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STRATEGIC MARKETING PLANNING

Strategic marketing planning is a comprehensive planning about setting a company’s long term goals and objectives and identifying resources and skills required to achieve these goals and objectives.


PLANNING-------------IMPLEMENTING ------------ CONTROLLING
Corporate planning---------------------------------------- Measuring results;
Division planning---------Organizing &---------------------Diagnosing results;
SBU planning------------Implementing--------------------Taking corrective action
Product planning-------------------------------------------(or monitoring & evaluation)

Figure 3.1, Strategic Planning, Implementing, and Controlling


STRATEGIC MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS

It starts with determining the vision of an organization and then moving ahead as
exhibits in figure 3.2. Vision_______Mission_______Goals & Objectives_______ Strategy______Policy_______Planning_______Process_______Procedure

VISION: Vision is an organization’s long term objective that at the peak of its accomplishments, or after decades of hard work, how the organization will eventually look like. For instance, the vision of a fast food restaurant may be, “We will be the best fast food restaurant in the world”.

MISSION:
Mission of an organization states the core values or objectives of a company’s future business plans, services, customer services, community services, etc. For example, the mission of ICI Pharmaceutical is to be a leading healthcare company worldwide.
GOALS AND

OBJECTIVES:
These are specific targets or end results an organization intends to accomplish. For example, quality and innovativeness, market penetration, sales growth, market share growth, profitability enhancement, customer loyalty etc. Essentially, the goals should be SMART (specific, measurable (in quality and quantity), achievable, reliable and time specific).


STRATEGY:
Strategy is a plan of action or action plan. The common strategies are ‘’costs leadership’’ (through mass production and economies of scale); “differentiation” (innovating a product’s attributes, packaging, services, etc to dominate the market), and “focus” (focusing narrow markets segments or niche markets with unique needs and wants of customers). Further strategies are:
“market penetration”, “market development” i.e. exploring new markets, “concentration strategy”, which focuses on existing businesses or product lines only. A “horizontal strategy” leads to acquire or buy the competitor’s business within the same business and technology line. A “vertical strategy” leads to buy sources of raw material or packaging (called backward integration) and supply chains i.e. distribution channels (called forward integration) and a copy cat strategy leads to copying exactly the brand leader products or famous brand products.

POLICY:
Policy is a principle. A policy differs than rules. Rules are rigged or hard to change, while policy can be altered when needed. Companies formulate organizational and department wise policies, for instance human resources/ HR policies for recruitment, promotion, paid leave, etc, marketing policies about innovative product features, including packing, pricing, promotional discounts, coupons, offers, distribution policies, etc.


PLANNING:
Planning is thinking about future and determining a course of action. Or planning is thinking in advance and foreseeing the future. Planning can be short term or long term. Vision, mission, goals and objectives, strategies, and policies are all plans. Vision and mission are long term plans, while goals and objectives, strategies, and policies are either short-term (under or up to 1 year) or long-term (over 1 year, usually of 3 to 5 years). Planning is done at 3 levels or hierarchy of management. Strategic planning is done by top management such as designing programs and policies i.e. (group of projects and setting policies); tactical planning is done by the middle level management, such as developing strategies, processes, etc; and operational planning is done by lower level management; such as implementing the strategies, policies, planning, processes, procedures, etc.


PROCESS: Process is a series of actions, changes, and functions or operations that bring result. A process generates a series of procedures, for example, the process to analyze consumer behavior, competitor strategies, advertising campaigns, etc.

PROCEDURE / METHOD: It’s the way of action to complete a task, such as procedures to avail gift coupons, bonus schemes, etc. Marketing planning is implemented and feedback is received from the market, finally, marketing and sales personnel take corrective actions, if required, which is called controlling.















The strategy is first to build the market share, then hold it, harvest it (i.e. generate short term cash flows regardless of long term effect), and finally divest or disinvest dogs and invest in other profitable business.

?? (question marks) have high growth potential and less market with high cash.
(Stars) have high growth and high market share and they are market leaders i.e. at a five or ten position.

Cash cows have less growth and falling but larger market share with huge cash flows.
Dogs have less / weak growth and less / weak market share.

Figure 3.3 exhibits that a company has 2 question marks and star businesses each and 1 cash cow and dog business each. It’s wise to divest the dog and invest the proceeds in a lucrative venture.

STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES & THREATS (SWOT ANALYSIS)

SWOT become highly popularized worldwide and is applied in marketing and business research, strategic planning, and marketing. Before doing a business, a feasibility or viability report is made to determine the chances for its survival; SWOT has its applications there. Strengths and weaknesses pertain to an organization’s internal environment and opportunities and threats pertain to an organization’s external environment.

STRENGTHS are capacities/ capabilities or strong areas of a product or organization. For example, strengths of Samsung mobile sets are innovative features, picture sharpness, camera resolution, sound system, strong signals, reasonable prices, etc. The strengths of Samsung Company are state-of-the-art production plants, highly experienced and professional management, warehousing and transportation system, customer service, and so on.

WEAKNESSES are inabilities or weaker area of a product or organization. For example, the weaknesses of WAPDA are poor quality, unskilled management, poor customer service, mal practices, etc.

OPPORTUNITY is a need that can be met profitability. For example an emerging market with diverse customer needs and wants can provide new opportunities for marketers, like mandatory requirements or new laws about wearing helmets on bikes, using CNG busses, studying new courses, making dental insurance, etc.

THREAT Is a challenge that risks sales growth, market share or profit. For example, the competitors may reduce price, increase advertising, increase products with innovative attributes, which can decrease a company’s relative sales and market share.

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