Basically, the audit is a tool for companies to understand how the company relates to the environment in which companies operate. Audit is an enterprise tool to identify strengths and weaknesses as they relate to the opportunities and threats. Audit is a way to help the management to choose a position in the environment based on known factors.
Marketing audit process for many organizations is still relatively new and is an activity that is less utilized. Although there is a substantial collection of evidence and developed by suggesting that the performance of an organization and the market is significantly affected directly by the perception strategist on 3 factors, namely:
a. Now the organization's market position;
b. The nature of environmental threats and opportunities; and
c. The ability of organizations cope with environmental developments.
Definition of the audit has been proposed by Shuchman (1950) and Kotler (1988). For example, Schucman have proposed that the audit is a systematic reviewers, critical, and impartial of the total marketing operation: from the basic objectives and policies and the assumptions that underlie them as well as methods, procedures, personnel and organization that apply to implement policies and achieve the goal.
Kotler's view is broadly similar. According to his marketing audit is a test of a comprehensive, systematic, independent, and periodic / regular basis from a company or business unit marketing environment, objectives, strategies and activities with a view to determining problem areas and opportunities and recommending an action plan to improve company performance.
When combined, these two above definition highlights three key elements and potential benefits of the marketing audit, namely:
a. Analysis of the external environment and internal situation;
b. Assessment of past performance and current activities; and
c. Identify opportunities and threats of the future.
The three elements above are useful and can be viewed against the backdrop of the comments made by Ansoff (1968) which proposes that, "regardless of the size of the organization, corporate decision must be made within the constraints of a limited total resources. By realizing this, strategist and then face the task to produce the pattern of resource allocation that will offer the best potential to meet company objectives. " Therefore, the marketing audit can be viewed as providing a sound basis for the allocation of these resources. That way, every strategy that was developed to be much more consistent, both with the demands of the environment or the right abilities and strengths of the organization.
To summarize, the audit is a structured approach to the collection and analysis of information and data in complex enterprise environments and data within a complex business environment and is an important prerequisite to solving the problem.