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The Value of Market Auditing Essay

Decent Essays

Assess the value to small businesses of carrying out marketing audits. Illustrate your arguments with reference to an existing small business of your choice

In this essay I will be assessing the value of Market auditing for small businesses using the firm Abel and Cole as a model. Market auditing is the means by which a company can understand how it correlates to the environment in which it operates. It is a way by which a company can identity its own pros and cons as they relate to external opportunities and threats. It should be undertaken as part of the planning cycle, on an annual basis rather than a desperate response to an immediate crisis. Abel and Cole is a small private limited company, operating in the niche organic food …show more content…

They forbid the use of “routine antibiotics” as well as insure that the animals bought from their farmers are allowed to mature naturally “so they do not suffer the health problems associated with accelerated growth”
Although Abel and Cole have much strength’s they do have a few weaknesses. One of Abel and Cole’s weaknesses is that they do not hold any significant market share in the organic market as “40 percent of sales come from farmers who deliver food grown in their fields or raised in their barns”. The organic food market itself only accounts to “1-2% of food sales worldwide".
Abel and Cole do have opportunities that they can take advantage of. The organic market as whole has grown by “22 per cent to £1.93bn, with annual growth of 27 per cent in the past decade.” Recently Abel and Cole were linked with a 40m pound injection from Phoenix Equity Partners. This will allow Abel and Cole to deliver to even more locations thus helping them gain more market share. Able and Cole should also benefit form an increasing number of fair-trade goods being purchased as ‘consumers spent 1.1 billion on Fair-trade Certified Products in 2006’ An increase of 42% on the previous year.
Like any small business, Abel and Cole have threats which they have to face. The recent credit crunch which has had a huge influence on food prices of late will be something Abel and Cole have to deal

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