Marketing Planning

In general, the use of plans conveys a number of advantages: (1) consistency, (2) responsibility, (3) communication, and (4) commitment. The corporate plan should contain three main components: Where the organization is now Where the organization intends to go in the future How it will organize its resources to get there Corporate objectives, which are usually more complex than just financial targets, should reflect the corporate mission (including customer groups, customer needs, and technologies), which may reflect a strong corporate vision. The starting point of the marketing planning process is the marketing audit, the output of which may be one or more fact books, covering a wide range of questions about internal (“product”-related) and external (“environmental,” as well as market) factors, and the marketing system itself, as well as the following basic questions: Who are the customers? What are their needs and wants? What do they think of the organization and its products or services? A SWOT analysis may be used to collate the most important information about the organization’s strengths and weaknesses and the opportunities and threats of the environment in which it operates. Whatever the form of analysis, the inherent assumptions must be spelled out. This step will lead to the production of marketing objectives and subsequently to marketing strategies (typically covering all elements of the 4 Ps). A suggested structure for the marketing plan document itself might be as follows: 1. Mission statement 2. Summary of performance (to date, including reasons for good or bad performance) 3. Summary of financial projections (for 3 years) 4. Market overview 5. SWOT analysis of major projects/markets 6. Portfolio summary (a summary of SWOTs) 7. Assumptions 8. Objectives 9. Financial projections for 3 years (in detail) All these detailed plans should be, as far as possible, (1) number-based and “deadlined,” (2) briefly described, and (3) practical. These programs must be controlled, particularly by the use of budgets, for which the overall figures may be derived by (1) affordability, (2) percentage of revenue, (3) competitive parity, or (4) zero-based budgeting. Finally, the actual performance of the marketing strategy needs to be examined. The most important elements of marketing performance are (1) sales analysis, (2) market share analysis, (3) expense analysis, (4) financial analysis, and (5) relationship analysis. Although much of the relationship analysis may not be quantifiable, it has become an increasingly important determinant of a company’s long-term success.