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What is it?
Marketing planning is a road map which consists of strategic and tactical (day-to-day) organisational marketing activities that are required to drive your company forward, both efficiently and profitably. Comprising of evaluating, planning, implementation and control; marketing planning is fundamentally a key business process, covering areas such as; • Company objectives and marketing’s role in achieving them. • Target audience descriptions for each segment, the associated USP’s and the insights. that led to those USP’s. • Movement and management of customers through each of the buying stages throughout the customer lifecycle. • Management and implementation of the 7Ps. • Customer Relationship Management. • Infrastructure requirements including changes to sales practises, database development and understanding of any research required.
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When to use it?
Marketing planning is used to; • Understand the economic and competitive features of a market sector • Identify target markets • Identify segments within a target market • Identify most appropriate strategies • Commission, understand and act upon Market Research • Understand competitors, their strategies and likely responses • Develop new products
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What does it achieve?
Well constructed and professional marketing planning will help to clarify the purpose of organisations in terms of; where it currently resides in the minds of the consumer; where it wants to be, how it will be perceived; what does it need to do to get to a suitable position and then evaluate the progress to see if the objectives have been met. Successful Marketing planning achieves; • Auditing of customers’ brand experience • Establishing environmental scanning for opportunities and threats • Understanding of an organisation’s strengths and weaknesses • Creation of a sustainable competitive advantage • Understanding where a brand needs to be in the future • Establishes management information systems to identify progress
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Key steps:
Step 1 – Where are we now? • Marketing audit • Financial /ratio analysis • Competitor analysis • Customer analysis Step 2 – Where do we want to be? • Mission (Vision, values and purpose) • Objectives Step 3 – How might we get there? • Direction of growth • Which markets to compete in • Which customers to target • How to position the offering • Nature of growth Step 4 – Which methods should we use? • Marketing Mix • Promotional activities • Media mix • Activity plans, budgets, schedules Step 5 – How can we ensure arrival? • Monitoring and Management controls • Measurements • Evaluation
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