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The Importance Of Creating A Marketing Audit

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This essay will cover the importance of creating a Marketing Audit and the role a Marketing Mix plays in a business. These two key elements will then be applied to the leading speciality chocolate manufacturer and retailer in the United Kingdom (UK), Hotel Chocolat.
Kotler (1972 cited by Baker, 2007, p.248) defines a marketing audit as “an independent examination of the entire marketing effort of a company, or some specific marketing activity, covering objectives, programme, implementation, and organisation”. Similarly, Blythe (2012, p.321) defines it as “a systematic assessment of the organisation’s current marketing activities to inform the planning process.”
A marketing audit is necessary to monitor external and internal factors which …show more content…

In order to conduct a Marketing Audit for Hotel Chocolat, the various frameworks discussed earlier need to be used which have an impact on how a business makes its future decisions.
Macro-environment: PESTEL
Economic Factors
Since the recession, it is evident that the customer data base has become more frugal. It has driven consumers to become more value-conscious which can result in less demand for expensive chocolate products.
Despite selling premium chocolate products priced at the top end of the market, Hotel Chocolat still continued to grow in sales and profits, therefore, Hotel Chocolat felt optimistic in their approach during and after the economic crisis. They expanded their stores across the UK, USA and other parts of Europe, as well as other transformations which include opening their first international airport store in Copenhagen Airport. (Hotel Chocolat, date unknown)
However, consumers are still wanting ‘more for less’, increasing the value proposition. Thus, this could be a future threat for Hotel Chocolat’s sales and profit margins as people realise there are alternatives, which may not have greater brand equity but

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