Chapter 9 Lecture Notes
Marketing Implementation and Control
Chapter 9: Marketing Implementation and Control
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
A. Beyond the Pages 9.1 discusses implementation, evaluation, and control at Green
Mountain Coffee.
B. Throughout the history of business, many firms and their top executives have
emphasized strategic planning at the expense of strategic implementation.
C. Marketing implementation is the process of executing the marketing strategy by
creating and performing specific actions that will ensure the achievement of the
firm’s marketing objectives.
D. To track the implementation process, firms must have ways of evaluating and
controlling marketing activities, as well as monitoring performance to determine
whether marketing goals and objectives have been achieved.
II. Strategic Issues in Marketing Implementation
A. Marketing strategies almost always turn out differently than expected.
1. Intended marketing strategy is what the firm wants to happen—it is the
firm’s planned strategic choices that appear in the marketing plan itself.
2. Realized marketing strategy is the strategy that actually takes place.
3. More often than not, the difference between the intended and the realized
strategy is a matter of the implementation of the intended strategy.
B. The Link Between Strategic Planning and Implementation
1. Interdependency
a) Although it is true that the content of the marketing plan
determines how it will be implemented, it is also true that how the
marketing strategy is to be implemented determines the content of
the marketing plan.
b) Certain marketing strategies define their implementation by
default.
2. Evolution
a) Like the firm’s strategy, marketing implementation must adapt to
constantly changing environmental factors.
b) Because planning and implementation are intertwined, both must
constantly evolve to fit the other.
c) Marketing implementation, much like the development of
marketing strategy, often results from trial and error.
3. Separation [Exhibit 9.1]
a) Middle- or upper-level managers often do strategic planning;
however, the responsibility for implementation almost always falls
on lower-level managers and frontline employees.
b) Top executives often do not understand the unique problems
associated with implementing marketing strategy.
Chapter 9 Lecture Notes
Marketing Implementation and Control
C. The Elements of Marketing Implementation [Exhibit 9.2]
1. Marketing Strategy—the firm’s planned marketing program.
2. Shared Goals and Values—the “glue” of successful implementation—they
bind the entire organization together as a single, functioning unit.
3. Marketing Structure—refers to the methods of organizing a firm’s
marketing activities, the formal lines of authority, and the division of labor
within the marketing function.
a) Centralized structure—the top of the marketing hierarchy
coordinates and manages all marketing activities and decisions.
b) Decentralized structure—the frontline of the firm coordinates and
manages marketing activities and decisions.
4. Systems and Processes—collections of work activities that absorb a
variety of inputs to create information and communication outputs that
ensure the consistent day-to-day operation of the firm.
5. Resources—include a wide variety of tangible and intangible assets that
can be brought together during marketing implementation.
6. People (Human Resources)—the quality, diversity, and skill of a firm’s
human resources can also make or break implementation.
a) Employee selection and training—matching employees’ skills and
abilities to the marketing tasks to be performed.
b) Employee evaluation and compensation—tying employee rewards
to performance levels on required marketing activities.
c) Employee motivation, satisfaction, and commitment—the extent to
which employees have the motivation to implement the strategy,
their overall feelings of job satisfaction, and the commitment they
feel toward the organization and its goals.
7. Leadership—how managers communicate with employees, as well as how
they motivate their people to implement the marketing strategy.
8. Beyond the Pages 9.2 discusses how today’s CEOs have to have the
courage to look at the long-term success of their businesses.
III. Approaches to Marketing Implementation [Exhibit 9.3]
A. Implementation by Command
1. The firm’s top executives develop and select the marketing strategies,
which are transmitted to lower levels where frontline managers and
employees implement them.
2. Advantages of this approach:
a) It makes decision making much easier.
b) It reduces uncertainty as to what is to be done to implement the
marketing strategy.
3. Disadvantages of this approach:
a) It does not consider the feasibility of implementing the strategy.
b) It divides the firm into strategists and implementers, and does not
consider how strategy and implementation affect each other.
c) It can create employee motivation problems.
Chapter 9 Lecture Notes
Marketing Implementation and Control
B. Implementation Through Change
1. Executives focus explicitly on implementation by modifying the firm in
ways that will ensure successful implementation.
2. Advantages of this approach:
a) It is used successfully by many firms.
b) It achieves a good balance between command and consensus.
3. Disadvantages of this approach:
a) It still suffers from the separation of planning and implementation.
b) It may not fully resolve issues of employee motivation.
c) It can take a great deal of time to design and implement.
C. Implementation Through Consensus
1. Upper- and lower-level managers from many areas and levels work
together to evaluate and develop marketing strategies.
2. Advantages of this approach:
a) It moves some of the decision-making authority closer to the
frontline of the firm.
b) Lower-level managers often have a stronger commitment and
motivation to the strategy to see that it is properly implemented.
c) It can help to ensure the coordination of the strategy across the
entire firm.
3. Disadvantages of this approach:
a) It works best in complex, uncertain, and highly unstable
environments.
b) It often retains the barrier between strategists and implementers.
c) It requires ongoing, open communication within the firm—
something that may be difficult to achieve.
D. Implementation as Organizational Culture
1. Marketing strategy and its implementation become extensions of the firm’s
mission, vision, and organizational culture.
2. Advantages of this approach:
a) It completely dissolves the barrier between strategists and
implementers.
b) It makes implementation much easier to accomplish.
3. Disadvantages of this approach:
a) It requires a strong corporate culture—something that does not
happen overnight.
b) It requires extensive employee training and socialization.
