Marketing planning

It is safe not to plan if the future is going to be similar to the present, and preferably similar to the past. Since this is unlikely in any market, the company with strategic marketing plans reduces its risk of failure and increases its chance of success at the expense of its rivals with less well devised or no plans.

Marketing planning within corporate planning

Marketing planning should be a central element of the corporate planning cycle. The marketing plan identifies what the company sees as the optimum combination of products and markets to achieve its corporate objectives. To justify the decisions, the plan should analyze the company in the context of its competitive environment, and quantify its conclusions.

The most effective approach to strategic planning is to start by gaining a clear picture of the company, its position in the marketplace and the wider environment, its strengths and weaknesses, and all the options open to it. This makes it easier to set realistic objectives based on sound market information, and to create a workable plan to achieve the objectives.

The corporate plan should answer three questions:

1. Where is the company now?

2. Where does the company want to be?

3. How does it propose to get there?

The strategic marketing plan answers the same three questions in terms of the company’s products/services and markets:

1. What is the current competitive position of the company’s products/services within its chosen markets?

2. With which products/services, and within which of the markets is the company best able to meet its objectives over an agreed period (usually three to five years)?

3. Which activities, with which products/services in which markets will enable the company to meet those objectives?

Only when the strategy has been decided, the tactical plan should be prepared. A tactical marketing plan simply adds detail, timings and responsibilities to the first year of the strategy.

A simple marketing plan

This simple plan must comprise six stages that are iterative. In other words, the final measurement stage leads to a review of the situation, a new beginning and a revision of the plans.

1. Strategic marketing audit (Where are we now?)

a. Internal – total marketing investment, marketing performance

b. External – market size, penetration, and share

2. Forecasts (What is going to happen?)

a. Market trends, broad–scale influences .

3. Business/market objectives/budget (What do we want?)

a. Sales, profit, customer satisfaction

b. Overall allocation of funds for marketing effort

4. Marketing strategy (How will we get it?)

a. Target markets and objectives

b. Allocate budget to markets

c. Product strategy

d. Competitive State

e. Positioning and branding

5. Implementation (What must we do for each market or customer?)

a. Distribution strategy

b. Pricing strategy

c. CRM strategy (internal and external)

d. Communications strategy.

e. Capability strategy – systems, structure, training etc.

f. Forecast outcomes – market share, sales, profit

g. Review budget