A marketing audit is a structured review of organisations current marketing

activities. It is afundamental part of the marketing planning process.

Marketing audit enables oragnisations to anlayse its current performance as
well as past performance which helps the organisation to identify the
nextsteps forward. As the business environment is constantly changing, the
marketing audit should beused as a reference tool, with constant updates
reflecting changes in the external environment andorganisations own internal
business experiences.
Philip Kotler defined marketing audit as a comprehensive, systematic,
independent and periodicexamination of activities and resources in order to
find problem areas and opportunities and torecommend a plan of action.
Marketing audit can help organisation to refine its business processesand
improve its productivity and profitability. Marketing audit has been broadly
categorized intointernal audit and External Audit. There are various tools and
methods available to carryout theseaudits.
The external environment of an organisation can be broadly categorized into:
* Economic environment (consisting of political, economic, social/cultural,
technological, environmental and legal changes.
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