Program for developing a company's marketing strategy
Developer: Pro-Invest IT
03/13/2003. The Pro-Invest IT company has stopped working on the development and distribution of the Marketing Expert program. There is currently no such product on the market.
Official presentation of the product by the developer
The system helps to assess the real position of the company in the market, conduct a comparative analysis of its sales activities with competitors, and formulate an optimal sales structure. The system allows you to determine the profitability of various market segments and products, the company's market share and its growth rate. You can set your desired profitability level, and Marketing Expert will calculate the cost of goods required to achieve it.
The use of generally accepted analytical techniques (GAP analysis, segment analysis, SWOT analysis, Portfolio analysis) provides invaluable assistance in developing optimal strategies and tactics for the company’s work in the market, assessing risks and calculating the main planned financial results. A strategic marketing plan developed using Marketing Expert can be used to forecast sales volumes in the Project Expert program.
Our review
This program is undoubtedly one of the most developed in terms of functional completeness and the only one that includes truly powerful analytical tools. The main idea behind the program is to build a virtual model of the market and the company operating in it. The model includes geographic distribution and market segmentation by consumer categories and competitors’ behavior patterns, and much more. The principle of working with the program is sometimes even closer not to the usual work of an analyst, but to a business game, because It is impossible to capture the entire picture of the model in your mind, and its behavior is monitored by the program itself. This idea, if it were fully and efficiently implemented, could lead to the emergence of a great product. However, the program has a number of disadvantages that significantly reduce its value:
1. The interface is extremely unprofessional; as a result, working with the model is inconvenient and the “game” component of the work disappears, i.e. the dynamics of work are lost. In some cases, working with the program completely obscures the user from working with the model. This limits the applicability of the tool to those projects in which it is too difficult to assess their prospects without building a complex marketing model.
2. The program works with large volumes of data, but does not offer good tools for collecting it and preparing it for input, so creating an acceptable model is an expensive operation and not always feasible.
For the above reasons, the program did not produce a flexible and high-quality tool. But it still looks quite acceptable as not the most convenient, but the most professional system. We can recommend getting acquainted with Marketing Expert even if you are not going to buy and use it - this is the best way to understand many of the principles of marketing analysis, evaluate their complexity and applicability for each specific case.
The Marketing Expert package is designed for conducting marketing analysis and has the appropriate tools (see Fig. 14).
Figure 14 Marketing Expert window
The Marketing Expert program solves marketing audit problems on the basis of relational databases.
Strategic marketing planning begins with an audit. A marketing audit, in turn, begins with the creation, using the tools of the Market Map program, on which the structural elements of the company (departments, sales channels), external market segments (territories, product groups, target consumer groups, competitors) and marketing activities from marketing mix defined for specific segments. By entering the Market Map, the user thereby segments the market and determines the main target groups of consumers, that is, takes the first step in a marketing audit.
Market Map objects are interconnected by connections that create a strict tree structure of a model of a company operating in several markets, having an extensive sales network and carrying out specific activities for specific segments. For each node (object) of the tree, you can enter information about sales of certain goods at certain prices and with certain discounts, as well as set the structure and enter information about marketing costs (operational and trade-administrative) for this particular object. This makes it possible to carry out operational financial calculations (sales income - costs) for any object of the Market Map, that is, to conduct the so-called segment profitability analysis, which is one of the main elements of a marketing audit. In this case, the calculation results at individual nodes of the tree are collected and summarized up the tree to the top, which is the company itself.
It is very important that the program’s tools allow you to quickly rebuild the structure of Market Map objects (introduce new segments for analysis, transfer information from old ones, etc.). This allows you to analyze various options for market segmentation, the company’s sales structure or activities from the marketing mix (Fig. 15).
After conducting a segmental profitability analysis, the user receives income and profit values for any market segment, structural division of the company, or can evaluate the effectiveness of specific activities from the marketing mix. As a result, the user gets the opportunity to conduct a comparative analysis of segments based on these criteria. Marketing Expert, using special dialogs, allows the user to conduct a multi-criteria comparative analysis of Market Map objects on 20 topics, which automatically include data on income and profit. The remaining criteria can be in the nature of expert assessments and are integral, that is, each criterion consists, in turn, of an unlimited number of subcriteria included in a linear convolution with certain weights. As a result of such a multi-criteria comparative analysis, there is an optimal distribution of resources (budget) between market segments or structural divisions of the company.
Figure 15 Market map with objects of the marketing mix type
A special type of expert comparative analysis is the so-called SWOT analysis, in which the expert evaluates his company and its closest competitors according to key success factors that determine advantages from the buyer's point of view. Marketing Expert contains a special dialog for conducting a SWOT analysis and printing its results.
