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BEP115

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January 31, 2011

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CHAPTER ONE

Introduction to Marketing Planning

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From Building a Marketing Plan
By Ho Yin Wong, Kylie Radel, and Roshnee Ramsaran-Fowdar
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© 2011 by Business Expert Press. All rights reserved.

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CHAPTER 1

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Introduction to
Marketing Planning

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We are involved in marketing every day as marketers and as consumers.
When we get up in the morning, we encounter marketing. The alarm
clock on the nightstand, the bed in which we sleep, the TV we turn on,
the toothbrush and toothpaste we use to brush our teeth, and the list
goes on. Marketing is defined as “an organizational function and a set of
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processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers
and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organi-
zation and its stakeholders.”1
In order to benefit the organization and its stakeholders, a customer-
oriented approach needs to be established. A customer-oriented
organization develops a win-win situation between itself and its cus-
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tomers by concentrating on satisfying customer needs and wants and

achieving its own objectives at the same time. This is often called rela-
tionship marketing, as the organization monitors and responds to market
information—including competitor actions and customer needs—with
the view to building stronger relationships with its target audiences wher-
ever possible. Market planning should be a means of building long-term
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relationships with customers through the development of a customer-

focused mission statement and objectives and goals at the corporate
through individual product line levels. It is necessary to examine all of
these levels to implement the marketing concept and determine the
appropriate marketing strategy to provide the right level of value to the
customer.
This book is concerned with building a marketing plan that has
the customer-oriented marketing definition in mind. In this book, we
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provide a framework for marketers to develop customer-oriented mar-

keting strategies and plans that match an organization with its internal

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2 BUILDING A MARKETING PLAN

Learning Objectives

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After studying this chapter, you will be able to

• identify the stages in the strategic market planning process,

• discuss the benefits of marketing planning for an
organization,
• identify the key components of the market plan and use

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these as a basis to start a plan,
• discuss market planning in a customer-oriented
organization.

and external environments. In this chapter, we introduce the role of

marketing planning by discussing the benefits and barriers of marketing
planning, followed by the marketing planning process.
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The Role of Marketing Planning
Marketing planning is the process that leads to an understanding of an
organization’s position in the market and a series of marketing decisions
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and actions to achieve an organization’s goals within a specific time frame.

The emphasis is on the process that includes tasks such as performing
analysis, designing actionable strategies, implementing the strategies,
controlling the whole marketing process, and setting up a time frame for
the staff concerned. A marketing plan is the record of the activities from
marketing actions, and it should be comprehensive, flexible, and logical.2
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A marketing plan can be considered a manual for marketing actions that

is based on an analysis of the internal and external situations, clear mar-
keting objectives and strategies for targeted customers, and management
of marketing activities through implementation and control. It states
where an organization is, where to go, how to get there, and by when.

The Benefits of Marketing Planning

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Building a marketing plan can have a great, positive impact on an organi-

zation. There are five main benefits of marketing planning:

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INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING PLANNING 3

1. Marketing planning allows the marketers to thoroughly examine

their internal and external situations with the aim of understanding

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the organization’s overall position in the market.
2. Marketing planning forces the marketers to consider the needs and
wants of their stakeholders, especially their target customers who
provide sales revenue (for for-profit organizations) or other mon-
etary and nonmonetary returns (for nonprofit organizations).
3. Marketers can utilize the planning process to systematically identify
and evaluate a variety of scenarios, possibilities, and results.

