Briefly explain the concept of annual-plan control.
Annual-plan control ensures the company achieves the sales, profits, and other goals established in its annual plan. At its heart is management by objectives. First, management sets monthly or quarterly goals. Second, it monitors performance in the marketplace.
Third, management determines the causes of serious performance deviations. Fourth, it takes corrective action to close gaps between goals and performance. This control model applies to all levels of the organization. Top management sets annual sales and profit goals; each product manager, regional district manager, sales manager, and sales rep is committed to attaining specified levels of sales and costs. Each period, top management reviews and interprets the results.
Marketers today have better marketing metrics for measuring the performance of marketing plans. Four tools for the purpose are sales analysis, market share analysis, marketing expense-to-sales analysis, and financial analysis.