Benchmarking your marketing process

The marketing audit is widely regarded as a valuable diagnostic device in marketing planning. In theory it should be the starting-point for any considered course of managerial action in marketing. In practice there is often confusion about how to translate the principles of marketing auditing into tangible outcomes. The article clarifies the role of marketing auditing as an intervention that facilitates learning and transformation towards a culture of sustainable continuous improvement. In doing so it draws clear links between the means of marketing auditing, i.e., diagnosis, and its end, i.e., incremental organisational change. The author sets out an approach to process and practice in marketing auditing that places benchmarks and benchmarking at its centre. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.