IV. Internal Marketing and Marketing Implementation
A. The practice of internal marketing comes from service industries, where it was
first used as a means of making all employees aware of the need for customer
satisfaction.
Chapter 9 Lecture Notes
Marketing Implementation and Control
B. Internal marketing refers to the use of a marketing-like approach to motivate,
coordinate, and integrate employees toward the implementation of the firm’s
marketing strategy. The goals of internal marketing are:
1. to help all employees understand and accept their roles in implementing
the marketing strategy
3. to deliver external customer satisfaction
C. The Internal Marketing Approach
1. Every employee has two customers: external and internal. If the internal
customers do not receive proper information and training about the
strategy and are not motivated to implement it, then it is unlikely that the
external customers will be satisfied completely.
2. Unlike traditional approaches, the internal marketing approach places the
responsibility for implementation on all employees regardless of their
level within the firm.
D. The Internal Marketing Process [Exhibit 9.4]
1. The product, price, distribution, and promotion elements of the internal
marketing program are similar to the elements in the external program.
a) Internal products refer to marketing strategies that must be “sold”
internally, as well as to any employee tasks, behaviors, attitudes, or
values necessary to ensure implementation.
b) Internal prices include the increased effort and changes that
employees must exhibit in implementing the strategy. Employees
pay these prices through what they must do, change, or give up
when implementing the marketing strategy.
c) Internal distribution refers to the internal communication of the
marketing strategy.
d) Internal promotion involves communication aimed at informing
and persuading employees about the merits of the marketing
strategy.
2. The internal marketing approach requires an integration of many factors:
a) The recruitment, selection, and training of employees must be
considered an important part of implementation.
b) Top executives must be completely committed to the strategy and
the overall marketing plan.
c) Employee compensation programs must be linked to the
implementation of the marketing strategy.
d) The firm should be characterized by open communication among
all employees, regardless of their level in the firm.
e) The firm’s structure, policies, and processes should match the
marketing strategy.
V. Evaluating and Controlling Marketing Activities
A. Actual marketing performance typically differs from expected performance for
one of four reasons:
1. The marketing strategy was inappropriate or unrealistic.
Chapter 9 Lecture Notes
Marketing Implementation and Control
2. The implementation was inappropriate for the strategy.
3. The implementation process was mismanaged.
4. The internal and/or external environments changed substantially between
the development of the marketing strategy and its implementation.
B. Formal Marketing Controls [Exhibit 9.5]
1. Formal marketing controls are activities, mechanisms, or processes
designed by the firm to help ensure the successful implementation of the
marketing strategy.
2. Formal marketing controls are written and initiated by management.
C. Informal Marketing Controls [also Exhibit 9.5]
1. Informal controls are unwritten, employee-based mechanisms that subtly
affect the behaviors of employees, both as individuals and in groups.
a) Employee self-control—employees manage their own behaviors by
establishing personal objectives and monitoring their results.
b) Social control—the standards, norms, and ethics found in
workgroups within the firm.
c) Cultural control—the behavioral and social norms of the entire
firm.
2. Marketing implementation is most effective and efficient when every
employee, guided by the same organizational values or beliefs, has a
commitment to the same organizational goals.
3. Beyond the Pages 9.3 describes how formal and informal controls overlap
to promote risk management principles in today’s organizations.
D. Scheduling Marketing Activities
1. Successful implementation requires that employees know the specific
activities for which they are responsible and the timetable for completing
each activity.
2. Creating a master schedule of marketing activities can be a challenging
task because of the wide variety of activities required to execute the plan,
the sequential nature of many activities, and the fact that time is of the
essence in implementing the plan. [Exhibit 9.7]
Questions for Discussion
1. Forget for a moment that planning the marketing strategy is equally as important as
implementing the marketing strategy. What arguments can you make for one being more
important than the other? Explain your answers.
Chapter 9 Lecture Notes
Marketing Implementation and Control
Most students will argue that marketing strategy is more important. First, a firm must
2. If you were personally responsible for implementing a particular marketing strategy,
which implementation approach would you be most comfortable using, given your
personality and personal preferences? Why? Would your chosen approach be universally
applicable to any given situation? If not, what would cause you to change or adapt your
approach? Remember, adapting your basic approach means stepping out of your personal
comfort zone to match the situation at hand.
3. What do you see as the major stumbling blocks to the successful use of the internal
marketing approach? Given the hierarchical structure of employees in most organizations
(e.g., CEO, middle management, staff employees), is internal marketing a viable
approach for most organizations? Why or why not?
Exercises
1. Find a recent news article about an organization that changed its marketing strategy.
What were the reasons for the change? How did the organization approach the
development and implementation of the new strategy?
2. One of the best sources for shared goals and values to guide implementation is the firm’s
own mission or values statement. Find the mission or values statement for the
Chapter 9 Lecture Notes
Marketing Implementation and Control
organization you identified in Exercise 1. Do you see evidence of the mission or values in
the way the organization handled its change in marketing strategy? Explain.
3. Think about the unwritten, informal controls in your life. Develop a list of the controls
that exist at work, at home, or at school (or substitute another context such as church,
social gatherings, or public activities). Are these controls similar or different? Why?
Controls at Work
Controls at Home
Controls at School
Self-Control
(personal norms and
expectations for behavior)
Social Control
(norms and expectations
in small groups)
Cultural Control
(norms and expectations
in the entire organization)
Students usually struggle with this exercise because they have not considered the issue
before. The issue of self-control is especially challenging because this exercise asks them
to list the unwritten norms that guide their behavior.