Chap 4:- Developing and Enacting Strategic Marketing Plans

Meaning and scope of strategic marketing:What is Strategic Marketing, and why is it different from just Marketing?
The term "Marketing" is widely misunderstood. Many people when asked; "What is
Marketing?", will respond with answers such as; "Producing TV advertisements", "writing catch
phrases", "producing brochures", "a conspiracy to make people buy more than they need",
"improving brand awareness", "fancy packaging", or "sponsoring the Olympics". In fact these
are all part of Marketing, but only a small part.
Marketers describe the above activities as promotions, which are designed to create awareness,
interest, desire, and action among potential customers.
Strategic Marketing, in addition to the promotions described above, also addresses issues such
as; What products or services should we be involved with? How much should we charge for
them? How do we make it easy for people to purchase our products?
The simple question "What products or services should we be involved with?" is a massive issue.
It encompasses; What do potential consumers want? What is the competition like? Will we make
any money doing this? Do we have the capability to deliver what is required? Would we be better
doing something else? Is the market long term or short term? How do we address the market we
have identified? Does the market break down into market segments? etc.
The point of this is to emphasize that there is more to strategic marketing than is commonly
understood. Strategic Marketing is defined in the "Marketing Concept", of which there are
several different definitions, but all of them incorporate the broad definition of marketing alluded
to above.
Marketing Concept
"Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating, and satisfying
customers' requirements, profitably." Chartered Institute of Marketing.
The marketing guru Philip Kotler defines the Marketing Concept as:
"The marketing concept holds that the key to achieving organizational goals consists in
determining the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions more
effectively and efficiently than competitors"
This Kotler breaks down into four components; Market Focus, Customer Orientation,
Coordinated Marketing and, Profitability.
Some alternative definitions of the Marketing Concept include:
"Your business will perform better, if you know what people want in the first place." Anon.
"Marketing is not only much broader than selling, it is not a specialized activity at all. It
encompasses the entire business. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final
result, that is, from the customer's point of view." Druker.
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Strategic Marketing
Strategic Marketing is the management process of instilling the marketing concept, into the heart
of an organization.
It is this objective which drives MARKETING CONCEPT Strategic Marketing Consultancy.
At the core of Strategic Marketing are; Segmenting, Targeting, and Positioning.

Other Concepts
There are three* basic and contrasting concepts explaining how organisations function. Needless
to say the Marketing concept is the one preferred by Marketers!
*(The number of concepts varies between three and five according to various authors, but to
keep things nice and simple we stick to three)
1. Production Concept
2. Selling Concept
3. Marketing Concept

Production Concept
The production concept, follows the line of thinking that the most important element of a
business is its production facility. This is a view especially prevalent amongst engineers, who
focus on the means of production rather than the purpose of the production.
Common phrases to spot these include:

This is the biggest offset widget maker with water cooling in the UK

We got ISO in 1987, the first in the industry

We always focus on quality

We don't deliver on Saturdays

Selling Concept

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The selling concept progresses from the production concept, in that it acknowledges that
customers exist, and focuses on selling them as much stuff as possible.
The typical phrases include:

Deliveries were up by 3.5% this quarter!

I know we don't have the facilities, but Production must deliver by next week!

We need some good "marketing" to move the product; brochures, TV ads, golf days, and
sponsor the Olympics!

Kinds of strategic plans:- Strategic marketing planning is the process that the operational and
managerial staff of a company goes through to create and implement effective marketing
strategies. Strategic marketing planning takes several aspects of company marketing and
promotion into consideration. The aspects that contribute to strategic marketing planning include
identifying promotional opportunities and evaluating the marketing opportunities; researching,
analyzing and identifying the target markets; developing a strategic position for the company to
pursue and how to implement the strategy; preparation and implementation of the marketing
plan; and measuring and evaluating the results of the marketing efforts of the company.
Total quality approach to strategic planning:Total Quality Management (TQM) is a powerful, yet simple method of process improvement to
achieve customer satisfaction, without the need for substantial additional resources. TQM
anticipates customers needs and encourages employees participation and ownership of work
processes. It is an essential first step, which allows an organization to define its own quality
standards, compete on a higher level, exceed customers expectations, and increase profitability.
Successful implementation of TQM requires a focus
on processes, systematic thinking, teamwork, cross-functional management, and an
understanding of how and why the output or result of ones work can have an impact on the next
process. That means coordination and communication across, as well as through the hierarchies
of the organization is essential.
Relationship between marketing and other functional areas in an organization:Strategic planning process:- Strategic planning is a process undertaken by an organization to
develop a plan for achievement of its overall long-term organizational goals.

. Strategic Planning Process Defined

Successful RBA efforts involve strategic planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation
(which will ultimately provide data that will be used in future planning and implementation
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efforts). Strategic planning, an essential first step in the development of a results-based

accountability system, is defined as the process of addressing the following questions:

Where are we?

What do we have to work with?

Where do we want to be?

How do we get there?

