Factfile 8
Marketing planning and product planning
Corporate strategy generally defines the company?s overall mission and objectives, which in turn can be used to plan the actions that marketing managers take when making decisions relating to market and product planning.
Through strategic planning, the company decides what it wants to do with each business unit, which, depending on how the company is organised, could be focused on either the markets they operate in or the products they sell.
Marketing plays an important role in strategic planning by providing information and other inputs to help prepare the strategic plan, which in tandem with other functions within the organisation work towards achieving strategic objectives (Piercy, 1997).
Hamel (1996) suggests that planning is a different concept to strategy altogether and that the ideas and objectives that an organisation has in terms of its long-term strategy, do not translate particularly well into, easy to implement, plans.
However, the more common school of thought in relation to marketing planning, is that planning is ?an incredible source of leverage for creating strategic ideas, building momentum for change and winning people?s commitment and enthusiasm for strategic change? (Piercy 1996).
Indeed, in the results of the survey, it was marketing executives who, through contacts with customers and competitors were able to see new ways of doing things that could be inputted into the corporate strategy. Furthermore, Kotler et al (2001) highlight the overlap between corporate strategy and marketing strategy; ?marketing looks at consumer needs and the company?s ability to satisfy them?which guide the company?s mission and objectives?.
A strategic audit needs to be undertaken in order to develop effective corporate strategy and plan. An audit includes an analysis of the market, competition within it, a review of the organisation, its strengths and weaknesses and resource availability.
The M2B Canon research with senior marketing practitioners identified a common theme of working closely with the customer and being market-led, in order to develop their products and services and thus retain customers as much as possible.
The main challenge faced by these respondents is staying ahead of the competition and ensuring that the ideas gathered from customers or developed from market research can be made into a successful and commercial opportunity. Overall, planning was identified as a basic requirement to survive within business.