Marketing audit of Proctor and Gamble

Executive Summary
Marketing audit has become a common practice among many businesses as they undertake strategic planning in their marketing process. The audit aids in measuring an organization’s marketing capability as well as environmental threats and opportunities. This type of audit report is made up of a structure with detailed diagnostic steps of an organization’s marketing activities, marketing systems and the operating environment. The success derived from the provision of products and services by a business is usually determined either indirectly or directly by forces in its macro-environment.

The environmental factors encompassing the marketing operations being conducted by Proctor and Gamble comprise of national factors and aspects which play roles that massively impact on its marketing processes. Besides, the same environment is made up of political, economic, socio-cultural and technological (PEST) factors. It is important to mention that the current operating business environment for Proctor and Gamble is strongly characterized by high level of competition from its competitors such as Unilever, Kimberly-Clark, Johnson and Johnson, Clorox and Colgate-Palmolive. Careful application of the 4Ps marketing mix (product, price, promotion and place) should be established for greater competitive advantage.

Introduction
Marketing audit has become a common practice in strategic planning among many firms since the audit aids in measuring an organization’s marketing capability. Studies reveal that marketing audit has numerous potential benefits since it provides a detailed analysis of a business’ internal situation and external environment, an opportunity to identify future threats and opportunities and an objective evaluation of present activities and past performance. Streeter (2003, p. 70) indicates that a marketing audit report is made up of a structure with detailed diagnostic steps of an organization’s marketing activities, marketing systems and environment. This paper explores the marketing audit of Proctor and Gamble Company by evaluating its marketing environmental variables, operational variables, the macro-environment and micro environmental factors) are either out of control of the organization’s marketing strategists

Marketing environment
Schumann (2001, p. 93) notes that the marketing environmental factors are divided into three significant levels which include the national environment (macro-environment), meso-environment and the internal or micro-environment. It is imperative to note that a marketing environment is crucial to marketers in building both internal and external relationships through value addition.
Figure 1: A diagram showing a marketing environment