Article
Is Your Marketing Program
"2004 Ready?"
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The new year has started. So what's your strategic marketing plan for 2004?
For many businesses, the answer to this question revolves around a “promotions strategy” that covers advertising, brochures, PR, direct mail, or events. But these are simply tools to use once a strategy has been established. Some companies focus on selling, but selling is one part of the marketing mix and will achieve success only if the target market analysis was accurate and if the overall marketing mix correctly matches the customer decision-making process.
So to understanding the value and structure of a marketing plan, let's review these definitions.
- Marketing is about matching company capabilities
to customers needs to create rewarding customer relationships (and sell
your offering).
- Marketing planning is a series of activities that identify specific marketing objectives (always in line with corporate goals) and formulate the plans to achieve them.
- The marketing mix is comprised of five activities (product, price, distribution, promotions and services*) a company can control in meeting customer needs. The mix must always match the customer decision-making process.
- The marketing plan itself is a document that collects and evaluates all the details needed build an actionable roadmap to success. It's the framework for reaching your business goals, and it resolves three issues — where your company is now, where you want it to be, and how you can get it there.
There are many lists as to what a marketing plan should include. In the end, it should be thorough, yet to the point, comprehensive, yet simple. While the size and type of company will dictate how exhaustive and formal the marketing plan becomes, here are five must-have sections we recommend for a well-developed plan.
- Situation Analysis. A situation analysis involves a review of the company mission, goals, finances, products, communications, outside environments, customers, and competitors. A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis and key assumptions are included.
- Marketing Goals and Objectives. Decision making starts here. Marketing goals and measurable objectives must be synchronized with corporate goals. What's more, they should relate to products and markets only. Factors such as pricing, sales promotions, and advertising are marketing mix strategies and should not be confused with marketing objectives.
- Marketing Strategies. The marketing strategy is the plan of action that achieves the stated objectives. It involves decisions about which customers to target and which products to offer at what price and where. It also involves stating what the company will not do — boundaries that are often as important as what the company is willing to do. It is at this stage that the target market is analyzed, the marketing mix is defined, and core strategy statements presented (value proposition, core positioning, etc.) It ensures the marketing mix is aligned to the customer decision-making process, and that the strategy will enable the company to maintain (or gain) a competitive advantage.
- Implementation Plan. The objectives and strategies are translated into budgets and implementation plans that can be functionally executed by various teams and departments. Calendar timelines and milestones are mapped.
- Monitoring
and Control. A mechanism to monitor and review
performance against
well-defined, time-triggered benchmarks is essential. The key to this process is to benchmark current programs and develop a system of measurement to evaluate ongoing activities and performance.
Companies can “guesstimate” the
needs of their customers and the strategies of their competitors, or take
reactive, “shoot-from-the-hip” approaches
to marketing. Yet in our increasingly high-speed and complex business environments,
a sound marketing plan enables companies to flexibly meet competitive challenges
and better serve their
customers — and that leads to greater performance
and profitability.
ReThink Marketing can help you develop a marketing plan than connects with your customers and drives bottomline success. Call us today.
* Auxiliary Services: Some marketing experts now consider auxiliary services as a marketing mix component. Auxiliary services are peripheral activities a company offers to enhance its primary products or services. For example, dry cleaning would be the primary service, while free delivery would be an auxiliary service. An organization that doesn't explicitly manage its auxiliary services can be at a competitive disadvantage as these services play a part in determining market share and relative price. (D. Hawkins, Consumer Behavior: Building Marketing Strategy 9/e, 2004, p.22)