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4. Planning identifies the resources that will be needed to perform the
planned marketing activities in order to achieve short-, medium-,
and long-term corporate objectives.
5. Marketing planning helps marketers evaluate the results so as to
revise objectives and marketing strategies if necessary.
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In general, marketing planning can prepare marketers to have a firm
understating of the business, its strategies, and the underlying factors that
form those strategies. Given such a shared understanding, executives will
be able to respond rapidly to new threats and opportunities.
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The Barriers to Effective Marketing Planning

Building a marketing plan is not an easy task. In addition to the com-
plexity of various marketing issues, marketers need to deal with potential
barriers to effective marketing planning. There are a number of barri-
ers3 to marketing planning, including cognitive, procedural, resource,
organizational, cultural, and data availability difficulties. The fol-
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lowing is a summary of 10 of the main impediments to successful

planning:4

1. Confusion between tactics and strategy. Managers might focus more

on short-term tactics that help sell a product than on a strategy
that aims at long-term sustainable competitive advantage. Manag-
ers often make the mistake that marketing planning is not required
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with short-term tactics. On the contrary, an organization with a

strategic focus needs the assistance of the holistic approach of mar-
keting planning to materialize the strategy.

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4 BUILDING A MARKETING PLAN

2. Isolating the marketing function from operations. In order to overcome

this barrier, marketers need to work with staff from other depart-

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ments such as research and development and engineering to develop
new products, accounting and finance to set appropriate budgets,
production to deal with logistics and channel management issues,
and sales departments to overcome barriers to effective selling and
gathering relevant market intelligence. Top management plays an
important role to ensure that marketers receive all necessary support
and resources so they can perform marketing planning properly.

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3. Confusion between the marketing function and the marketing concept.
Some top management confuse piecemeal marketing functions
with the holistic marketing concept. The former is concerned with
separate marketing functions, such as advertising, customer service,
sales, and product management, whereas the latter holds an inclu-
sive view of marketing and integrates all marketing activities in a
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marketing plan that can satisfy the needs of selected customer seg-
ments in order to achieve the objectives.
4. Organizational barriers. Depending on the organization structure,
an organization may be divided into various departments or units.
Marketers face potential barriers when departments or units other
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than marketing or marketing-related areas are not interested in mar-

keting planning. Other departments or units may have their own
agendas to run their sections.
5. Lack of in-depth analysis. Organizations don’t face the issue of too
little information but rather a lack of information management. The
major challenge is the capacity to provide in-depth analysis of the
information available. Without in-depth analysis, marketers won’t
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know where their organizations stand in the market, and the conse-
quence is a failure to provide a strategic direction.
6. Confusion between process and output. Some organizations tend to
make their marketing plans, the output, too bulky to be of any par-
ticular use. This is the outcome of focusing on the plan rather than
the process. Some marketers mistakenly believe that a bigger output
reflects a better process.
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7. Lack of knowledge and skills. Some marketers rarely apply market-

ing concepts and techniques in their marketing planning. Some
are unable to differentiate between corporate objectives, marketing

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INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING PLANNING 5

objectives, and advertising objectives. Adding to this confusion,

communication and interpersonal skills often need to be strength-

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ened or marketing plans will be ineffectively implemented.
8. Lack of a systematic approach to marketing planning. Within an orga-
nization, there may be different strategic business units conducting
marketing planning. Consequently, each unit develops its own
marketing plan. The variations of these plans might be caused by
different levels of data analysis, different opinions on how to achieve
corporate objectives, or perhaps different motivations of partici-

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pating managers. The large discrepancy in marketing plans from
different units makes corporate headquarters’ coordination work
very difficult, if not impossible.
9. Failure to prioritize objectives. Some organizations set too many
objectives. There are too many subobjectives of subobjectives. One
of the major contributions of marketing planning is to provide a
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strategic focus. Marketing planning should assist marketers to focus
more on the important objectives and take out the trivial ones.
10. Hostile corporate cultures. Since corporate cultures are difficult to
change and tend to maintain the existing power structure and the
status quo, the introduction of marketing planning might create
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tensions that lead to changes in organizations. Resistance to change

and office politics are often barriers to building an effective market-
ing plan.

Marketing planning is not a straightforward task, nor can it be com-

pleted in a linear, one-off manner. Marketers are likely to encounter
various organizational, attitudinal, process, and cognitive barriers that
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hinder effective planning. Successful planning takes patience, knowledge,

persuasion, and negotiation skills. Understanding the potential barriers
to marketing planning helps marketers to be better prepared for the chal-
lenges ahead.

