies to provide best solution to overcome their customer’s complaints. It is also presented in studies that nearly 5 per cent of the customers complaint and ask for support but the rest of the 95 per cent customers do not make their purchase again with the same company as they do not feel that whether their complaint would be resolved or not. So, to cover all these doubts of customers company can provide 24*7 free call service for the customers, getting feedback about the product, talking politely to them and a responsible person should take the responsibility for support, so that, they can ask for assistance and share their problems, complaints without any hesitation.
• Reviews and Recommendations by Customers: The reviews and recommendations given by customers’ matters a lot. It can be on the internet, from one to another or to their friends or relatives. It makes a lot of difference while choosing a product and making decision about the product or service. No company says anti about their own so now in this technology world, the reviews are the best sources to know about the product or learning from others experiences. Like, one can get the clear review about any company’s services and its products on google.com and on many other webpages too.
• Customer Retention and Attraction: The best way to attract new customers is by providing new offers, discounts and gifts etc. This can be done with the help of media and companies can maximize their profits too. The marker can gain the customer retention by providing uniqueness in products or services which would be different from the competitor and interesting for the customer. This can also be gained by overcoming and reducing the defects which troubled them earlier.

The marketer should have a well understanding of marketing concepts which focus on the goal of the company to make the company more competent than its competitors in organizing and generating customer value. The company need to focus on the needs of purchaser by coordinating the activities that mainly influence the buyer and this will lead to the profits of the company by satisfying the buyer. This include the strategic market planning, implementation and control (Kotler, 2002).
The marketing planning is the first step before the marketer move ahead for rest of the tasks. Planning strategically intents to maximize the growth and revenue of the company by forming the products or services and also making good business for company. The strategic planning helps to prevent the sudden threats that can arise in future. The marketing planning includes division and corporate strategic planning, business strategic planning.
In division and corporate strategic marketing planning, mainly three areas are need to focus. The first is to regulate the business of company in such a way that it involves the purchase security along with the possibility of making a return on that. Secondly, checking the strengths of the each business unit along with the consideration of the position of the company and growth of the market and fitting into that market situation. Lastly, the focus on strategy development and doing marketing planning to achieve the long-term objectives of the company. It is imperative to have a good and clear mission explanation. It needs to concentrate on confined objectives and selecting the target market and customers strategically. This constitute:

• The group of customers and the market type to which company will target and serve. For instance, Rolls Royce manufacture the luxury cars for quality and high scale people.
• The supply of different type of applications, services and products which company will provide to their target buyers.
• The various types of industries for different operations or an industry which will serve their consumers.
• The company will act globally with different offices around the world or regionally or particularly in a state or city etc. Like, P&G, Unilever and many other companies are there which operating around the world and acting are according to their customers.

Strategic Business Units (SBUs)
The big companies have many businesses and each of the business has its own unique strategy, like, one company can have many different businesses and each business unit has its own strategy to leave an impact on purchaser and also to be unique in market. Each Strategic Business Unit has mainly three aspects. The first characteristic is that one business unit or the combination of similar businesses needs the planning process independently. The second attribute is that it involves a separate manager or a person who is responsible for taking care of the performance, profits and planning of that specific business and also looking for the reasons which are affecting the revenue of the business. The last component is that every single business has different competitors depending on the business.
Resources for SBUs
As it has been viewed that many companies have number of SBUs, the idea of classifying them is to establish particular strategies for each business unit and assigning the budget or funds to the whole business. As per the revenue potential, the higher managers usually apply different tools for the analysis of their all SBUs. There are many models like Boston consulting group matrix, general electric approach etc are used for the evaluation of the portfolio of business. The famous Boston Consulting Group (BCG) model will be used as an example.
Figure: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix (Jeff Tanner, 2012)
The Boston Consulting Group matrix is one of the commonly used tool. Most of the companies use this tool for the evaluation of their SBUs on the basis of: (1) market growth of SBUs, that is, the growth rate of the unit in comparison to its competitor, (2) the market share of the SBU, that is, the share of the SBU within the market comparing to their competitor. The BCG matrix has four divisions which is clear from the figure: questions marks, stars, dogs and cash cows (Jeff Tanner, 2012).

