Marketing audit: the essence and implementation mechanism

The aim of the article. Marketing has long ceased to be a stimulating sales force, becoming the flagship of the company's course to meet the needs of the target audience. Many companies are aware of the urgent need to periodically review the status of their marketing operations to ensure proper management and, as a result, to remain competitive and achieve their goals. Fewer companies approach the step of control in marketing, not paying the necessary attention and not realizing the complexity of the process, especially in times of economic and social crisis. Today, more and more companies are realizing the need not only for a crisis audit of marketing operations, but also for a marketing audit. The purpose of the research is to study in practice the marketing audit implementation specifics in conditions of anti - crisis enterprise management and the necessity to improve business efficiency. To achieve the stated purpose goal, it is required to solve a number of tasks, in particular: to investigate the existing methodological toolkit of enterprise’ marketing policy and strategy effectiveness assessment; analyze the disadvantages and advantages of existing toolkit; provide the suggestions regarding marketing audit conducting and application of its results in the conditions of the anti-crisis enterprise management concept implementing (on the example of Ukrainian enterprises and international groups of companies). The results of the analyses. The implementation of the tasks set before the study allowed to obtain the following results: the existing methodological tools are analysed and the possibilities of its application in the work of the auditor during the marketing audit are determined; it is proved that the efficiency of the enterprise is a complex task, which consists not only of analysing the reserves of profitability, but also of analysing the effectiveness of marketing strategy of the company, entering new products and new products. Current practice shows that the following mandatory elements must be observed: marketing audit should be comprehensive. The audit should cover all areas of marketing, not just those areas where the problem is already perceived, or those areas where the team knows that they are superior. A holistic audit is the best way to unlock opportunities and can identify previously unknown reserves for profitability growth; marketing audit should be systematic. Order and efficiency are key elements of a successful marketing audit. In order to prevent gaps, it is necessary to take into account the characteristics of each environment, principles, strategies and activities of each structural element of the organization to be audited; marketing audit should be regular and periodic. Conclusions and perspectives for further research. During the study, the goal was achieved and the mechanism of marketing audit at the enterprise was determined through the establishment of step-by-step instructions with examples (Ukrainian and international companies). The study allowed to identify and justify the feasibility of further research and research in such areas as the industry specifics of the application of marketing audit tools; expediency of development of methodical documents on carrying out marketing audit and features of the organization of marketing audit at the enterprise (development of internal organizational and administrative documents). Key words: marketing audit, efficiency of the enterprise, filter model, marketing organization, competitive environment