Implementing and Controlling Marketing Plans: Evolution and Revolution 475 Ben & Jerry's brings its sweet-tooth "fans" (not " custom- in " if you please) a lot of pleasure-and sometimes raises shops, learn about ingredients for each flavor, and create a her social conscience-with unique ice cream concoctions list of "flavorites. " While it's easy to track the costs of these The "Imagine Whirled Peace. " Royalties from sales of this programs, it's harder to measure the important benefits of favor support charities that provide food and medical asus- loyalty and passion for the brand. unce for disadvantaged children. Ben & Jerry's hopes the Everyone at Ben & Jerry's knows that customer loyalty imention it draws to poverty will help make it go away-but starts with product quality Each time a call or an e-mail perhaps with a different spirit than the firm has had while with a comment or complaint arrives at the customer service ruling hundreds of flavors disappear. department, they follow up and match it to the particular When Ben & Jerry's adds a new flavor like Imagine pint that prompted contact from the customer. Customer Whirled Peace or Peanut Banana Greek Frozen Yogurt, it service determines when it was produced and where it was needs to drop other flavors to make room on store shelves sold. They receive more than 200 calls and e-mails each and in scoop shop freezers. If your favorite flavor disap week, scrutinizing all the inputs to see if they reveal unde tected problems-whether it's the milk from a particular pears from store shelves, you might find it at Ben & Jerry's supplier, a specific production batch in the factory, or how website buried in the Flavor Graveyard with hundreds of the product is stored in the channel. other "dearly departed flavors. " But the odds are the new All this scrutiny sometimes reveals an implementation favor will be even more popular, That doesn't happen by problem rather than a problem with product quality, In one chance, the proof is in the growth in sales that Ben & Jerry's such case, the customer service people were getting a lot of has achieved over the years, Ben & Jerry's produces and complaints from customers that their Cherry Garcia ice cream distributes about 50 different flavors at a time, and its pops didn't have enough cherries. After service people factory pumps out more than 200,000 pints of ice cream, matched the complaints with sales records, they concluded it sorbet, and fro-yo (frozen yogurt) each day. Tractor-trailer wasn't a regional problem-complaints pointed to pints that loads continuously flow into depots and from there are were sold all over the country There wasn't a quality problem shipped to 600 scoop shops and 50,000 grocery stores in with specific production batches either. Finally they discovered the United States and in 28 other countries. that the photo on the box was not of ice cream but of frozen Ben & Jerry's marketing managers use an information sys- yogurt treats-a product that contains more cherries. The hem that tracks every pint-from the ingredients that went difference wasn't great, but customers expected more cherries into it to where it sells. They constantly study sales to see if than they were getting When Ben & Jerry's found the image Cherry Garcia is still in the number 1 sales spot or if Chunky on the box, the complaints melted away Monkey is moving up or down the top-10 sellers list. And Information about costs and revenues are important for Miles of a flavor are not doing as well in Texas as in scoop shops, too. Ben & Jerry's scoop shops are typically Pennsylvania, they alter the mix that goes to that region. if run by entrepreneurs who operate as franchisees, Franchi- sales of a flavor start to slip in one channel of distribution, sees must carefully set plans for revenues, costs, and prof- they watch to see if it's a onetime blip or if it's the start of a it's. New franchisees find this particularly challenging trend that spreads. And if it is a trend, they replace that flavor because they don't have past data to help them make esti- with a new one before the drop in sales turns into a problem. mates. So Ben & Jerry's provides franchisees with estimates Ben & Jerry's doesn't worry about inventory-but does that help them get started. For example, a franchisee usu- keep track-when its ice cream cones are virtual The ally has to spend $167,000 to $400,000 to open a company's marketing manager was pleased when Facebook 1,000-square-foot scoop shop-and then typically will need users gave away 500,000 cones to each other. Ben & Jerry's an additional $55,000 to cover operating expenses for the abo tracks how many fans download-and how they first three months. Ben & Jerry's breaks down the cost esti- rate-the free iphone app that lets them find local scoop mates into specific categories (like signage, inventory, andinsurance). This helps the franchisee know if spending is retail stores face strong competition from Haagen-Day on target or is over (or under) budget and on which items. Dreyer's, and other premium brands. Some consumer On average, scoop shops bring in almost $400,000 a year have cut back on any brand of premium ice cream because in gross sales, but scoop shops are a seasonal business so of the economy and increased concern about fat in the both revenues and costs vary substantially over the year. A diets. That impacts the market, too. In spite of the shop owner can monitor his or her own costs and reve- changes, marketing managers at Ben & Jerry's have atrey nues on a weekly or monthly basis and then compare to the data they need to get fast feedback-and that help them to the data from Ben & Jerry's. This helps the shop them to improve their strategy and how it is implemented owner know if the store will meet targets or if adjust- ments to marketing strategy are needed. Learning Objectives In the United States, sales A carefully planned marketing strategy improves a firm's chances of success, but a plan growth has also slowed at that is not implemented well will not reach its potential-and may even fail. Timely control many scoop shop locations information helps a marketing manager improve both implementation and the basic as competitors, like Cold Stone Creamery and Marble strategy. Control can signal when plans need to be adapted-or changed completely-to Slab, have grown in popular- adjust for new market conditions. This chapter will help you understand how to improve ity. Similarly, sales of pints in the implementation and control of marketing plans. When you finish this chapter you should be able to: 1 understand how information technology speeds up feedback for better implementation and control. 2 know why effective implementation is critical to customer satisfaction and profits. 3 understand how sales analysis can aid marketing strategy planning. 4 understand the differences in sales analysis, performance analysis, and performance analysis using performance indexes. 5 understand the difference between the full-cost approach and the contribution-margin approach. 6 understand how planning and control can be combined to improve the marketing management process. be used . 7 understand what a marketing audit is and when and where it should 8 understand important new terms (shown in red)