This process is undertaken by states, organizations, programs, and sub-programs.

The steps involved in developing a strategic plan are described below. Although this process
appears systematic and rational, it is often iterative and evolves substantially over time. Further,
it is subject to political pressure and will be modified accordingly. Some strategic planning
efforts may not include all the steps described. The elements and process described in the next
section should be modified depending on context.
II. Components of a Strategic Planning Process
The first step in the strategic planning process is to address the questions Where are we? and
What do we have to work with? Examination of recent history and changing contexts (both
internal and external) of the state, organization, program, or sub-program allows participants to
assess current positions. Answering the question of what we have to work with involves
consideration of strengths and weaknesses and determination of how to capitalize on strengths.
The next step in the process is answering Where do we want to be? As the articulated vision
stems from the values of those involved in the process, it is essential that this step involve all of
those who will have a stake in the achieving the vision. For agencies and programs, the vision is
then translated into a mission statement: a broad, comprehensive statement of the purpose of the
agency or program. States and communities may not have mission statements, as they may have
multiple purposes. If unable to design mission statements that can encompass multiple divergent
goals, planners should articulate several separate mission statements reflecting different goals.
The next step in the planning process is the articulation of goals. Desired long-range conditions
of well-being for the state, community, agency, or program, goals indicate the intended future
direction of the state, agency, or program. An example of a state goal is that all children and
families be healthy by the year 2010.
After articulating the vision and determining goals, planners must address means of reaching
their goals. This step involves articulating strategies for achieving results. Strategies should
reflect the strengths and weaknesses of the entity engaged in the planning. For example, a very
small office should recognize that its size could be both a weakness and a strength. The size
would limit it to strategies that do not require large human resource commitments, but would
allow it to use strategies requiring rapid dissemination of information throughout the
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organization. Recognition of relative strengths and weaknesses is helpful in identifying

promising strategies.
RBA system development must include consideration of methods of goal measurement. Some
strategic planning processes include this step; others leave this question to be addressed by a
separate process. Addressing goal measurement involves articulation of objectives, indicators,
and benchmarks. Objectives are the short-term conditions needed to achieve desired conditions
of well-being for children, families, or communities in the long term. Indicators are quantifiable
measures of progress; they provide numeric assessment of the desired conditions of well-being
(see Indicators Tip Sheet for further details). Benchmarks are target levels of performance
expressed in measurable terms and specified time frames, against which actual achievement is
measured.
III. State Experiences With Strategic Planning: Lessons Learned
Many states have developed strategic plans to guide results-based accountability systems.
Examination of numerous planning processes yielded the following lessons:
Successful efforts involve stakeholders and gain their support. Strategic plan development
requires consideration and articulation of values and priorities; the plan should reflect views
expressed by all those involved in the process. States that have successfully designed and
adopted plans included all those interested in the strategic planning process. For example,
processes have been developed to involve program managers, providers, legislators, and the
public in the articulation of visions. Some states have held public meetings; others have
coupled meetings of policymakers with public opinion polls asking about the core values of
citizens. Inclusion of key stakeholders can take many months and requires that resources be
devoted to the activity. However, it is essential to the success and sustainability of the effort.

Successful public strategic planning processes address conflicting mandates and

goals. State officials and managers of public programs are often faced with the
need to negotiate between conflicting mandates and goals when articulating
strategic plans. For example, job training legislation may include a program goal
of placement of all trainees within one month of program completion. Another
goal in the same legislation may be that trainees retain employment for at least
one year. These goals may conflict: employment that is obtained quickly may not
be the best match for the trainees, so they may be more likely to leave these jobs.
In such cases, legislation may have been drafted with input from numerous
representatives with conflicting views. As public managers develop strategic
plans, they should recognize that programs may have conflicting mandates and be
explicit about what the agency can and cannot do in light of the mandates.

Strategic marketing plans:-

strategic marketing planning involves

combining customer experiences with the overall direction the company wants
and needs to take in order to succeed. For example, market segmentation plays a

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vital role in strategic marketing. Geographic and demographic differences in a

companys target markets can affect the purchasing habits of consumers. Strategic
marketing planning allows companies to go through the process of identifying
what these differences are, and then adjusting marketing messages and
presentation of the company and the products and services of the business to meet
the individual needs of the different segments of the market.

For example, the Baby Boomers generation has created a surge in need for
products and services that range drastically. Some companies have adjusted
existing products and services to meet the increase in demand, while other
companies with the foresight to strategically plan for the increase, developed new
products and services to meet the demand.

Use: Once a strategic marketing plan is in place, the company

can use the plan as a guide in conducting its daily business as
well as making short-term and long-term decisions.
Implementation of the strategic marketing plan typically leads
companies to the tactical marketing portion of conducting
business. The strategic marketing plan transitions into the
companys plan for product and service development; the
communication plan on how the company intends on promoting
the business offerings; developing the sales plan; and finally
putting together the customer service plan on how the company
intends on interacting with current and potential customers.

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