STRATEGIC MARKETING

PLANNING: BMKT 401

INTRODUCTORY LECTURE

COURSE FACILITATORS: M.K. FEGLO & W.A. INKUMSAH

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 Learning Objectives
After this introductory lecture students be able to:
 Understand the domain of strategic marketing

 Comprehend why strategic marketing planning is so

important
 Benefits of SMP

 Approaches to planning

 explore and explain the different stages in developing a strategic marketing

plan

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 The Domain of Strategic Marketing
The domain is viewed as encompassing the study of
 organizational,

 inter-organizational and

 Environmental phenomena

It is concerned with
 the behaviour of organizations in the marketplace in their interactions with

 consumers, customers, competitors and other external constituencies,

 in the context of creation, communication and delivery of products that

offer value to customers in exchanges with organizations,
 the general management responsibilities associated with the boundary spanning
role of the marketing function in organizations.

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 What planning Achieves
• Planning focuses the mind.
• ‘ Plans should be comprehensive enough to provide a ‘blueprint’ for
staff to work to.
• ‘ Planning can be undertaken in different ways and these should take
account of organisational factors and circumstances

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Strategic Marketing Planning
 Marketing activity cannot realistically happen without marketing
planning.
 As with any other business activity, setting out to achieve something
requires a certain amount of thought beforehand
 Knowing what each of us has to do to realise the common aim is what
planning is intended to achieve.

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Strategic Marketing Planning Defined
 Marketing planning is an approach adopted by many successful, marketing-
focused businesses.

 Marketing planning can be defined as the structured process of researching and

analysing marketing situations, developing and documenting marketing
objectives, strategies and programmes, and implementing, evaluating and
controlling activities to achieve the objectives (Hollensen, 2006).
 Marketing planning is an ongoing process, not a one-shot event

 SMP results in the marketing plan,

 Marketing planning as a functional activity can only work within a corporate

planning framework

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Organizational Levels
The Corporate Level is the
highest level in any organization.

The Functional Level includes all the

various functional areas within a business unit.

The Business Level consists of units within the

overall organization that are generally managed
as self-contained businesses.

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Organizational Strategic Planning

Higher organizational level strategic

plans provide direction for strategic
plans at lower levels.

Lower-level plans are developed

to execute higher-level plans.

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Types of Strategic Plans
Organizational Level Type of Strategic Plan Key Strategic Decisions

Corporate vision
Corporate strategic
Objectives & resource
Corporate Corporate vision
allocation
plan
Growth strategies

Market scope
Business Business strategic plan
Competitive advantage

Marketing strategic plan

Product marketing Target market
Marketing
Specific target market Marketing mix
Specific target market
plan
plan Specific
marketing
mix

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Benefit of SMP
Above all, the process of marketing planning has a number of benefits, as detailed below:

The individual marketing action plan will be consistent with the

overall corporate plan and with other departmental or functional
plans. It should also be consistent with those of previous years,
minimizing the risk of management ‘fire-fighting’ – that is,
Consistency incoherent, case-by-case action plans. In this way marketing planning
prevents the short-sighted tendency to concentrate all effort on the
‘here and now’.

Those who have responsibility for implementing the individual

parts of the marketing plan will know what their
responsibilities are and should have their performance
monitored against the plan. Marketing planning requires
Responsibility management staff, collectively, to make clear judgemental
statements about assumptions, and it enables a control system
to be designed and established whereby performance can be
assessed against predetermined criteria.

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Benefit of SMP
Apart from knowing what to do, the plan enables
people to understand why they are doing things.
In other words, people should understand how
Communication their role fits into the larger picture, and should
understand what the reasoning is behind their
part in the company’s success. This is likely to be
a strong motivator for staff.

A good plan should help to create a group commitment

to its implementation.
Commitment:

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 Approaches to SMP

• There are three main strategic marketing planning approaches, in terms of

involvement of the organization as a whole

Here top management sets both the goals

Top-down and the plan for lower-level management.
planning

In this approach, the various organizational units

Bottom-up create their own goals and plans, which are then
planning approved (or not) by higher-level management.

Goals-down- Top management set the goals, but the various units create
plans-up their own plans to meet these goals. These plans are then
typically approved as part of the annual planning and
planning budgetary process.

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Stages of the marketing planning process

Analysis. The planners need to assess the current situation in which the
organisation finds itself.

Planning. This is the crucial stage. The second step involves putting the plan
together and coming up with the detail of how all the different aspects are to
be accomplished

Implementation. Putting the plan into action means ensuring that everyone is clear
about what they should be doing: each member of the organisation needs to know
exactly how they are expected to contribute. The penultimate stage involves
determining these responsibilities, setting timescales, identifying appropriate
structures, systems and processes to enable this, and determining budgets to support
the activities involved.
Control. The final stage involves recognising that it will not always be the case – in fact
it will be highly unlikely – that the plan will fulfil its original targets. Actions have to be
taken to put the plan back on track, or realistically sometimes the specific outcomes in
the plan need to be re-evaluated in the light of changing circumstances

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 ASSIGNMENT 1.1

• Assume to have conducted internal analysis of your firm that produces and
sells a branded newspaper in Ghana.
• List 5 strengths and 5 weaknesses you have identified from the analysis.
(10 marks)
• Deadline for submission: first day of week 2

• Note: this is an individual assignment. Any sign of collusion will be highly

penalised

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