• Dogs: In this low investment is needed but the output is also low. So, it can be said that this category is not very productive.
• Question Marks: These are also called ‘Problem Children’. It has low market and high market growth and when a company starts then it has to invest more and it is always unsure that how it would work. So, companies have to think more whether it would be profit potential to keep putting money in these business.
• Stars: Stars have high market growth rate and become a leader of the market. It can be possible that the business was a question mark earlier yet it cannot be said that it will always be an assured cash flow. The companies have to invest more to cope up with the market growth, to keep everything in place and up to date and compete their competitors.
• Cash Cows: There is more chances of profit generation in cash cows and these cash cows could be previously stars. It is helpful in reimbursing the bills of the company and other businesses can also be supported with this (Kotler, 2002).

So, it can be said that this matrix is helpful in forming the overview or blueprint of the each business unit. It gives an idea to the manager of the business that how much funds are needed for the SBU and how much it would be successful as compare to its competitor. That is why before taking action for business companies make plans and evaluate the same to avoid loss and other threats.
In business strategic planning, it is important to plan for each SBU critically. It includes the mission statement of business, SWOT analysis, setting up goals, formation of strategy and formulation of program.

• Mission statement of Business: Each business unit requires a particular mission from the overall mission of the company
• SWOT analysis: As a strategic tool, SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis is very helpful to manage the better performance of the company. SWOT analysis can be used for any business to get the reflection about their own. It is always necessary to work on strengths and weaknesses within the company and opportunities and threats outside the company (Robert A. Peterson, 2011). The opportunities and threats are the external factors while the strengths and weaknesses are the internal factors. Companies can make best use of the available opportunities in the market and sustain the business. The company can ignore the minor threats but the major ones cannot be ignored and the company has to monitor them carefully and makes changes according if there is any need (Kotler, 2002). Companies have to evaluate its own strengths and weaknesses after a period of time to make better use of opportunities in the market and to avoid unexpected threats. Sometimes the different departs have to work as team to get the best and to achieve their objectives. After SWOT analysis, the company will get the knowledge about its own strengths and opportunities available in market and avoiding the threats and to diminish the weaknesses.
• Setting up goals: The formulation of goal is a crucial step and after the SWOT analysis is done, company can move further for the formation of goals for a particular period of time. The goals are must be effective and for this the goals must be very consistent, realistic, need be arranged in a hierarchy to make it very much clear and quantitatively stated.
• Formation of strategy: The marketing strategies are followed after the goals of the business are formulated. This helps in concluding that what the business unit targets to attain. So, the strategies basically illustrate the overview or a plan for the goal achievement. For example, Coca-Cola has different marketing strategies for each product as per their target market and target customers.
• Formulation of program: When the market strategies goes well, as per it was structured then this will support the programs. The programs are formulated according to the business unit like if it is related to technology then the focus would be on R&D, intelligence related to technology and more. Later, the costs are assessed by the marketing managers of the business.

Marketing implementation is a process which directs the marketing plan in to the action and it assures that the plans has been achieved as per the formed objectives. The implementation is very important step otherwise it is worthless to put efforts on strategy and program formulation. The strategy of the business unit directs: who, when, where and how. So, it becomes important to make sure that every step goes as per it has been planned (Philip Kotler, Marketing Management, 2012).
2.2.3 Marketing Controlling
It is a process which is useful to determine the actions and programs outcomes and modifying them if there is any necessary. The marketing control can be:

• Annual controlling analyze that whether the sales, profits and goals have been achieved by the business as mentioned or not. The different levels are set by the companies like goal setting on monthly or for half year, monitoring them, evaluating them and taking corrective actions. This model of controlling is applied to organization’s every level.

