Marketing control describes all of the actions taken by marketing managers who are interested in ensuring that marketing operations follow standards of quality, are cost effective, and profitable. While top level marketing managers and executives might be responsible for determining how operations are managed and evaluated, all members of a marketing department are, to some degree, integral in enacting marketing control. Some of the best tips for marketing control are to create a clear model of the ways in which a marketing department can be controlled and to designate specific positions within a marketing control workflow. It also is important to create stages for control model evaluation and reassessment.
It is common for marketing departments to have complex organizations, in which multiple facets, such as design, media, and finances, come into play. Many control models are based on specific goals or topics. Some models aim to control marketing budget, while others might focus on sales analyses and information systems. Managers might also have executive marketing control models that describe how all functions within a department interact with each other.
Marketing control models usually are illustrated as flow charts, in which a department's objectives are stated, followed by principles or standards, and including stages for implementation, leadership, evaluation, and optimization. During strategic planning sessions, marketing managers might revise control models to reflect changes in staffing or a redefinition of positions. After quality analysis of a marketing department is performed, managers might restructure models based on their findings.
Another important tip for marketing control is to assign specific positions with clear, defined responsibilities and procedures. It is important for all operations to be fully managed, which often means managers must carefully delegate tasks to competent marketing professionals. For example, one team member might be responsible for his or her team that performs quality evaluations, while another individual is responsible for applying evaluation data to reassessment of a process.
It can also be a good idea to maintain a marketing control model that is flexible. In other words, if a certain process is not thoroughly effective, a model should be able to get tweaked without having to be restructured completely. It also is important that a control model is able to adapt to changes in the industry. As new technology and forms of media are introduced, control models must be able change as well. A good way to do this is to build a stage for reassessment into a control model.