CHAPTER 5: MARKETING STRATEGIES

Strategic Marketing Planning

The strategic marketing planning process is as follows :

organization sets out its overall vision, mission, and values.

Measurable corporate goals are established.
A series of analyses and audits are undertaken to understand the external situation.
Strategies are formulated and probable outcomes estimated.
the range of businesses (SBUs) and/or products is determined and resources are
allocated
Each business and/or product then develops detailed functional and competitive
strategies and plans
The plan is implemented, and the results measured .

Key Activities of Marketing Strategy Development

The three major activities of marketing strategy development are :

a. Strategic Marketing Analysis: The development of knowledge and understanding

about the target market(s) that have been identified as part of corporate strategy.
Strategic Marketing Analysis also includes :
1. Analysing Competitors :
2. Analysing Suppliers and Distributors :
3. SWOT Analysis

b. Strategic Marketing Goals : The purpose is to help managers understand the nature
of the industry, the way firms behave competitively within the industry and how
competition is generally undertaken. Main Strategic objectives are :
1. Niche
2. Hold
3. Harvesting.
4. Divest

Growth : Growth is also considered to be a primary objective. Growth can be

intensive, integrated or diversified.

Strategic Marketing Actions : Concerns the identification of the most appropriate

way of achieving goals and then putting the plan into action, the implementation
phase. Strategic Marketing Actions include :

1. Competitive Advantage.
2. Generic Strategies.
3. Competitive Positioning
Implementation :

Many organizations and firms use one or another variant of balanced scorecard Recent
research has highlighted the increased use of marketing metrics in firms , including areas
such as : profit/profitability; sales , value and volumes; gross margins; awareness; market
share; number of customer complaints; consumer satisfaction; distribution/availability; total
number of customers; marketing spend; perceived quality/esteem; loyalty/retention and
relative perceived quality.

Sales forecasting and Sales Variance Analysis

To determine a companys yearly sales forecast , we forecast total industry sales revenues and
multiply this measure by forecast market share. We can also determine sales forecast
directly , through the opinion studies of sales personnel or using marketing intelligence
reports. Sales variance analysis allows us to determine whether we are meeting our target
sales forecast by measuring how much our actual sales revenue differs from those forecasts.

Marketing Planning

A marketing plan designed to support a particular product consists of a series of activities that
should be undertaken sequentially.