ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the efficiency and effectiveness of strategic marketing efforts. The efforts of sales managers, marketing researchers, advertising personnel, brand managers, and so on need to be closely co-ordinated if the control and evaluation process is to be successful. Sponsorship spend is a good example of how some areas of marketing have been difficult to evaluate and control. Control can be viewed negatively if individuals fear that the control process will be used not only to judge their performance but as a basis for punishment. Determining what to control (the parameters) is the start point of the control process. The purpose of annual plan control is to determine the extent to which marketing efforts over the year have been successful. Sales performance is understandably a key indicator of marketing effectiveness, and hence an essential element of annual plan control.