Figure 16 Example GEM model
An important element of a marketing audit is the analysis of the company’s product portfolio and market segments using matrix models of Portfolio analysis. The results of the SWOT analysis, combined with an expert assessment of the Attractiveness of a Market Segment criterion, make it possible to construct a GEM matrix model (Fig. 16), designed to assess competitiveness (business strength) and attractiveness in specific market segments. Also, based on the calculated growth rates of specific market segments and relative market shares, the program allows you to build a BCG matrix model, intended primarily for assessing the company’s product portfolio. Marketing Expert contains a special window for displaying these matrices, setting their parameters, and printing. Thus, Marketing Expert contains the necessary tools for conducting standard marketing audit procedures and some specific tools (for example, a procedure for multi-criteria comparative analysis of segments) that are not described in the specialized literature and are the original inventions of the program creators.
The strategic marketing plan must contain certain standard forms (GAP analysis, SWOT analysis, multi-criteria Portfolio analysis, segment analysis). Marketing Expert's tools help you obtain and print all standard forms, and also provide you with a number of additional analysis capabilities for planning.
The solution to the problems of GAP analysis (gap analysis) is provided by storing in one project several options for the marketing plan, which are the implementation of the forecast, and four Anzoff strategies. In the special “GAP analysis” dialog, the user has the opportunity to select a plan option for which initial data on sales and costs will be entered. After this, when opening data entry dialogs for any “Market Maps” object, the name of the selected strategy is displayed in the title of the dialog panel. When selecting the next Anzoff strategy, it is possible to load data from the previous strategy. The user can only add the necessary activities specific to this strategy, the costs of these activities and projected income and compare its results with previous strategies and with the company’s goal, which is also entered in the “GAP analysis” dialog.
The "GAP analysis" dialog also allows you to collect information from all segments about the planned total quantity of all goods, by planning periods, if necessary, with corresponding prices and discounts. Such information is necessary primarily for developing an appropriate production plan. The "GAP analysis" dialog has the necessary graphical and printing tools that allow you to visually display the analysis results and obtain hard copies of them.
When you click the "Financial calculation" button, an operational calculation of profitability (sales income, costs) is carried out for the selected Market Map object. Thus, it is possible to calculate profitability by audit and planning periods of any structural division of the company, market segment (territory, target consumer group or product group) or Marketing mix event. When highlighting the “Company” object on the Map, carrying out a financial calculation means calculating the results of the corresponding strategy selected in the “GAP Analysis” panel.
SWOT analysis is carried out both at the audit stage and at the end of the planning period. Marketing Expert contains a special dialog that allows the user to conduct a comparative competitive analysis for any market segment in the initial and final planning periods. To do this, you first need to use connections to “pick up” objects of the “competitor” type to a given segment and set the key success factors for this market segment, and then put down the appropriate ratings for your company and for competitors on a ten-point scale. As a result, the user will receive the relative “business strength” of his company in this segment. In the same dialog, you can set the total percentage for all participants in the analysis and, as a result, receive an expert assessment of your market share. Note that this procedure is not included in the standard SWOT analysis and is an additional analysis tool. The user can get a clear graphical interpretation of comparative competitiveness.
Portfolio analysis matrix models (BCG, GEM) are not only audit tools, but also visual and convenient means of issuing strategic recommendations on product range or market segments, depending on their location in matrix models. The Boston matrix model not only provides general recommendations for a product depending on its location in the matrix (question marks, stars, money cows, dogs), which are actually recommendations for different phases of the product’s life cycle, but also provides specific advice on the marketing mix complex ( product, price, sales, promotion). A special integral criterion in multi-criteria comparative analysis performed for market segments is “Market Attractiveness”. An expert assessment of this criterion, combined with the “business strength” in a given segment, obtained as a result of a SWOT analysis, allows us to build a GEC matrix model that provides recommendations for investment, selective management or withdrawal of funds for market segments.
Marketing Expert allows the user to take into account the probabilistic nature of future events and thereby conduct an analysis of risk and uncertainty. The program allows you to set both the probabilistic nature of microenvironmental factors - sales revenue, operating and production costs (dialogue "Risk Analysis"), and macroenvironmental factors - market volume, market share (dialogue "Uncertainty Analysis").
The "Risk Analysis" dialog is also used to solve inverse problems for given results (income, profit, profitability), and determine the value of the initial parameters. In particular, the problems of finding cost-covering prices for a group of goods are solved. However, the company's cost recovery prices are only one of the criteria that can be used to find optimal prices.
Marketing Expert contains a built-in forecasting system that allows you to forecast (extrapolate) sales volume using one of the following methods:
Copying for a period is an extrapolation of a given period to the next with a certain growth step (it can be either positive or negative).
Exponential smoothing.
Model selection - one of eight mathematical models is selected for least squares smoothing and trend forecasting.
Seasonality - uses a simple model to take into account seasonal fluctuations by calculating seasonal coefficients.