The Marketing Planning Process

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The marketing planning process goes through four major steps, as shown
in Figure 1.1. Step one is the situation analysis. The main purpose of this
step is to understand where the organization stands. Step two is to analyze

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6 BUILDING A MARKETING PLAN

the target market so that marketers can understand the buying behavior
of their target customers. This is followed by the step of setting marketing

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objectives and strategies. The final step is concerned with implementation
of the strategies and evaluation of the results in terms of the objectives.
The cycle of a marketing plan is usually 1 year. Data gathering and
analysis sometimes takes months to complete. Marketers need to factor
in the time issue when preparing a marketing plan. In addition, as shown
in Figure 1.1, marketing planning is a continuous effort rather than a
once-a-year exercise. What follows is a brief summary of the four major

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steps. Each of these steps is discussed in more detail in later chapters.

Step 1: Situation Analysis

A situation analysis is an assessment of the environment in which the

organization operates and of the organization itself. The former assess-
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ment is called external analysis and the latter internal analysis. The
external analysis helps marketers identify the trends and changes of exter-
nal factors, such as social, political, technological, economic, natural, and
competitive environments, and develop an in-depth understanding of
customers (current and potential). These external factors are beyond the
control of the marketers. In the case of the external environment, the
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best marketers can do is understand the issues and adapt. On the other
hand, the internal analysis is meant to assess internal factors that can be
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Figure 1.1. Four steps to successful marketing planning.

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INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING PLANNING 7

controlled by the organization. The principal internal factors to consider

are the organization’s marketing, finance, human, and manufacturing

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resources, and the organization must develop knowledge of its manage-
ment and organizational structure and culture. The situation analysis of
the external and internal factors will lead to the construction of a SWOT
(strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. The strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats should be analyzed in relation to
the organization’s current situation and market needs. This analysis assists
marketers to determine what the organization does well and what it does

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not. It also identifies the issues that need to be improved. We will discuss
the situation analysis in chapter 2.

Step 2: Target Market Analysis

Once the marketer understands his or her organization’s strengths, weak-

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nesses, opportunities, and threats, the next step in marketing planning
is to understand the markets and customers. Marketing information is
critical in understating markets and customers. Two important tools are
available to allow the marketer to gather marketing information. One is
marketing research, and the other is marketing intelligence. Both tools
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generate marketing information for the marketer to understand con-

sumer behavior—that is, who is buying or would buy what, and how,
how often, where, when, and why that person buys. Marketing research
goes through five steps: (a) defining the problem and the research objec-
tives, (b) developing the research design for collecting information, (c)
collecting the data, (d) analyzing and interpreting the data, and (e) report-
ing the research findings. While marketing research is usually conducted
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on an ad hoc basis, marketing intelligence is performed on a continuing

basis.
Once marketing research has been completed, the organization must
undertake the steps of the target marketing process: market segmenta-
tion, market targeting, and market positioning. Because resources are
limited, the organization is unable to target every market. The organiza-
tion has to divide the markets into segments that it can target. Segments
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can be classified on the basis of geographic, demographic, psychographic,

and behavioral characteristics. Targeting is the evaluation of each market
segment’s attractiveness so that the marketers can focus on one or more

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8 BUILDING A MARKETING PLAN

segments that suit the organization best. Market positioning is a market-

ing strategy to place a product or brand to occupy a distinctive position in

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the minds of target customers relative to competitive products or brands.
We will take a closer look at target market analysis in chapter 3.

