What is it?
Marketing planning is a roadmap 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.
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
- Establish most appropriate strategies
- Commission, understand and act upon Market Research
- Understand competitors, their strategies and likely responses
- Develop new products
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
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
Contact us for further information, or help with any of your strategic marketing planning
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