Multiple regression.
Conclusions on the second chapter
Summing up the results of the research done on software and network resources, we conclude that they are not competitors. Most likely these are add-ons, and if there are still problems between the choice of software. Network resources are simply a must for a modern organization.
The software will allow you to analyze the data obtained, classify it, describe everything in detail and segment the markets. Network products provide an excellent opportunity at a relatively low cost to gain access to a huge audience, inform them about the news of the organization and much more. The appendix contains statistics on the development of company brands and the leading role in it is occupied by Google, the founder of Internet marketing. Now we think that the Internet has always existed, and with it there were Google, Yandex, forgetting that the first one huddled in a cramped dorm, and the second one made money by selling computers, not expecting that it would soon become the basis for its prosperity in Russia market.
Analysis of the company's competitiveness in the market
using the system "MarketingExpert»
Let's take a closer look at the main functionality of the Marketing Expert program.
Construction of a “Market Map”
One of the main advantages of the Marketing Expert program is the availability of a convenient tool for building a hierarchical model of a company. The system developers called this model the “Market Map”. Using the model designer, a marketing analyst gets the opportunity to model the company's market structure. The following types of objects can be located on the “Market Map”: “company” (only one object of this type can be located on the map), “department” (structural division of the company), “sales channel”. To plan market segments, you can place objects of the “territory”, “product” (product groups) and “consumer” types on the map. To conduct a SWOT analysis, you can enter objects of the “competitor” type into the “Market Map”. If the user intends to evaluate the contribution of specific marketing activities to the overall result of the company, then on the “Market Map” it is necessary to place objects of the type “Marketing mix” (“Marketing mix” or 4xP: Product, Price, Sales, Place), Promotion. As part of the formation of a company’s investment policy, it seems possible to evaluate the effectiveness of investment projects tied to a specific market segment. For this purpose, the program provides objects of the “IP” type (investment project).
Hierarchical connections must be established between the elements of the Market Map. The Marketing Expert system provides two types of connections. The first type is intended for building a tree structure of a company that has an extensive sales network and operates simultaneously in several market segments. The tree structure of the company model suggests that several connections can come out of one “Market Map” object, and only one can enter. Links of the first type have a pointer at the end that identifies the object where the link belongs. Connections of the second type are established between objects of the “competitor” type and other objects of the “Market Map”. For this type of connections, the rule for constructing a “tree” does not apply. The construction and editing of the “Market Map” is carried out using three tool panels. The view of the “Market Map” and the panels for editing it is presented in Fig. 1. Using these panels, you can construct a company model, that is, select the type of “Market Maps” objects, add and delete objects, give them names, establish connections between them, etc. Let's move on to consider the technology for solving the problem of assessing a company's competitiveness in the market (carrying out a SWOT analysis) using the “Marketing Expert” system.
Fig.1. View of the “Market Map” and dashboards /R1.bmp/
Carrying outSWOT- analysis using the system "MarketingExpert»
One of the most important tasks of audit and strategic marketing planning is the task of assessing the company’s position in the market relative to its main competitors or SWOT analysis. This task consists of formulating key success factors (KSF) to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the company. CFCs are factors that are critical to success in a given market (or market segment) from the consumer's perspective. Each CFU is assigned a weight corresponding to its degree of importance among all selected CFUs. The firm and its major competitors are then scored for each key success factor and total weighted scores are calculated using linear convolution rules. Each such weighted assessment is an integral characteristic of the market position of the corresponding enterprise (market participant) and is called “business strength”. The formula for calculating “business strength” is:
Where S - business strength;
i - KFU index;
Weight (degree of importance) i - KFU;
Meaning i - KFU;
n - number of CFUs.
As part of a SWOT analysis, the relative strength of a business can be calculated for a company and its competitors as the ratio of the strength of the company's business to the strength of the business of the most dangerous competitor.
If the business strength of the firm and its competitors is known, and the total market share occupied by the firm and its competitors is also known, then the market shares occupied by the firm and each of its competitors can be estimated. The calculation is based on the assumption that the size of an enterprise's market share is proportional to its business strength. For example, for the case of a company with three competitors in the market, the following relationships will be valid:
Where 0 - market share of the company (unknown value);
1 , 2 , 3 - market share of the first, second and third competitors of the company, respectively (unknown values);
S 0 - the strength of the company's business;
S 1 , S 2 , S 3 - business strength of the first, second and third competitors of the company, respectively.
The market share controlled by a firm is calculated using the formula:
where is the market share (total market percentage) occupied by the firm together with three competitors.
