ABSTRACT
The job of marketing is to think from the market and client's point of view rather than from the firm's or partners' point of view. In the business plan managers have an internal focus — they are thinking about their aims, strategies, people, resources, technology and buildings and so on. This chapter summarizes the marketing audit process and tools. Sometimes, property businesses have an industrial and commercial sector approach — they concentrate on particular sectors, such as care homes, education, hotels, leisure. This requires a further piece of research and analysis. Often in the property industry, most of the useful competitor information will be in the heads of managers' people who are out there in the market talking to clients and intermediaries and observing, first hand, the actions or results of competitors. Many clients will use more than one property adviser and some may be willing to share their perceptions of the differences between firms.
