Walmart's managers use marketing management and performance analysis to help them run their stores and businesses in ways that align with and support the organization's strategic plan. Your work in the course has helped you develop new knowledge and skills that can be applied to improve performance results. You have applied your skills to assess the value of performance analysis results when conducting marketing management activities. Marketing managers, and managers in general, are better able to correct problems and respond to opportunities when they rely on solid data resulting from performance analysis. Performance analysis allows managers to make effective decisions and defend marketing strategy recommendations designed to achieve organizational goals and align with/support the overall business strategy.

Objectives

Evaluate business performance to identify and respond to risks and opportunities

Explain how to measure business success

Identify different types of merchandise issues and selling opportunities

Make and defend recommendations in response to changes in business trends and market conditions

Apply analytical processes to evaluate and respond to competitive business results over a given period

Explain how to measure business success

Identify different types of merchandise issues and selling opportunities

Make and defend recommendations in response to changes in business trends and market conditions

Decide the best way to communicate the status of the business to management accurately

Describe effective communication styles and models to interact with others

Diagnose current business' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

Explain how to measure business success. Identify different categories of an organization's major customer groups, including patterns and habits

Identify the factors that differentiate competitors

Make and defend recommendations in response to changes in business trends and market conditions

Describe the relationship between market information, consumer trends, and product potential.

By analyzing performance in key areas of marketing (such as merchandising analysis), you are better prepared to use the results to make recommendations to improve performance in your Walmart store or business.

-Read the questions below and think about how you would answer each of them:

1) How can performance analysis help Walmart's managers improve their marketing activities?

2) What are some ways that performance analysis is used to make more effective marketing decisions?

3) Why should managers be concerned with the performance of their marketing efforts?

4) How does your Walmart store or business use performance analysis when conducting merchandising audits?