By substituting the value 0 into expressions (1) - (3), we can calculate the market shares of each competitor of the company using the formulas:
It should be taken into account that the estimates of the market shares of the company and its competitors obtained in this way are unlikely to coincide with the real values. It is possible to determine the exact values of market shares only if data on the actual sales volumes of the company and its competitors in the planning period are known. But at the stage of strategic marketing planning, such data cannot, in principle, be obtained, since information about actual sales volumes can be generated only after the implementation of the marketing plan. Therefore, when developing a marketing forecast plan, when the marketer-analyst is in conditions of significant incompleteness of information, it will be very useful to use approximate estimates of market shares proportional to the values of “business strength”.
Let's consider the technology of conducting SWOT analysis using the Marketing Expert program using a simple example of a business situation that is conditional in nature.
Example. Let the company "Print", which sells printing equipment, sell a certain model of a printing press in two market segments: "large printing houses" and "small printing houses". In these market segments, the company has three main competitors - manufacturers of similar printing machines from the Czech Republic, Germany and Japan. The company's marketers conducted market research and identified key success factors in each market segment. Using the method of expert assessments, marketers determined their weights and also assessed the company and its competitors for each KFU. To assess the weights of the KFU, a 50-point scale was chosen, and to evaluate the company and its competitors according to the list of KFU, a 30-point scale was chosen. In addition, the total market share occupied by the firm along with its competitors was determined. The value of this parameter is 60%. The results of marketing research for the “small printing houses” segment are presented in table. 1.
Market research results for the “small printing houses” segment
Table 1.
|
Key success factors (KSF) |
Firm "Print» |
Competitor 1 (Japan) |
Competitor 2 (Czech Republic) |
Competitor 3 (Germany) |
|
|
Brand awareness |
|||||
|
Quality |
It is necessary, based on the obtained initial data, to determine the “strength of the business” and the relative market shares of the company and its competitors in the selected market segment using the “Marketing Expert” system.
D
To implement the SWOT analysis procedure, you must first build a “Market Map” of the company. On this map (the company's market model) it is necessary to place an object of the "company" type (the "Print" company), two objects of the "consumer" type (large printing houses and small printing houses) and three objects of the "competitor" type (Czech Republic, Germany and Japan). Hierarchical connections are established between the elements of the “Market Map” - the company and market segments. For the segments for which a SWOT analysis will be carried out, it is necessary to “pick up” competitors. The computer screen view with the “Market Map” for the Print company is shown in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2 “Market map” for the company “Print” /R2.bmp/
To assess the competitiveness of a company in the market, the names of the KFUs, their weights and estimates of the KFUs for the company and its competitors are entered into the appropriate fields of the “SWOT Analysis” dialog panel. You should also enter the total percentage of the market occupied by the company together with its competitors. After all the necessary data has been entered, the program will calculate the following indicators for the company and its competitors: “business strength”, relative business strength (the ratio of the “business strength” of the company to the “business strength” of the most dangerous competitor), market share and relative market share ( the ratio of the market share of a given firm to the market share of its most dangerous competitor). View of the “SWOT - analysis” panel with input data and calculation results for segment p 
The market - “small printing houses” is presented in Fig. 3.
Fig.3. Dialog panel “SWOT analysis” with calculation results /R3.bmp/
The Marketing Expert program provides the ability to present the results of a SWOT analysis in graphical form. On one graph you can display the weights and values of the estimates for each KFU for the company and its competitors. The graph of weights and estimates of the CFU of Print and its competitors is presented in Fig. 4.
Fig.4. Presentation of SWOT analysis results in graphical form /R4.bmp/
From Figures 3 and 4 it is clear in which KFU the company is inferior to competitors and in what directions it is necessary to take measures to achieve a competitive advantage in the market: the most dangerous competitor (competitor “Germany”, which has the maximum business strength among three competitors) and competitor “Japan” are superior to the company "Print" in the field of brand awareness, service and product quality. To strengthen its competitive position in the market, the company must pay special attention to these factors when allocating investments. In terms of the “Product Price” factor, Print is superior to its competitors. The Print company should “bet” on this advantage when developing an advertising campaign.
The distribution of business strength and market shares occupied by the firm and its competitors can be represented in the form of pie charts. Diagrams of the distribution of business strength and market shares between the Print company and its competitors are presented in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6.
R
is.5. Distribution of market shares of Print and its competitors /R5.bmp/
R 
is.6. Distribution of "business strength" of Print and its competitors /R6.bmp/
From the charts, it can be seen that competitor "Germany", which has the maximum "business strength" among the three competitors, which is 16.93, controls the highest market share of 16.82%. Competitor Czech Republic, which has a minimum "business strength" of 11.89, has the lowest market share of 11.81%. Let us recall that in the “Marketing Expert” program, market shares are calculated using formulas (4) - (6), based on the assumption that the market share occupied by the enterprise is proportional to its “business strength”.
The “Marketing Expert” system allows you to print or export to Word the results of SWOT analysis in tabular and graphical forms. This information can be further used in various documents, reports, etc.