Step 3: Marketing Objectives Setting and

Marketing Strategy Formulation

After the target market analysis and segmentation, targeting, and posi-

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tioning strategies are set, marketers can develop SMART (specific,
measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound) marketing objectives
and the various elements of the marketing mix can be deployed to pro-
vide value that will satisfy the needs and wants of the target customers.
SMART marketing objectives state what products are to be sold to which
markets—addressing market growth, market share, or profits. Market-
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ing objectives should provide a tangible guide for action, provide specific
actions to follow, suggest tools to measure and control effectiveness,
be ambitious enough to be challenging, take account of the company’s
strengths and weaknesses, capitalize on opportunities and avoid or
minimize potential threats, be well matched with corporate objectives
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and individual product line objectives, and have a specific time for
completion.
The basic elements of marketing mix are product, price, place, and
promotion and are sometimes referred to as the Four Ps (4Ps):

1. Product strategy is concerned with managing existing products over

time, adding new products, and dropping failed ones. In addition,
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strategic decisions about the width and depth of a product line,

packaging, and branding need to be made.
2. Pricing strategy tries to determine an optimal price for a product.
Internal and external factors that affect pricing decisions should
first be examined before deciding which pricing approach is to be
adopted.
3. Place strategy, which is also called distribution strategy, focuses on
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the transfer of products from an organization to the target cus-

tomers. The transfer may go through other organizations, such as
wholesalers and retailers. The management of this transfer process

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INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING PLANNING 9

is referred to as channel management. Another strategic decision

in relation to place strategy is logistics management, which is con-

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cerned with the physical movement of a product from one place to
another.
4. Promotion strategy relates to coordinating an organization’s com-
munications and marketing messages between different media and
ensuring there is consistency of the message throughout. The pro-
motion mix elements (e.g., advertising, sales promotions, direct
marketing, online and interactive marketing, among many others)

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all have different strengths and weaknesses that must be coordinated
to provide an integrated message about the organization’s products,
brands, corporate identity, and social and environmental goals.

The four elements of the marketing mix are interrelated. The market-
ing mix strategies should be built on the basis of segmentation, targeting,
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and positioning with the organization’s objectives in mind. We will cover
the marketing mix strategies in chapters 5 to 8.

Step 4: Marketing Implementation and Control

The final step of the marketing planning process is implementation and

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control. Marketing implementation includes all the activities needed to

make the marketing strategies work. Without a good implementation
plan, marketing objectives are unlikely to be achieved, irrespective of how
good the marketing strategies are. A McKinsey Seven S (7S) model is a
practical tool to assist marketing implementation. The 7S model consists
of structure, systems, shared values, skills, staff, style, and strategy. Mar-
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keters need to have a well-conceived and detailed 7S model in place to

execute the marketing strategies.
The main purpose of control is to understand if the organization has
achieved the predetermined objectives. The four major steps in a control
process are setting standards of performance, identifying tools for mea-
suring marketing progress, evaluating actual performance against the set
objectives, and taking corrective actions if necessary. With the completion
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of the control process, a marketing planning cycle is basically complete

and can be considered as the start of the next cycle. We will explore mar-
keting implementation and control in more detail in chapter 10.

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10 BUILDING A MARKETING PLAN

Marketing Planning in Action:

A Comprehensive Example

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In order to show how to apply the marketing planning framework
discussed in this book, a comprehensive example detailing all the mar-
keting planning elements detailed from chapters 2 to 10 is shown in the
appendix. The marketing plan example was developed for an imaginary
company but is loosely based on a real organization for which we com-
pleted a consultancy project years ago. The example first introduces the

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background of the organization—Pindari Boomerang Factory. It then
demonstrates the external environment analysis, customer analysis,
internal analysis, SWOT analysis, and strategic decision analysis for the
business. Marketing objectives, marketing strategies, and implementa-
tion and control systems are then developed in a step-by-step manner.
It should be noted that the example intends to only demonstrate how to
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use the concepts discussed in this text to build a marketing plan. It is not
intended to argue that the decisions and recommended actions are the
only or the most appropriate ways to build a marketing plan.
As an introduction to the marketing planning process (and the layout
for the remainder of this book), structure overview provides an overview
of the structure and important features of a comprehensive marketing
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plan.
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INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING PLANNING 11

Overview of the Structure and

Features of a Marketing Plan

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Executive Summary. Provide an overview of the entire plan, focusing
on recommendations and implications for management, competitive
advantage(s), required investment, and expected sales/profits.