Figure: Controlling Process (Philip Kotler, Marketing Management, 2012)

• Profit controlling calculates the profits of the business from products, groups of customers and other means and makes decisions about whether to expand the business or not. Also, manages that which segments are need to be diminish.
• Efficiency controlling reports that if there is less or no profit then finding out more productive ways for the regulation of sales force, advertisement and other ways of communication.
• Strategically controlling includes the auditing of the market and calculating that how strategically it is performing. It is done after a particular period of time to attain market excellence (Philip Kotler, Marketing Management, 2012).

It is essential for business to perform evaluation and controlling as it helps the business to get an impression about the results and doing changes accordingly. As Peter Drucker said that it is important to perform effectively rather than efficiently, that is, “Do the right thing” (effectively) rather than “To do things right” (efficiently) (Kotler, 2002).

3. Marketing Evaluation

The evaluation of marketing is performed by every business to get a picture of its success and to get an overview about the changes in marketing practices if there is any need for it.
3.1 Evaluation
Evaluation is very important for any business or task as it serves many purposes. It is a process used for conclude the degree of successfulness of the objectives. In other words, it can also be said that it is a series of actions which take place to get the results and to know the extent of attainment of business objectives (Steele, 1970).
3.1.1 Purpose and need of Evaluation
Evaluation plays an important role in marketing. Without evaluation, it becomes difficult to judge the expected results which were planned before. Also, it would be difficult to get an idea that which strategies are need to be corrected. Evaluation benefits marketing by providing the unexpected results and the quality evaluation is useful in providing the feedback which helps to reform the policies, programmes and strategies (UNDP, 2009).
In this constantly changing environment, it is important for the business to do time to time evaluation as it keeps the business sustainable and updated according to the environment. To achieve the success of the business, one has to move and plan as per the current environment. For example, Motorola was quite inactive when it comes to new technologies which were followed and installed by Nokia and other companies in their mobile phones. So, the companies has to suffer if they do not put themselves into the uncertain environment (Kotler, 2002).
3.1.2 Evaluation Methods
Companies use different methods for evaluating the success of their business. These methods are chosen according to the need that what the analyst wants to know. The different types are:
Process Evaluation: This shows the performance of the program and also give the knowledge about the level of implementation as it was structured. It initially indicates about the threats or problems which may take place (CDC).
Summative Evaluation: The main focus is on results and imprint but usually it is incorporated with the effectiveness. This tells about the level of effectiveness of the program on the behavior of the people which are selected (Sartorius, 2013).
Impact Evaluation: The impact evaluation is a sub-part of the summative evaluation. Impact evaluation has two groups, that is, treatment group and control group. The number of goods and services, in relation to technical support, are received by the treatment group including financial support, trainings by effort which is not for the control group. The total impact of effort is calculated by comparing both group’s performance and status (Sartorius, 2013).
Regional or Global program Evaluation: This is mainly for the businesses which have daughter branches regionally or globally. This is constructed to check the results and attainment of the main region or the sub-region of the programs based globally to get an overview of conclusions and findings (Sartorius, 2013).
Evaluating Economically: In this, the results of the used resources within the program and its indirect and direct costs are compared (CDC).
3.2 Evaluation concept
The concept of evaluation includes the good understanding of the roles of stakeholders in evaluation process, when to evaluate and resources needed for the evaluation.
3.2.1 Timing and Resources for evaluation
The timing of evaluation is also set at the time of planning process. The evaluation timing is directly related to its use and purpose. For performing evaluation, there is need of financial and human resources. The finances are managed at the time of planning of financial of the business or project. The costs are always related with the business or project size, its purpose and other characteristics. There are persons who execute the process but it is always as per the need that the business or project needs a skilled or expert people or the staff is able to perform it.
3.2.2 Role of stakeholders
In an evaluation plan, it is important that stakeholders must take part whenever there is need. Apart for this, they are involved in making the draft of the evaluation Terms of Reference (ToR), choosing the evaluators, providing proper guidance if the need and also information to the evaluators, controlling the draft of the evaluation and much more. So, the stakeholders and partners plays an important role in evaluation process (UNDP, 2009).
3.3 Selected dimensions for Marketing Evaluation
There are many ways for marketing evaluation but out of many only few will selected in this study to get an idea how these dimensions are helpful in marketing evaluation.
3.3.1 Marketing Strategies
The marketing strategy is the base for the marketing plan. The marketing strategies of the company is the combination of all the objectives of the company into a complete marketing plan. A valuable and excellent marketing strategy includes a sound market research and a keen focus on the all elements of marketing mix to sustain the business and achieve high profits. So, every company has its own employees who are marketing specialist and works on different marketing practices to maximize the profits of the company. The company must have very effective marketing strategies and marketing mix to gain the opportunities available in the market (A. Parasuraman, 2007).
Every business is designed according the target customer and target market. For instance, it is also discussed before the world famous car company Audi framed its marketing strategies according to the Indian market and taste of Indian customers. The company had targeted about 8,000 cars to sell but almost 9,003 cars were sold (ICMR, IBS Center for Management Research, 2013). The main reason was the understanding and implementation of the marketing strategies. Their sales also touched the sky and the company was relished with high profits from Indian markets with huge number of car sales.
3.3.2 Marketing Mix
Marketing mix is the another dimension selected for the marketing evaluation process. The marketing mix plays an important role in marketing. After the formulation of the objectives of the business, the next step is to find the ways to achieve those objectives. The marketing mix is a tools which helps to give an overview about the marketing strategies into the programs of marketing for further actions. Marketing mix has mainly four components: Product, Price, Place, Promotion.
Figure: 4Ps of Marketing Mix