INTRODUCTION
In the economies of post-industrial countries, the center of gravity is increasingly shifting towards the service sector. In this area, information technology permeates literally everything. The newest mass media has become the Internet. The World Wide Web is also used for advertising and marketing activities, although the scale of these operations is still small compared to the traditional sector. The Internet allows you to get away from the business scheme of organizing information technology services in a company - its functions are transferred to application solution providers. This allows even small and medium enterprises to carry out complex marketing work with the help of expensive intelligent systems.
Only modern information technologies make it possible to almost instantly connect to any electronic array, obtain all the necessary information and use it for analysis, forecasting, and making management decisions in business, commerce, and marketing.
Currently, information permeates all areas of activity of economic and production entities. This fully applies to marketing management, where analysis, planning, implementation and control over a set of measures in order to achieve profitable exchanges with consumers of products and services, make a profit from them, increase sales volumes, and increase market share are based on high-quality information services all stages of marketing activities.
In this essay we will consider the program " Marketing Expert ", which is designed for planning, calculation and comparative analysis of investment projects in order to select the optimal form of financing. With its help, the profitability and profitability of the company are developed based on the created model, a product portfolio using various matrix models: BCG, GE, ADL and additionally created by users matrices, obtain a forecast of company sales volumes, create a marketing plan for implementing the strategy and estimate the costs of its implementation.
The goal is to study the Marketing Expert program in more detail.
To achieve the goal you need:
- determine the purpose of the system;
- identify the capabilities of the system;
- consider the principle of operation.
The object of the study is the program"Marketing Expert".
The abstract contains an introduction, main part, conclusion and a list of references.
The “Literature Used” section contains the literature that was used in writing the abstract.
1. Marketing Expert Program
The Marketing Expert program is a system of strategic planning and marketing audit. Marketing Expert allows you to:
? Create a model of the company's activities in the market, highlighting existing segments, products, sales channels and other important commercial characteristics.
? Determine the profitability of the company based on the created model.
? Conduct an analysis of the external environment, including analysis of consumers, competitors and assessment of the attractiveness of markets.
? Analyze the product portfolio using various matrix models: BCG, GE, ADL and additional user-created matrices.
? Perform a SWOT analysis - determine what the company’s strengths and weaknesses are, what its capabilities are, using the methodology built into the system.
? Get a forecast of company sales volumes.
? Identify promising strategic areas of development, taking into account target segments, product range and competitive advantages of the company.
? Create a marketing plan to implement the strategy and estimate the costs of its implementation.
? Obtain expert assessments of current and planned activities in the market by developing questionnaires and using them to conduct expert surveys.
? Monitor the implementation of the strategy by comparing planned and actual indicators.
? The Marketing Expert system is based on classical marketing theory and takes into account the needs of practical marketing in Russia.
The system was developed using well-known analytical techniques accepted throughout the world (GAP analysis, Segment analysis, SWOT analysis, Portfolio analysis), and solves everyday practical marketing problems. Marketing Expert is an invaluable consultant to a business manager, commercial director or sales manager. Marketing Expert allows you to master in practice the basic principles and methods of marketing analysis and planning.
The Marketing Expert system is successfully used in their activities by administrative bodies - the Department of Expertise of the Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation, the Economics Department of the Administration of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Administration of the Vologda Region; largest holdings and industrial enterprises - the Stinol refrigerator plant, the largest Russian manufacturer of elevator equipment "MOS OTIS", the Udarnitsa confectionery factory, the Adamas jewelry plant, the Kreker plant, the trade and publishing house "Russkoe Slovo", the enterprise "Gangway-furniture."
The Marketing Expert program is designed to solve two main functions:
1. Conducting a marketing audit: assessing the company’s real position in the market, comparing with competitors, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the sales structure, pricing policy.
2. Marketing planning: developing the optimal strategy and tactics of the company in the market using well-known analytical techniques (GAP analysis, segment analysis, SWOT analysis, Portfolio analysis, etc.).
In the process of implementing these functions, the user has the opportunity to solve the following particular problems:
assess the profitability of products for individual products and product groups, as well as the profitability and profitability of individual market segments;
calculate the total market volume for a product and its growth rate;
calculate prices for goods based on a given level of profitability of the enterprise;
optimally distribute products across distribution channels.
2. Purpose and main features of Marketing Expert
The Marketing Expert decision support system is designed to develop strategic and tactical marketing plans, as well as to monitor the execution of these plans.
DSS is applicable to enterprises of any scale, industry and infrastructure. In this case, the user (marketer) is provided with the following basic capabilities:
? Modeling the activities of a company with a complex sales structure. It is assumed that the company operates simultaneously in several markets, has competitors and carries out marketing mix activities for target consumer groups;
? Selecting a goal and searching for a strategy to achieve it by building matrix models of BCG and DPM to develop strategic recommendations on the product range and the attractiveness of market segments;
? Selection of price options to cover total costs for a group of goods for a given company profit;
? Optimal distribution of marketing budget using multicriteria optimization procedures.
