For many firms serving the plastics industry, the dark side of organizational downsizing means a loss in expertise that normally would provide the information necessary to cultivate, shape, and exploit their firm's marketing talent. As new "teams" are formed, they will need the guidance to build capabilities that meet current and future market priorities. A marketing audit can be a powerful way of providing teams with that kind of direction. Almost everyone who uses, produces, or sells products and services to the plastics industry can benefit from seeing their marketing process at work. Seeing how the market is defined allows senior executives to build a better understanding of their company's value propositions; to allow managers to review their internal processes, to share best practices with cross-functional partners, or to benchmark performances and practices. Sales people, customer service, R&D, and operations personnel can benefit by allowing them to amass knowledge about their firm quickly and to build a store of experience that will be useful on future assignments. The marketing audit starts with a basic understanding of three major activities directly related to earning money: developing, producing, and selling a product. Without these activities, a company cannot exist. They are the sites where the value-adding activities to satisfy the customer are carried out. Therefore, in a broad sense, marketing is the dynamic which drives the combined earning power of these sites. Managers often question the urgency to perform a marketing audit. The problem with most business managers is that they believe their workplace is their desk, and wish to distance themselves from the events taking place out on the battlefield. Even people who know the value of doing a marketing audit can find it difficult to put it to effective use. First, unclear objectives often turn an audit into "busy" work. If the business leader doesn't know why the marketing audit is being done and what is accomplished as a result, they won't know where to focus their time and effort. Second, many people lack an organizing framework that permits them to synthesize random bits of information and accelerate learning. Without such a framework, the vast iterations of any marketing mix cannot be easily woven together and will not readily yield general conclusions. Third, information about the marketing process and how to audit the mix is inevitably comparative, and those who have lived there, learned there. Inexperience makes it tough for younger plastics professionals in particular, who have limited sales and marketing experience to make the most of a marketing audit, since they are still building the knowledge base they need to draw comparisons. However, by outlining clear objectives and applying an organizing framework to make sense of what is uncovered, a business team can make the most of an audit―even if some team members are not as familiar with go-to-market mechanisms.
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