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Auditing marketing

Retiring 29 March 2024. Those registering up to that day will have access for 90 days.

With reputation frequently ranked among the most significant areas of risk for many organisations, the marketing function and its activities - often partly undertaken by everyone in the organisation - ought to be a key area of internal audit focus.

Senior management and the board should be aware of the importance of brand value and the principle that a reputation takes a long time to build and only minutes (or even moments!) to seriously damage.

Risks - both threats and opportunities - are considerable.

Marketing is an area that internal auditors have not always examined, reviewed or considered. This may be due to a historical reluctance on our part to audit this activity or function, or a similar reluctance upon the part of the marketing folks for our internal audit engagements.

This is changing. As a risk-based approach to internal audit is recognised by us and our key stakeholders as helping to add value and insight, more internal audit teams are turning their attention to this important subject.

If marketing is successful then it can add real, demonstrable value to the organisation and enable the delivery of strategy and supporting objectives. However, a poorly articulated marketing campaign or a miss-timed marketing strategy could spell disaster and a world of pain for the organisation as a whole.

This course will help you consider how best to review an organisation’s marketing function, marketing activity, the associated risks, controls and areas of potential focus. This subject goes far beyond the marketing function itself.

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Who should do the course?

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• Qualified internal auditors who have may not have reviewed marketing activities before, and therefore need a broad understanding to get them started on a review of the area.
• More senior internal auditors who need to understand marketing systems, activities and risks for the purpose of periodic and engagement planning.

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What will I learn?

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After completing this course, you will be able to:  

• describe the purposes of marketing functions, their value to organisations, and the activities they undertake;
• better identify the risks and controls associated with marketing activities; and 
• give examples of the assurance and consultancy services internal audit could provide organisations in relation to their marketing activities.

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What will I do?

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The course comprises three topics and a quiz. You will be recorded as having finished the course when you have completed these components, including achieving a minimum grade of 80% on the final quiz. OYou can download your certificate of completion and a course summary when you have successfully completed the course.

You have 90 days to complete the course; however, it shouldn’t take you more than two hours to complete.

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Technical requirements

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The course is online so you will need access to an internet-enabled device. The course works best on a laptop or PC with a mouse – some quiz questions are tricky to do on a tablet or touchpad. The course consists of written material.

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Important information

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Access to our course content will be made available for 90 days from the date of purchase. After successfully completing a course, you’ll be able to download the relevant course summary to keep and refer to in the future. You will also receive a CPE certificate for your records.

Should you have any difficulties in booking an online training course, please log off the website and only log on when prompted.

After booking a course, please take the following steps to access it:

• Log into iia.org.uk and go to https://www.iia.org.uk/students/study-system/
• Click on the blue button that says ‘Access the study system here’ to access your personalised study system dashboard where you will see the course(s) you have purchased.  
• If it is your first time using the study system, you will need to enter your email address on your profile page to activate access. 

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CPE competency areas covered

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• Environment (common business processes)

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2 CPE points