Strategic Marketing Planning

What is Strategic Planning?

It is the managerial process that helps to develop a strategic and viable fit between the firms objectives, skills, resources with the market opportunities available. It helps the firm deliver its targeted profits and growth through its businesses and products.

Planning is deciding now, what we are going to do later, including when and how we are going to do it. It is a strategy that differentiates the firm from the competitors and makes it successful. Strategic Planning is a managerial process of matching an organisations resources with its marketing opportunities over the long run. The intent is to seize opportunities and avoid imminent threats. It is recognised as a most effective management tool to reduce risk.

Strategic Marketing Planning is a process that enables the organisation to carry out marketing concept by developing marketing strategies that will allow the organisation to satisfy consumers and achieve its objective. Strategic Marketing Planning is the continuous process of developing and implementing marketing strategies to achieve specific marketing objectives, which in turn leads to the achievement of overall organisational objective.

Planning Sequence

Strategic Company Planning

Define the organisations mission Set organisational objectives Evaluate firms SBUs Select appropriate Strategies Conduct a situational analysis Determine marketing objectives Select target market and measure demand Design a strategic Marketing mix Prepare annual marketing plan for each product line, major product and market. This plan serves as an operational guide to the executive in each phase of the marketing effort for the given product in a given market.

Strategic Marketing Planning

Annual Marketing Plan

Corporate Mission

This seeks to embody the entire goals of the organization and the objective of its existence. It seeks to provide a sense of purpose, direction and opportunity Its a formal statement that states what management wants the organisation to be and the guideline for getting there.

5 questions that the firm must ask itself

What is our business? Who is our customer? What does our customer need? What will our business be? What should our business be?

Marketing Myopia

Industry is a customer satisfying process not a goods producing process. It is important therefore how you redefine your business. i.e. Marketing oriented statements

Good mission statements have three characteristics

They focus on a limited number of goals It stresses the major values and policies the firm desires It defines the major competitive scope of operation

Set Organisational Objective

Objective is a desired outcome. A well defined measurable goal that specifies something that is to be accomplished. It provides direction and purpose, and serves as performance standards for the evaluation and control.

Defining Objective is to answer:

What do we want to accomplish? How much? And when?

Objectives..

It should stimulate actions that carry out plans. To fulfill this purpose objectives must posses following attributes:

Clear and Specific Stated in writing Ambitious but realistic Tied to the time period Measurable wherever possible

Eg To attend to complaints within 24 hours or To reduce MT30 O/S to zero by 30th Sep 10. Mission statement tells about the needs served, whereas objectives set priorities regarding important performance areas such as profits, market share, CSI etc. Together, the mission statement and objective, help a firm to be marketing oriented

SBU

It is a company within a company The business is differentiated from the rest of the company It has its own set of competitors It is a separate profit centre An essential step in strategic planning an organisational portfolio analysis, which identifies the present status of each SBU and determines its future role in the company. Thus management knows how to best to allocate scarce resources.

Select Appropriate Organisational Strategy

After determining where it wants to go, the next step is to answer: How are we going to get there?

SBU strategies

Build Intensify the marketing effort. Hold Help maintain its present market share. Harvest Use SBU as the cash flow source to help other SBUs grow. Divest Get rid of the SBU.

The BCG Matrix

??? Stars

Dogs

Cash Cows
Mkt Share

SWOT Analysis

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats

The GE Model
Weak Medium Strong Strong

Medium

Weak Business Strength

Ansoffs Product-Market Grid

Current products New products Current Mkts Mkt penetration Product development strategy strategy

New Mkts

Mkt development strategy

Diversification strategy

Porters Generic Strategies

Overall cost leadership Product Differentiator Focus

The Planning Process

Conduct situation analysis or Analysing Market opportunities Determine Marketing Objective Planning Marketing Programs i.e. Select target markets and measure market demand. Managing the Marketing Effort or Designing a Marketing Mix

Annual Marketing Plan

It is the master blue print for the years marketing activity for the given SBU or Product. It is How to do it document The plan includes:

A statement of Objective Target market Marketing Mix Budgetary support

Marketing Control

Annual Plan control Profitability control Strategic Control