Marketing planning using the Marketing Expert DSS is based on the use of GAP methods - analysis, SWOT analysis, multi-criteria Portfolio analysis, optimal distribution of the marketing budget, risk and uncertainty analysis, selection of the necessary input parameters for a given margin.
The Marketing Expert program includes a set of tools for reflecting cost accounting by company infrastructure divisions and market segments. Since a market segment can also be a separate product, the program allows you to solve the problem of determining production costs, i.e. supports management accounting.
The program supports teamwork on a corporate marketing plan. Several departments can independently plan their actions while being in the same project. When updating, actual data can be entered by company divisions, and generalized plan estimates can be calculated automatically.
In order to ensure optimal price planning, the program supports the solution of inverse problems, for example, given the profit of the entire company, you can find price options for individual goods.
In a more general formulation, Marketing Expert solves the problem of multi-criteria optimal price planning, i.e. the problem of finding optimal price options for a group of goods, while satisfying several criteria, both quantitative and qualitative (profit, profitability, demand, competitiveness, etc.).
Solving the problems of marketing audit is the beginning of strategic planning.
It involves creating a market map. The map contains the structural elements of the company (departments, sales channels), external market segments (territories, product groups, target consumer groups, competitors) and marketing activities from the marketing mix, defined for specific segments.
The market mapping procedure is a practical market segmentation in which the main target consumer groups are identified. Objects (segments), together with their connections plotted on the map, form the tree structure of the company model. The leaves and nodes of a tree are segments that can have a single set of properties and different property values.
Rice. 1 “Market map”.
Segmental profitability analysis for any market map object is one of the main elements of a marketing audit. The comparison of sales income and costs is ensured by the fact that each segment has original property values: data on sales, prices, discounts, marketing costs.
The main capabilities of the Marketing Expert program are supported by a special graphical preprocessor for creating a market map, which allows you to display the company's infrastructure elements, target consumer groups and competitors. Raw data and analysis results can be shown directly on the market map using the legend editor. Graphical tools of the program allow you to quickly modify the market map (add segments, enlarge or divide them). Associated database description tools and computational tools of the program provide research into various options for the company's sales structure.
- 3. Classification of Marketing Expert Program Families
Marketing Expert- a set of analytical tools for building a marketing plan (BCG, SWOT, etc.), preparing a financial plan for the company’s marketing activities.
Marketing GEO- maintaining and analyzing marketing information.
Marketing Analytics- a specialized OLAP client for analyzing marketing data by markets, products, etc.
Rice. 2 Marketing Expert family of programs
This family of programs is undoubtedly the most developed in terms of functional completeness and the only one that includes truly powerful analytical tools. The main idea behind the program is to build a virtual model of the market and the company operating in it. The model includes geographic distribution and market segmentation by consumer categories and competitors’ behavior patterns, and much more.
The program has a number of disadvantages that significantly reduce its value:
1. The interface is extremely unprofessional; as a result, working with the model is inconvenient and the “game” component of the work disappears, i.e. the dynamics of work are lost. In some cases, working with the program completely obscures the user from working with the model. This limits the applicability of the tool to those projects in which it is too difficult to assess their prospects without building a complex marketing model.
2. The program works with large volumes of data, but does not offer good tools for collecting it and preparing it for input, so creating an acceptable model is an expensive operation and not always feasible.
Rice. 3 Marketing GEO - GIS + analytics
Separately, a few words should be said about the GEO and Analyst systems. They implement a set of functionality that has existed for a long time, but only within large systems.
- 4. Information products and resources of the Marketing Expert program
? Marketing audit:
? business mission, segment analysis,
? SWOT analysis;
? marketing goals and strategies;
? risk analysis.
The information resources of the Marketing Expert program are formed during the modeling of the marketing database and determining the properties of its objects. The Marketing Expert program provides the marketer with the opportunity to independently model the marketing information space, thanks to a special model designer tool. The advantages of this work are: complete visualization of the model creation process, good and constant visibility of the model, easy access to each object of the information space, a large set of special operations with objects, information exchange between objects and algorithmic connections between them.
The type of visualized database is a marketing map of the market. The model designer toolbar is called up on the screen by activating a button (with an image of an image of a tool - a hammer and a screwdriver) located on the main toolbar. This button simultaneously opens and overlays three panels on the screen (Tools, segment types, text), which can be moved anywhere on the screen.
Each graphic object of the market map in marketing terms is one of the marketing segments. Segments can have relationships, types, and a number of properties. Connections are defined by lines connecting segments.
