Marketing planning rules

Marketing planning helps to avoid unneeded, erroneous actions and utilize resources in an efficient manner. It is an essential part of good management. Forces manager to think about what has happened, what is happening now and what can happen. Sets the objectives and examines the progress of their implementation.

The concept of the marketing planning process is simple. It is based on an assessment of the situation, the formulation of the basic assumptions, setting goals, defining what and to whom will be sold, deciding how these objectives will be achieved and established and setting a detailed timetable and costs of the resources necessary for the implementation of the plan.

Marketing planning process

Marketing planning process should start with some idea about what managers want to achieve within a specified time in the category of sales, market share, profitability, cash flow and liquidity, etc. It is also important to know at the outset what company cannot do without unexpected problems.

Marketing planning involves 3 steps:

Analysis of situation

Include an assessment of the current and foreseeable opportunities and threats from the environment and analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the company. An effective summary of this stage is the SWOT analysis

Segmentation on the market and the product and setting the main targets

Companies often focus on market segmentation of potential customers in the aggregated groups or segments and the development of programs that effectively help to reach them. In this stage they determine the products that will be included in the marketing plan of actions on a competitive market and the strategic orientations, which determines whether it is a market in which the company is interested in a quick penetration or long development.

Setting objectives, making assessments of the various strategies and creating marketing plan

In this stage, special attention is given to the design of the program of implementation and control. Every marketing plan must include all relevant issues such as:

• summary of the current position on the market
• forecast of current strategy results
• objectives in this market
• market strategy, which is a reflection of major market choices, offered value and the relationships with customers
• expected reaction of competition
• proposed marketing programs
• the concrete tactical action plans
• financial forecasts
• types of planning

Marketing planning rules — recommended articles

Promotional plan — Strategy — Business concept — Significance of strategy — Methodology for strategy definition — Strategic planning — Selling process — Business plan — Planning

References

• Westwood, J. (2013). How to write a marketing plan. Kogan Page Publishers.