The Marketer's Handbook: Reassessing Marketing Techniques for Modern Business

MARKETING PLANS AND PLANNING

Application: Resource Allocation

The Concept

Planning is a fundamental process of the marketing function. A plan aligns marketing resources and actions to both the leadership’s priorities and budgets available. It makes strategic objectives achievable. However it is developed, there are several issues which will round out and make a marketing plan effective:

Strategic context. The plan must take into account the strategic issues which the firm faces, particularly those with direct market relevance such as: target markets, brand, segmentation, and competitive strategy. The strategic imperatives and corporate objectives of the firm must set the context for the plan. So, marketers must understand the business strategy before creating either marketing strategy or a marketing plan.

Market perspective. No market plan is useful unless its approach is based on insight and perspectives on the market it addresses. A method of gaining market insight (such as research, a market audit, or scenario planning) ought to be used as a foundation of a market plan. Some academics are probably too rigorous in demanding that a market plan be founded on logical, sequential market analysis but market insight is crucial. It is good discipline to separate market analysis from the synthesis needed to gain profound market insight.

Scope. There are a number of issues the plan ...