Infrastructure type segments are: company, department, sales channel. Market segments, i.e. market segments are: territories, products, target consumer groups, competitors. Each of the seven types is assigned to a segment by clicking the corresponding icon button on the Segment Types toolbar.
Greater capabilities of the model are provided by the concept and tools for assigning properties to each object. Properties are defined in the "Operational Data" and "GAP Analysis" dialogs. The special root dialog “Operational Data” contains a tree of dialogs: Sales volume, Marketing costs, Production costs, Text description. The nested dialog “Sales Volume” has detailing tabs:
Products, Prices, Quantities, Losses, Market.
Each tab opens a specialized table to fill out and provides additional options. The nested dialog “Marketing Costs” allows you to reflect items of marketing costs in tables of a specialized form:
? Administrative,
?Advertising,
?Sales promotion,
?Public relations.
The dialogue “Production Costs” details this type of costs into two items: “Variable” and “Fixed”.
Data on any costs can be specified or summarized in amounts or in very detail, taking into account a large set of units of measurement and various reflection schemes (total amount, list of items, per operational unit, per unit of goods). An example of an operational unit would be an invoice.
To collect and summarize data, you can set a specific reporting period. The “Reporting period” dialog opens with a button with a dial symbol.
You can enter a list of products, a list of prices (several prices for one product are allowed), discounts from each price, sales volumes taking into account discounts. To enter data for future periods on prices and sales volumes, a forecasting system is built into the segment properties description dialog, which allows you to select a forecasting method.
The program allows the properties of one segment to be copied to other segments. In this case, the databases of these segments turn out to be linked databases, i.e. changing the property values of the original segment will automatically cause changes in other segments to which the original data was copied.
Defining and modeling marketing strategies is the most important function of the Marketing Expert program. Let us recall that a marketing strategy is a rational, logical structure, guided by which an organizational unit intends to solve its marketing problems. It covers strategies by target markets, marketing mix and level of marketing spend.
The characteristic features of marketing modeling using the Marketing Expert program are that each segment is given a specific marketing property - strategy, and special software tools are used to record and develop the results of adopting several strategy options for each segment. This marketing technique is based on the most important management principle - before making a decision, it is necessary to analyze several alternatives.
The choice of strategy in the Marketing Expert program is carried out in a special GAP analysis dialog, which opens with the button of the main toolbar (the button for providing a line graph symbol with several strategy lines).
- 5.Analytical methods and models in the Marketing Expert program
To speed up the formation of a data set for one strategy, you can load data from any other strategy, add the original activities of the new strategy, their costs, projected income, and compare the results with previous strategies, as well as with the company’s goal entered in the “GAP analysis” dialog. Using the “GAP analysis” dialog to develop a production plan, you can summarize the indicators of all segments, obtaining the total quantity of all goods by planning periods with prices and discounts. The “GAP analysis” dialog has graphical and printing tools.
Segment analysis involves an operational calculation of profit (sales revenue minus costs) for any selected object for which a strategy has been defined and the values of other properties have been entered in the “Operational Data” dialog. After the “Operational Data” dialog (i.e., after entering data on sales volumes, prices, losses, costs, etc.), you can solve the main task of segment analysis, which is included in the marketing audit, i.e. Analyze the revenues and profits of each segment.
The calculation is initialized by the “Financial calculation” button (on the main toolbar it is equipped with a calculator symbol).
You can calculate profitability by audit periods and planning periods of any structural division of a company or market segment (territory, target consumer group or product group), as well as by Marketing mix activities. If the “Company” object is selected on the map, then the financial calculation of the results is performed according to the corresponding strategy selected in the “GAP analysis” panel.
SWOT analysis is a comparative competitive analysis of key success factors, carried out both at the audit stage and at the end of the planning period. For this purpose, there is a special dialog in the Marketing Expert program, with which you can analyze any market segment. Before organizing this dialogue, first, on the market map, it is necessary, using connections, to “pick up” objects of the “competitor” type to the analyzed segment and set key success factors (KSF) for this market segment. In addition, the table should indicate the values of the corresponding ratings (on a ten-point scale) for your company and for competitors. As a result, an indicator of the relative “business strength” of your company in this segment will be formed. If you set the total percentage for all participants in the comparative analysis, you can get an expert assessment of your market share (the latter procedure is not included in the standard SWOT analysis and is an additional tool of the Marketing Expert program).
Portfolio analysis ensures the formation of the most important integral criterion “Market Attractiveness” based on a multi-criteria comparative analysis of segments. The Marketing Expert program provides an expert assessment of the attractiveness of the market in conjunction with the “Business Strength” indicator in this segment (the program uses elements of artificial intelligence). The assessment is also formed using the results of a SWOT0 analysis, which subsequently makes it possible to build a DPM matrix model or a matrix model.