Table of Contents

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List of Figures and Tables
1 Introduction. Introduce the organization’s background, mission
statement, and corporate objectives.
2 Situation Analysis
2.1 External Situational Analysis. Include the PEST (political,
economic, social, and technological) and natural environ-
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ment analyses, looking for trends and changes in the macro
environments specifically to expose potential opportunities or
threats. (See chapter 2.)
2.2 Internal Situational Analysis. Examine internal strengths and
weaknesses, looking for resource levels, skills availability,
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marketing capabilities, research and development capabili-

ties, management strengths, production capabilities, financial
resources, and research and development potential. (See chap-
ter 2.)
2.3 Competitor Analysis. Examine competitors (both direct and
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indirect), looking for potential opportunities or threats (con-

sider using a table to compare your products, skills, ancillary
services, financial and human resource positions, etc. with
those of competitors). (See chapter 2.)
2.4 Customer Analysis. Describe the target market(s) and develop
market segmentation information in detail, incorporating
demographic, psychographic, and geographic descriptions.
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Develop market targeting and positioning statements. (See

chapters 3 and 4.)

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12 BUILDING A MARKETING PLAN

3 SWOT Analysis and Competitive Advantage(s). Provide brief sum-

marized statements of the findings from the situational analysis.

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(See chapter 2.)
4 Marketing Objectives. Conduct a product life-cycle analysis; Bos-
ton Consulting Group (BCG) matrix analysis; Ansoff matrix
analysis (explained in chapter 5); state competitive advantage
objectives for market leader, market follower, or niche market
positions. Develop SMART objectives that link directly with the

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corporate objectives and the corporate mission; take advantages of
internal strength and external opportunities; and avoid or mini-
mize internal weaknesses and external threats. (See chapter 5.)
5 Marketing Strategies. Precisely state how you will achieve each
objective by linking a target market segment with a marketing
objective and a product incorporating the marketing mix ele-
ments (the Four Ps—4Ps). (See chapters 6 through 9.)
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6 Marketing Implementation. Calculate break-even points, budgets,
and returns on investments; compute sales projections and cash
flows on monthly and annual bases; evaluate the McKinsey Seven
S (7S) elements as they apply to your organization; and develop
actions/activities around each to ensure that your marketing plan
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is appropriately implemented. (See chapter 10.)

7 Marketing Control. Develop marketing metrics to ensure that
your plan remains on track to meet the marketing objectives, and
corrective actions can be taken if needed. (See chapter 10.)
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INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING PLANNING 13

Summary
Marketing planning is the process that leads to an understanding of an

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organization’s position in the market and a series of marketing deci-
sions and actions to achieve an organization’s goals within a time frame.
Marketing planning is beneficial to the organization. It can assist the
marketers to understand their businesses, strategies, and other related fac-
tors. Consequently, the marketers are better equipped to deal with threats
and opportunities. Marketing planning is a difficult task. Marketers need

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to handle 10 major barriers to marketing planning. After removing these
barriers, the marketers are more likely to develop a good marketing plan.
The whole marketing planning process comprises four major steps: (a)
situation analysis, including internal and external analysis; (b) target mar-
ket analysis that indentifies the buying behavior; (c) marketing objective
setting and strategic formulation clearly stating where to go and how to
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get there; and (d) implementation and control, ensuring the marketing
strategies are executed as planned and evaluating the actual results against
the marketing objectives.

Chapter Review
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1. Describe the 10 barriers to marketing planning and suggest solu-

tions to each of these barriers.
2. The 4Ps are the 4 basic elements of the marketing mix. Identify
the 4Ps and describe the main aims of marketing strategies that
could be developed based on each of these elements.
3. As the marketing manager for a medium-sized business market-
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ing children’s clothing lines, outline a marketing plan structure

and briefly describe what you consider would be the main ques-
tions to address under each heading.
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No
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