Developing Marketing Strategies

And Plans

What is Value in Marketing: Value in marketing, also known

as customer-perceived value, is the difference between a
prospective customer's evaluation of the benefits and costs of
one product when compared with others. Value may also be
expressed as a straightforward relationship between perceived
benefits and perceived costs: Value = Benefits - Cost.

Customer Value: Customer Value is the customer’s value perception

of the worth of your product or service. Here’s how companies can
enhance their value to improve the customer experience and increase
satisfaction. The task of any business is to deliver customer value at a
profit.

Marketing Plan: Marketing plan is the central instrument for directing

and coordinating the marketing efforts. A marketing plan is the
advertising strategy that a business will implement to sell its product or
service. The marketing plan will help determine who the target market
is, how best to reach them, at what price point the product or service
should be sold, and how the company will measure its efforts. It
operates at two levels. The strategic marketing plan lays out the target
markets and the firm’s value proposition, based on an analysis of the
best market opportunities. The tactical Marketing Plan specifies the
marketing tactics, including product features, promotion,
merchandising, sales channels and service.

Types of Marketing Plan:

1. New Product Launch: This is a marketing plan that outlines how a new
product will enter the market, who it will target, and in what way
advertising will be done.

2. Social Media: A social media marketing plan focuses on the advertising

strategies on different social media platforms and how to engage with the
users on these platforms.

3. Time-Based: A social media marketing plan focuses on the advertising

strategies on different social media platforms and how to engage with the
users on these platforms.

The Contents of Marketing Plan:

1. Executive summary: The executive summary is the opening section

of the marketing plan. It presents a summary of the main goals and
recommendations to be presented in the plan.

2. Current Marketing Situation: The current marketing situation is

the first major section of the plan. It describes the target market
 and the company’s position therein. This section contains
information about the market, product performance,
competition, and distribution.
3. Threats and Opportunities: In this section, the planner lists as
many threats and opportunities as anticipated that the product
might face. This section enables the manager to anticipate
important developments that might affect the company.

4. Objectives and Issues: Analysis of threats and opportunities

leads the marketer towards setting objectives and consider
issues that will affect them. The objectives should be stated in
terms of goals the company would like to attain during the
plan’s period.

5. Marketing Strategies: In this section of the marketing plan, the

manager outlines the broad marketing strategy or ”game plan”
for attaining the objectives. Marketing strategy is the marketing
logic by which the business unit hopes to achieve its marketing
objectives.

6. Action Programs: Marketing strategies should be translated into

specific action programs that will indicate what to do and when
and by whom it will be done and its cost. The action plan
indicates when activities will be started, reviewed, and
completed.
 7. Budgets: Action plans allow the manager to make a supporting
marketing budget that is essentially a projected profit-and-loss
statement. It shows the forecasted number of units that would
be sold and the average net price for revenues.

8. Controls: Control is the last section of the marketing plan. It

outlines the control methods that will be used to monitor
development. Goals and budgets are set for a specific time
period.

The Central Role of Strategic Marketing: 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, analyzing its opportunities
and threats, and mapping out marketing action plans for
implementation.
To ensure they execute the right activities, marketers must prioritize
strategic planning in three key areas:

(1) Managing the businesses as an investment portfolio

(2) Assessing the market's growth rate and the company's position in
that market
(3) Establishing a strategy.

The company must develop a game plan for achieving each business's
long-run objectives. Most large companies consist of four
organizational levels:
(1) Corporate, (2) division, (3) business unit, and (4) product. Corporate
headquarters is responsible for designing a corporate strategic plan to
guide the whole enterprise; Each division establishes a plan covering
the allocation of funds to each business unit within the division. Each
business unit develops a strategic plan to carry that business unit into a
profitable future. Finally, each product level (product line, brand)
develops a marketing plan for achieving its objectives.

The Value Delivery Process:-

In economies with many different types of people, each with individual
wants, perceptions, preferences and buying criteria, the smart
competitor must design and deliver offerings for well-defined target
markets. This realization inspired a new view of business processes that
places marketing at the beginning of planning. Instead of emphasizing
making and selling, companies now see themselves as part of a value
delivery process. We can divide the value creation and delivery
sequences into three phases –
1. Firstly, choosing the value is the marketers must do work before
any product exists. They must segment the market, select the
appropriate target and develop the offering’s value positioning.
The formula “segmentation, targeting, positioning (STP) is the
essence of strategic planning.

2. The second phase is providing the value. Marketing must identify

specific product features, prices and distribution.

3. The third phase is communicating the value by utilizing the

internet, advertising, sales force and any other communication
tools to announce and promote the product.
The value delivery process begins before there is a product and
continues through development and after launch. Each phase has cost
implications.

Value Chain: Harvard’s Michael Porter has proposed the value

chain as a tool for identifying ways to create more customer value.
According to this model, every firm is a synthesis of activities
performed to design, produce, market, deliver and support its
product. Nine strategically relevant activities- five primary and four
support activities create value and cost in a specific business.
Corporate and Division Strategic Planning:
Whether they let their business units set their own goals and strategies
or collaboration in doing so, all corporate headquarters undertake four
planning activities.

1) Defining Corporate Mission:

2) Establishing strategic business units: Large companies normally

manage quite different businesses, each requiring its own strategy.
An Strategic Business Units have three characteristics-

a) It is a single business or a collaboration of related businesses that

can be planned separately from the rest of the company.

b) It has its own set of competitors

c) It has a manager responsible for strategic planning and profit

performance, who controls most of the factors affecting profit.

3) Assigning Resources To Each SBU:

4) Assessing Growth Opportunities: Assessing growth

opportunities includes planning new businesses, downsizing and
terminating older businesses. If there is gap between future desired
sales and projected sales, corporate management will need to
develop or acquire new business to fill it. The strategic planning gap
include -
 i) Intensive Growth: Some options for intensive growth include
identifying new customer groups within existing sales areas,
developing additional distribution channels, or selling in new
markets, such as those in other countries
ii) Integrative Growth: After examining intensive growth
strategies, the next step is to consider integrative growth
strategies. Integrative growth typically involves backward,
forward or horizontal integration with an industry.
iii) Diversification Growth: Diversification growth makes sense
iv) when good opportunities exist outside the present businesses-
the industry is highly attractive and the company has the right
mix of business strengths to succeed.
v)

Business Unit Strategic Planning Process:

1. Business Mission
2. SWOT Analysis
3. Goal Formulation
4. Strategy Formulation
5. Program Formulation
6. Implementation
7. Feedback and Control

1) Business Mission: Each business unit needs to define

specific mission within the broader company mission. Thus
a television studio-lighting-equiment company might
 define its mission as “To target major television studios
and become their vendor of choice for lighting
technologies that represents the most advanced and
reliable studio lighting arrangements.”

2) SWOT Analysis: The overall evaluation of a company’s

strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats is called
SWOT analysis. It is a way of monitoring the external and
internal marketing environment. Good marketing is theart
of finding, developing and profiting from these
opportunities.