Jasmin

Defining the product

After the reception of the corporate or strategic objectives Bloomberg’s strategic business unit can start analysing the market, the competitors’ actions and company resources. However, first it is useful to define the potential product and its contents.

Bloomberg wants to publish a monthly property magazine the content of which would include articles and features on the UK property market, buying and selling houses, investing on property, mortgages, financial data, different kinds of properties and their value and area information.

The marketing audit

Before a company can start planning the new product it should examine the position it holds in the surrounding environment. The marketing audit is the means by which a company can understand how it relates to the environment and it helps the company to position itself in the market it is operating in. Conducting an audit will help it to identify its own strengths and weaknesses in relation to competition. The audit should be carried out at the corporate and the product level. There are two aspects to an audit. The external audit is concerned with uncontrollable variables outside the company such as environmental, market and competitive variables. The internal audit is concerned with controllable variables such as the organisation’s resources as they relate to the environment.

The general evaluation of a company’s strengths and weaknesses and opportunities and threats in the environment is called the SWOT analysis.

Strengths: these are the internal factors that are likely to enhance performance.

Weaknesses: these are the internal factors likely to inhibit performance.

Opportunities: These are the external factors that favour the organisation such as effective distributors, compliance with legislation, presence of growing market segments or competitors being reorganised.

Threats: these are the external factors likely to be to an organisation’s disadvantage, such as competing products.