Concept and Function

• What is the marketing concept being advised?
• What part does the marketing strategy play in corporate planning?
• How is the marketing policy evolved?
• How is the budget determined?
• What is the company’s marketing mix?
• What are the marketing tactics?
• Is there market segmentation?
• What is the marketing structure?

Advertising

• Is there an advertising campaign?
• What is the overall campaign plan?
• How have market survey results been applied?
• Does the plan include campaigns aimed at particular sections of the public?
• Which media will be used?
• Is there any below-the-line expenditure?
• How will the campaign be evaluated?
• What do the staff think of it?

Product/Service planning

• To what extent is market research applied to product/service planning?
• What are the sources for new product/service ideas?
• How is the product/service plan to be implemented?
• Is there any test marketing?

Distribution

• How is the distribution organised?
• How is the product/service distributed?
• How were the channels of distribution chosen?
• How are data on the whole distribution line collected, analysed, and acted on?
• Where are the outlets located and why?
• Are the goods exported? Where? Why? How? When?

Pricing

• What is the pricing policy?
• How did it evolve?
• What are the pricing objectives?
• Is it a sellers or buyers market – supply/demand?
• How does the price affect the consumer’s motivation?
• What are the industrial purchasing motives?
• Are there any alternative pricing policies?
• What place has pricing in the marketing mix?

Sales Forecasting

• How is sales forecasting used in organization planning?
• What factors influence forecasting?
• What are the information sources?
• What techniques are employed?
• What is the method of projection?
• How accurate has sales forecasting been?

Sales Force

• What are the objectives of those who market or sell?
• Are they aggressive, defensive, weak or strong?
• How is the sales force organised?
• How are staff recruited?
• How are staff trained?
• How do they implement the marketing concept (How are they motivated, what are their targets/incentives, do they have marketing manuals, do they hold marketing meetings, how effective are these meetings and what form do they take?
• What use is made of performance standards?
• What are the systems of communication and control?

Selling

• What selling techniques are used?
• What are the factors influencing marketing/sales?
• What is the effect of a buyer’s/seller’s market?
• What is the cost-effectiveness of promotional alternatives?
• What are the effects of scale of promotion?
• What is the influence of the market share?

Finance

• Is the company viable?
• If a public company, then is it growing financially?
• Does it have adequate finance?
• What are the financial aspects of the marketing campaign?
• How are financial decisions made?
• How are the marketing plans integrated into the overall budgetary system?
• How is the budget arrived at and controlled?
• How is the target profit planned?
• How are marketing costs analysed?
• Is there a break-even analysis?
• How is performance/return measured?
• What is the share/stock performance?
• What is the price-earnings ratio?

Production

• What are the marketing advantages that differentiate the organization’s production?
• What is the relationship between the marketing department and the production or service departments?