• Product: It is a primary component and a bridge between the customer and company. A product can be a service or an object which satisfies the buyer and allows him to connect with the company. To achieve his, companies has to upgrade and sometimes change the product as per the changing needs, wants and demands of the buyer. This change is also important for the company to remain in market and to compete their competitors.
• Place: After the product has been finalized, the decisions are made about the distribution of the final product to the target customer. The process includes different channels of distribution, means of transportation, different sites of distribution and more.
• Promotion: It involves the advertisement, promotion of sales, selling personally etc. The essential query for the channels of distribution is about the better connection among outer and inner channels (Burnett, 2008).
• Price: This is the first mode of attraction for the customers as it makes them believe that the company is pricing fairly. Secondly, it is also the good tool for competing and being at better position in the market. This includes discounts, sales, payback etc (Bahman Saeidi Pour, 2013).
  Every company has to frame their marketing mix according to the target market and their target customers. The marketing mix contributes managers or senior management to have prepared checklist and provides guidance that when they have to consider the different queries related to marketing and dealing with them (Borden, 1984). As mentioned in the above study, when Starbucks entered in Japan before touching the sky they have done great marketing research and followed the components of marketing mix perfectly. In the end, the coffee shops are running successfully and making profits too (Malhotra, 2010).

3.3.3 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
KPIs are helpful in measuring the performance of the company and for the companies it is crucial to perform these measures to get an idea about their business performance. The key performance indicators are the different measures which be quantitative or qualitative, it helps the company to check its performance in contrast to its goals. These can be sub-divided and keep as target in terms of the achievement of the persons and by departments within the company. Afterwards, the performance can be measured timely. The different aspects KPIs are that they are specific, attainable, realistic, time bound and many more (Guidline 3: Key Performance Indicators , 2010). It is important to measure the performance by KPIs as it is helps in better decision making by providing the information about the usage of resources effectively and efficiently. It also provide the transparency at the level of higher management and also for stakeholders and there are many other benefits of the measurement of performance with the usage of KPIs. The type KPIs varies as per their need. The different types are:

• Lagging and Leading: The main focus behind KPI plan is to increase the performance and dealing with some threats or uncertainty and it is further done by indicating the performance of future, that is, lead, instead of the previously achieved results that is lag. With the help of type of lead it is easy to identify the future results.
• Qualitative and Quantitative: The measurement of performance is not always objective or quantitative like the number of units sold or the quantity of the product etc. Sometimes, it is subjective or qualitative like getting the reviews or feedback of the consumers, measuring the extent of performance or achievement.
• Efficiency and Effectiveness: The effectiveness is the extent of which the communicator or talker meets its obligations regarding quality and quantity of output. The efficiency is the how strongly the use of available funds and resources are being used to increase the productivity.
• Strategic and Operational: The operational KPIs are mainly for the short-term activities and their main focus is at the low level but the reporting is done often. The strategic KPIs are for the long-term proficiency and these are for the higher level in the company and reporting is not done very often (Barbuio, 2001).

There are other kinds of KPIs too which are followed by companies to measure their performance. The KPIs also vary according to the need of business. It can be said that the KPIs plays an important role to measure the performance of the business, people or departments within the companies etc. So, to get the knowledge about the performance, to overcome the risks and for the betterment of future, companies perform this as per their set time intervals (Peterson, 2006).
There are many business examples globally which put efforts on their marketing strategies, marketing mix and measure their performance for being stable in the market. For this study, Starbucks Corporation (World famous company for coffee) will be used as a business example. Starbucks is an American company and was founded in 1971. The company is world renowned retailer and marketer of coffee which is their specialty. The company has employed around 182,000 workers with licensed stores in 62 different countries. The company has divergent varieties in their product mix which includes globally known home-made (handcrafted) and roasted superior coffee, range of different fresh food items, tea and other drinks or beverages. The company also sells its products in many stores with its own name and also has other brands like Teavana, Starbucks VIA and many more. As per the report of 29 Sep 2013, the overall revenue of the company was $14.89 billion.
The retail market is an external factor which has influence on the industry too. Like, in 2009, due to economic crisis and the change in preferences and taste of the customer the industry faced a decline of 6.6 per cent in the revenue. But before this happened, the company was steady and have not faced such declination. As there was economic crisis, people avoided highly-priced drinks and coffee due to less budget. Still the industry grew from 2008 until 2013 with an average slow annual growth rate of 0.9 per cent. It has been also shown in Appendix 1 that Starbucks with a market share of 36.7 per cent dominates the industry as compare to brand Dunkin (24.6 per cent) and other brands or opponents like Costa Coffee, McDonalds etc. As the company Starbucks is growing with a market share of 60 per cent as compare to other brands, it shows that the company is in the mature stage. The external factor is the prices of coffee beans, in current years, it has also took a hike due to the increase in demand in different countries. It is also estimated that in coming years the prices may decrease and this will generate high revenue and low market costs. The high risk of substitutes is also another external factor for the company. The substitutes of coffee are juices, tea or other beverages. People can also make their own coffees at home and another substitute is new bars, coffee shops with drinks and beverages also increase stress to the company.
The internal factors include the strategies and SWOT analysis of the industry. Starbucks is well recognized worldwide.
Strengths of the company are many but few of them includes:

• Its strong position in market and recognition around the world. In 2013, the company was on 91st rank in best global brands.
• The product quality is premium and the location of the stores is planned also strategically with most prime locations like with high visibility, much traffic locations.
• Availability of free Wi-Fi, good music, service and ambience.
• Good management of HR is another strength and the company was on 91st position among 100 by Fortune Magazine for the best places to work.
• Great social responsibility and product mix variety is another strength.

Weaknesses are also there, as no company is hundred per cent perfect. A few are:

• The products of Starbucks are quite expensive.
• Due to negative image of the corporation, they have to put more efforts and invest more in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities.
• The clash in the culture of coffee among European and Americans.
• The company is operating 8078 coffee stores in United States so the company is over dependence on US as the generation of revenue is much high from there.

Opportunities are always there in the market but the companies need to recognize them and use them accordingly.

• The opportunity to expand in the developing countries like in India with a joint venture with TATA, Starbucks is expanding.
• The company can also add more variety in their product mix and extend their brand value globally.
• The company can also include new channels of distribution and increase the revenue.