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Success is the residue of planning."
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Jetzt kostenlos anmeldenSuccess is the residue of planning."
- Benjamin Franklin
Planning is vital to marketing. It provides a roadmap to the final marketing goal and unifies the team's efforts to achieve common objectives. In today's explanation, let's look at strategic marketing planning and how it works.
Strategic marketing planning is one of the main functions of marketing management. It is the process in which the company develops marketing strategies to meet its strategic goals and objectives. The main steps include identifying the company's current situation, analysing its opportunities and threats, and mapping out marketing action plans for implementation.
Strategic marketing planning is the development of marketing strategies based on the overall business strategy.
Marketing plans are developed based on the scope of the strategic plan. Once the plan is concluded, it is implemented to achieve the company's objectives. (Figure 1)
Strategic planning in marketing is vital as it comes with many benefits. Let's take a closer look at some of them.
A significant part of strategic planning is developing a SWOT analysis that considers the internal and external environment's influence on business performance. This analysis will likely include the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This information helps managers understand the company's situation and develop appropriate marketing strategies.
Marketing plans include marketing strategies and specific goals and deadlines for achieving them. Thus, by developing a plan, marketers can ensure marketing activities are carried out within the set timeframe and meet the overall objectives.
While goals are vital to business success, they are rather vague for implementation. A company can set a goal to increase its sales by 10% within two years, but without an action plan with clear steps on what to do, this is unlikely to happen. That's where strategic marketing planning comes into play. Along with marketing goals, the plan outlines specific steps to take to reach the set goal.
Now that we've learned what strategic marketing planning is and why it is essential, let's take a look at how to create one:
While strategic marketing plans vary from one company to another, they tend to include the following sections:
Sections | Details |
Executive summary | Brief summary of goals and recommendations |
SWOT analysis | Analysis of the company's current marketing situation along with opportunities and threats it might face. |
Marketing objectives | Specification of the marketing objectives following the overall strategic objectives |
Marketing strategies | Strategies for the target market, positioning, marketing mix, and expenditures. |
Action program | Specification of steps to implement the marketing strategies. |
Budgets | Estimation of marketing costs and expected revenue. |
Controls | Description of how the monitoring process will be carried out. |
Table 1. Sections of a strategic marketing plan, StudySmarter Originals
The executive summary is the shortened version of the entire marketing plan. It outlines high-level objectives, marketing goals, and activities of the company. The summary must be clear, concise, and easy to understand.
The next part of the strategic marketing plan is market analysis or SWOT analysis. The SWOT analysis considers the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and how it can exploit or tackle them.
This is the central part of the strategy that specifies:
Marketing goals: Goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound).
Marketing strategy: Details on how to engage customers, create customer value, build customer relationships, etc. The company should develop strategies for each marketing mix element.
Marketing budget: Estimate the costs for carrying out marketing activities.
This section outlines the specific steps for the marketing campaign to be carried out. It should also include measures for progress and returns on marketing investment.
Strategic marketing planning includes five main steps:
The buyer persona is the fictional representation of a company's target customers. It may include their age, income, location, job, challenges, hobbies, dreams, and goals.
Marketers should create marketing goals based on the strategic objectives of the business. For example, if the company aims to increase its sales by 10%, a marketing goal can be to generate 50% more leads from organic search (SEO).
The development of a new marketing campaign may require the adoption of new tools and marketing channels. However, it doesn't mean the company should dismiss its existing marketing platforms and assets. Marketers should look at the company's owned, earned, or paid media to audit the existing marketing resources.
The media through which companies market their products or services can be owned, earned, or paid:1
Before developing new marketing plans, the company should audit its previous marketing campaigns to identify future gaps, opportunities, or issues to prevent. Once done, it can plan new strategies for the upcoming marketing campaign.
After implementing the new marketing strategies, marketers need to measure their progress and make changes when something is not working as planned.
With the advent of the Internet and digital technology, traditional marketing via offline channels such as TVs or newspapers are no longer enough for brands to make themselves known. To succeed in the digital age, companies must incorporate digital marketing - marketing via digital channels - in their strategic planning.
Digital marketing strategic planning includes creating a plan for establishing a brand presence on the Internet through digital channels such as social media, organic search, or paid ads.
The main goals of the digital marketing strategy are the same as for traditional ones - to increase brand awareness and attract new customers. Thus, the steps are also similar.
Some examples of digital marketing campaigns include:
To see how strategic marketing planning works out in real life, let's consider some examples from Starbucks' mission statement, SWOT analysis, and marketing strategy:
To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time. 2
The mission statement showcases human connection as the core value Starbucks offers its customer.
| Starbucks' SWOT analysis | |
Strengths
| Weaknesses
|
Opportunities
| Threats
|
Table 2. Starbucks SWOT Analysis, StudySmarter Originals
Starbucks' Marketing Mix 4Ps:
Product - premium coffee, adaptive menus based on regions, and a wide selection of food and beverages.
Price - value-based prices, targeting middle and high-income individuals.
Place - coffeehouses, mobile apps, retailers.
Promotion - spend a huge amount of money on advertising, develop a highly efficient loyalty program, and exert corporate social responsibility.
Strategic planning in marketing management is the development of marketing strategies to meet the overall business objectives.
The five steps in the strategic planning process are:
The 4 marketing strategies are Product, Price, Price, and Promotion.
Strategic marketing planning is important as it helps marketers understand the business's current situation and develop suitable marketing strategies.
An example of marketing planning: Based on the SWOT analysis (strength, weakness, opportunity, threat), a company recognises a gap in customers' needs and plans a new marketing campaign to fill that need.
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SIGNUP SIGNUPFlashcards in Strategic Marketing Planning118
Start learningWhat are marketing objectives?
Marketing objectives outline the goals a business wants to achieve through its marketing practices.
Name two common marketing objectives.
Increasing sales growth
Increasing brand loyalty
Explain the first two steps of the process behind setting marketing objectives.
First, marketing managers have to identify what a specific customer segment needs through initial screening and market research. They also have to anticipate customers' future wants and needs. They can do this by interpreting and analyzing the data they have gathered during the market research phase.
Name an advantage of setting marketing objectives.
Help the marketing team stay focused on marketing goals.
Provides the marketing team with a clear and measurable incentive.
Which of the following statements is correct?
Marketing objectives can be useful for budgeting.
Marketing objectives should be aligned with corporate objectives.
Both statements are correct.
Which one of the following actions is not part of the process behind setting marketing objectives?
Identify
segment
Satisfy
Anticipate
B.
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