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The Marketing Plan and Planning Process

Many marketing plans draw all this together and summarize after a di'l.iilrd ilir.i ir.мин i>l these elements through statin;; in very specifii terms problems, opportunities, and threats. In every case it is insuffi cient simply to state the problem or the opportunity or threat; rather it is important to state also alternative courses of action for overcoming the problems, taking advantage of the opportunities and avoiding the threats

Marketing Objectives and Goals. Objectives and goals must be clearly spelled out and identified. A marketing objective might be to become the leading supplier of a certain product. Underneath this ob jective, certain goals an; established. One goal might be attainment of 30 percent market share within the next three years. Goals could per tain to volume of sales, return on investment, or measurable aims. Remember that you can't get "there" until you know where "there" is. Thus, the importance of objectives and goals. Also, be careful that ob jectives or goals are not mutually exclusive. For example, attaining a certain market share may require sacrifice of some profit.

Marketing Strategies. Strategies are the actions that you must take to reach your goals and objectives and will be discussed in more detail in forthcoming chapters in this hook. A marketing strategy may mean mass marketing, that is, trying to sell the same product to everyone; a strategy of market segmentation, where you attempt to sell your prod uct and concentrate your resources only on certain segments of the marketplace; a strategy of product differentiation, where your product is differentiated from those of your competitors; a strategy of positioning, where your product is positioned in the minds of its potential buyers relative to other products offered; a strategy of internationalization, where your product is differentiated depending upon the different country that it is marketed; or one of globalization, where the same product is marketed identically in the same manner in every single country. In any case, strategies must be specified and described in detail along with the differential advantages that adoption will enable.

Marketing Tactics. As described in the previous chapter, tactics is how we carry out our strategy. Thus, a strategy of product differentiation may require differentiation by product tactics in which we change the packaging, pricing tactics where the price is altered or modified; promotion tactics where a previously ignored difference is emphasized and promoted; or distribution tactics where a faster means of getting the product to the consumer or buyer is used to differentiate our product from that of our competitors.