Do Business Well

A marketing plan is an operational planning device detailing both the initial development and implementation of the chosen strategy and how the associate marketing activities can be integrated in order to meet the stated objectives.

 

It is important not to confuse the planning document with the planning process, which is described below.

 

The principles of marketing planning apply just as much to online marketing as they do to more traditional marketing activities. Planning forces a proactive approach which involves:

 

* defining objectives;

• assessing the operating environment;

* reviewing alternatives;

• selecting the best approach based upon effective matching of skills and resources with identified market opportunities;
• evaluating progress towards meeting the defined objectives.

Only by setting realistic objectives and assessing whether they have been achieved can a firm evaluate the contribution its online marketing is making, and then use this information to guide the choice of future strategy and its implementation.We will be focusing on outline plans, but a model guiding the planning process in extensive detail has been developed by McDonald (1999) if you wish to examine this topic in more depth.

 

The planning cycle can be represented as follows:

• stage 1 (the marketing audit) addresses the question ‘where are we now?’;
• stage 2 (segmentation, targeting, positioning, setting objectives) addresses the question ‘where do we want to be?’;
• stage 3 (choice of strategy) addresses the question ‘what is the best way of getting there?’;
• stage 4 (implementation of strategy through the marketing mix) addresses the question ‘how do we make it happen?’ ;
• stage 5 (evaluation and control of strategy) addresses the question ‘how do we know we have got there?’ .

Once stage 5 has been completed, the cycle then begins all over again from the new starting point! We will now examine each of the stages in turn.

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