Risk and uncertainty analysis is carried out taking into account the likelihood of future events. It is possible to set the probabilistic nature of microenvironmental factors (sales income, operating and production costs - in the “Risk Analysis” dialogue), as well as macroenvironmental factors (market volume, market share - in the “Uncertainty Analysis” dialogue).
Optimal price planning, carried out using the “Risk Analysis” dialog, can be used to select the values of the initial parameters based on the given results (income, profit, profitability). In this way, in particular, the problem of finding cost-covering prices for a group of goods is solved.
Conclusion
Marketing is one of the most rapidly developing sectors of the application of information technology, since automation of information processes in this area in the context of intensive development of market relations is a strategic factor of competition.
The Marketing Expert program is a tool for developing strategic and tactical marketing plans, allowing you to perform all the necessary analytical operations, as well as prepare and print the necessary documents.
Marketing Expert was developed using internationally accepted analysis techniques (GAP analysis, SWOT analysis, Portfolio analysis).
The program helps to set enterprise goals and determine strategies for achieving them and build BCG and DPM matrix models designed to develop strategic recommendations on product range and attractiveness of market segments. Can perform multivariate risk and uncertainty analysis- both due to variations in external factors (market volume, market share) and due to local factors (marketing costs, variable production costs, sales revenue).
Marketing Expert can store a forecast and several plan options in one project, which makes it possible to enter actual information as the plan is executed and compare current data with planned indicators. The program makes it possible to optimally distribute the marketing budget using multicriteria optimization procedures.
Marketing Expert provides decision support at all stages strategic marketing planning and assists in preparing required output forms and schedules. The developed strategic plan provides all the necessary data for production planning and financial planning, thus being the basis of the business planning process.
Thus, Marketing Expert, acting as an independent program, can at the same time serve as an addition to Project Expert as a means of developing a detailed marketing plan for investment projects.
Successful work in the market is impossible without thoughtful marketing. Companies must increasingly focus on collecting and analyzing significant volumes of quantitative and qualitative information from a variety of sources. This work can be made effective only through automation.
Enterprises began to introduce analytical marketing programs (Marketing - Expert. Marketing GEO).
Complex Western programs faced the unpreparedness of Russian managers to perceive them. And although smart computer programs are designed for experienced specialists, they lack the ability to teach a person step by step a new way of thinking, new ways of working. Therefore, software developers strive to solve this problem.
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Demo videos and detailed descriptions of functionality can be obtained on the developers' websites.
The Marketing Expert family of programs (we will call the entire family after the first program) consists of three independent programs, each of which solves a subset of marketing research problems:
Marketing Expert- a set of analytical tools for building a marketing plan (BCG, SWOT, etc.), preparing a financial plan for the company’s marketing activities.
Marketing GEO- maintaining and analyzing marketing information.
Marketing Analytics- a specialized OLAP client for analyzing marketing data by markets, products, etc.
This family of programs is undoubtedly the most developed in terms of functional completeness and the only one that includes truly powerful analytical tools. The main idea behind the program is to build a virtual model of the market and the company operating in it. The model includes geographic distribution and market segmentation by consumer categories and competitors’ behavior patterns, and much more. The principle of working with the program is sometimes even closer not to the usual work of an analyst, but to a business game, because It is impossible to capture the entire picture of the model in your mind, and its behavior is monitored by the program itself. This idea, if it were fully and efficiently implemented, could lead to the emergence of a great product. However, the program has a number of disadvantages that significantly reduce its value:
1. The interface is extremely unprofessional; as a result, working with the model is inconvenient and the “game” component of the work disappears, i.e. the dynamics of work are lost. In some cases, working with the program completely obscures the user from working with the model. This limits the applicability of the tool to those projects in which it is too difficult to assess their prospects without building a complex marketing model.
2. The program works with large volumes of data, but does not offer good tools for collecting it and preparing it for input, so creating an acceptable model is an expensive operation and not always feasible.
For the above reasons, the program did not produce a flexible and high-quality tool. But it still looks quite acceptable as not the most convenient, but the most professional system. We can recommend getting acquainted with Marketing Expert even if you are not going to buy and use it - this is the best way to understand many of the principles of marketing analysis, evaluate their complexity and applicability for each specific case.
Marketing GEO - GIS + analytics
Separately, a few words should be said about the GEO and Analyst systems. They implement a set of functionality that has existed for a long time, but only within large systems. In some issues (maintaining your own geoinformation and other data), the transition to easy solutions looks completely unjustified, and what can be trusted with the combination of ArcView + Oracle Express, in no case should you trust Marketing Analytic, but where ready-made information bases are used and you need a quick analysis, using the Marketing Expert series programs will be quite reasonable.
Marketing Expert - market map
Despite the fact that the programs are implemented as independent, this division is rather arbitrary and is caused more by the intricacies of the legal relations between developers than by real necessity. In reality, the systems are highly integrated with each other, especially ideologically.
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