Marketing management is the strategic organizational discipline that focuses on the practical application of marketing orientation, techniques and methods inside enterprises and organizations and on the management of marketing resources and activities.^{[citation needed]} Compare marketology, which Aghazadeh defines in terms of "recognizing, generating and disseminating market insight to ensure better market-related decisions".

Marketing management employs tools from economics and competitive strategy to analyze the industry context in which the firm operates. These include Porter's five forces, analysis of strategic groups of competitors, value chain analysis and others.

In competitor analysis, marketers build detailed profiles of each competitor in the market, focusing on their relative competitive strengths and weaknesses using SWOT analysis. Marketing managers will examine each competitor's cost structure, sources of profits, resources and competencies, competitive positioning and product differentiation, degree of vertical integration, historical responses to industry developments, and other factors.

Marketing management often implies market research and marketing research to perform a primary analysis. For this, a variety of techniques are implemented. Some of the most common ones include:

Marketing managers may also design and oversee various environmental scanning and competitive intelligence processes to identify trends and inform the company's marketing analysis.

A brand audit is a thorough examination of a brand's current position in an industry compared to its competitors and the examination of its effectiveness. When it comes to brand auditing, six questions should be carefully examined and assessed:

When a business conducts a brand audit, the goal is to identify its resource strengths, weaknesses, assess market opportunities and external threats, future profitability, and its competitive standing in comparison to existing competitors. A brand audit establishes the strategic elements needed to improve the brand's positioning and competitive capabilities within the industry. Once a brand is audited, any business that ends up with strong financial performance and market position is likely to have a properly conceived and effectively executed brand strategy.

A brand audit examines whether a business' market share is increasing, decreasing, or stable. It determines whether the company's profit margin is improving or declining and how it compares to that of established competitors. Additionally, a brand audit examines trends in net profits, return on investments, and overall economic value. It determines whether the business' financial strength and credit rating are improving or deteriorating. This kind of audit also assesses a business' image and reputation with its customers. Beyond financial metrics, a brand audit also assesses the business's image and reputation among customers. It explores whether the business is perceived as an industry leader in areas such as technology, product or service innovation, and customer service. These factors significantly influence customer decisions and brand perception.