CHAPTER FOUR

Strategic Planning at Corporate Level and Marketing

Planning at Business Level
 Topics Covered

To grasp marketing planning, one has to start with corporate-level strategic
planning 

Concerns of corporate-level strategic planning and tasks involved 

Concerns of marketing planning
Tasks involved in marketing planning
Competitive advantage: The backup for strategy
Preparing detailed, function-wise marketing plans
To Grasp Marketing Planning, Start with
Corporate-level Strategic Planning
 Demystifying ‘strategic planning’ and ‘strategy’

 Strategy is not something nebulous

 It is a plan of action to secure specific goals of the enterprise

 Strategic planning leads to the formulation of strategies

Exhibit 4.1 ‘Strategic Planning at Work’ gives clarity on the terms ‘strategic planning’
and ‘strategy’ from the situations described there.
 Strategic planning facilitates value delivery

Exhibit 4.2 ‘Flipkart:­Value Selection and Value Creation During Strategic Planning
Stages’ shows how upstream activities of value selection and value creation are taken
care of at the strategic planning stages.
 Concerns of Corporate-level
Strategic Planning
Strategic planning is concerned with the following:
 The firm’s future

 Its growth

 Environment

 The basket of businesses for the firm

 Strategy is its concern, not the nuts and bolts of routine tasks

 Competitive advantages needed by the firm

 Integration of various functions, not a particular function

 In short, corporate strategy is its concern

Continued…
 …Continued
Concerns of Corporate-level
Strategic Planning
 Strategic planning gives the firm an objective–strategy design

 The objective–strategy design will contain the following:

• Growth objectives of the firm

• Product–market scope
• Growth vector
• Competitive advantage of the firm
• Synergy/business linkages/joint effects
 The objective–strategy design denotes the firm’s corporate strategy
 Tasks Involved in Strategic Planning
Chart 4.1 ‘Tasks Involved in Strategic Planning’ lists the component tasks of
strategic planning.
 Clarifying the mission (Exhibit 4.3)
 Defining the business
 Surveying the environment: Opportunity–threat profile
 Internal appraisal of the firm: The concept of SBU

Exhibit 4.4 ‘Analytical Models: BCG Model, GE Model, Ansoff Grid’ gives the
salient features of these models.
Chart 4.2 ‘Basics of Value Chain Approach’ explains the basics of the value chain
concept.
 Setting corporate objectives
 Formulating the corporate strategy
 Concerns of Marketing Planning

 Delivering results prescribed by the corporate plan of the firm

 Planning the growth of each product line, each product and each brand

 Formulating marketing strategy for each product and brand

 Securing targeted sales/share/profits for the products/brands

 Monitoring the marketing environment of the business unit

 Countering competition

 In short, marketing success of every product/brand is its concern

Exhibit 4.5 ‘ITC’s Corporate-level Planning and Business-level Marketing Planning’
explains the difference in planning at the two levels more thoroughly from the example
of ITC.
Mini Case 4.1 ‘How ITC Has Been Planning and Achieving Growth’ takes a look at how
ITC has been carrying out strategic planning and achieving growth over the years.
 Tasks Involved in Marketing Planning
Chart 4.3 ‘Tasks Involved in Marketing Planning’ lists the main tasks involved in
marketing planning.
 Analysing the environment of the business: Developing the O–T profile

 Internal appraisal of the unit :

• Assessing its strengths and weakness
• Assessing the status of product lines, products and brands
• Assessing the competitive advantage available (Charts 4.6–4.9 and Mini
Case 4.2)
• Developing the SWOT profile

 Setting the marketing objectives of the unit:

• Conditioned by corporation’s overall growth targets (Chart 4.4)

Continued…
…Continued
Tasks Involved in Marketing Planning

 Formulating the marketing strategy: The core of marketing planning

(topic of Chapter 5)

 Developing detailed marketing plans and progr­­ammes for each

product/brand (Chart 4.5 and Exhibit 4.6)

 Formulating the marketing budget: Financialisation of a marketing plan

(Charts 4.10 and Chart 4.11)