1. To define strategic planning and consider its importance for marketing Strategic planning encompasses both strategic business plans and strategic marketing plans. Strategic business plans describe the overall direction firms will pursue within their chosen environment and guide the allocation of resources and effort. Strategic marketing plans outline what marketing actions to undertake, why those actions are needed, who is responsible for carrying them out, when and where they will be completed, and how they will be coordinated.
Strategic planning provides guidance via a hierarchical process, clarifies goals, encourages departmental cooperation, focuses on strengths and weaknesses (as well as opportunities and threats), examines alternatives, helps allocate resources, and points out the value of monitoring results
Unlike Bill and Deb Simmons, the Banys are not big believers in franchising as a mechanism for future growth in Moonstruck Chocolate. As Dave Bany
says, "I understand it's pretty difficult to control quality, and that makes me hesitant." Expansion will be mostly driven by the firm's Web site and third-party retailers.
CAREER TIPS
Strategic planning not only applies to organizations, it also applies to us in mapping out our career paths. What are our career goals? What are the career-related strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that we must recognize? What is our personal marketing mix? And so on. Take a look at "What Career Should You Choose?" (//shar.es/k9kEX) for some good information.
Web Sites You Can Use
A variety of Web sites provide step-by-step advice on strategic planning, and many even have free, downloadable, easy-to-use templates. Here, we present a number of such sites, divided into two categories: strategic business plans and strategic marketing plans.
Strategic Business Plans
• BizMove.com: Developing Your Own Business Plan (www.bizmove.com/starting/m1e1.htm)
• Bplans.com—How to Write a Business Plan (//t.co/RSJjttHa5o)
• Business Owner's Toolkit—Writing Your Business Plan (//t.co/7vceqTE8py)
• Center for Business Planning—Planning Guidelines (www.businessplans.org/guide.html)
• Inc.—Writing a Business Plan (www.inc.com/guides/write_biz_plan)
• Edward Lowe Foundation—How to Develop and Use a Business Plan (//edwardlowe.org/erc/?ercID=7704)
• PlanWare—Writing a Business Plan (www.planware.org/bizplan.htm)
• Tutor2You—Strategy: What Is a Strategy? (//t.co/QRTbQszNPP)
Strategic Marketing Plans
• BizMove.com—Small Business Marketing (//t.co/wINjQ2ptdB)
• Bplans.com—Sample Marketing Plans (//t.co/tP1KUn2nQN)
• Business Resource Software—Marketing Plan (www.businessplans.org/Market.html)
• Inc.—Marketing Guides (www.inc.com/guides/marketing)
• Edward Lowe Foundation—How to Gain a Competitive Edge (//edwardlowe.org/erc/?ercID=8869)
• Morebusiness.com—Marketing (www.morebusiness.com/marketing)
• Morebusiness.com—Sample Marketing Plan (//t.co/pe7rjwaYqP)
• U.S. Chamber of Commerce—Building a Successful Marketing Plan (//t.co/x5qiTDNi4H)
Summary
1. To define strategic planning and consider its importance for marketing Strategic planning encompasses both strategic business plans and strategic marketing plans. Strategic business plans describe the overall direction firms will pursue within their chosen environment and guide the allocation of resources and effort. Strategic marketing plans outline what marketing actions to undertake, why those actions are needed, who is responsible for carrying them out, when and where they will be completed, and how they will be coordinated.
Strategic planning provides guidance via a hierarchical process, clarifies goals, encourages departmental cooperation, focuses on strengths and weaknesses (as well as opportunities and threats), examines alternatives, helps allocate resources, and points out the value of monitoring results.
2. To describe the total quality approach to strategic planning and show its relevance to marketing A total quality approach should be used in devising and enacting business and marketing plans. In that way, a firm adopts a process- and output-related philosophy,
by which it strives to fully satisfy consumers in an effective and efficient manner. Customer focus; top management commitment; emphasis on continuous improvement; and support and involvement from employees, suppliers, and channel members are all involved.
3. To look at the different kinds of strategic plans and the relationships between marketing and the other functional areas in an organization A firm's strategic plans may be short run, moderate in length, or long run. Strategic marketing plans may be for each major product, presented as one company-wide marketing plan, or considered part of an overall business plan. A bottom-up, top-down, or combined management approach may be used.
The interests of marketing and the other functional areas in a firm need to be accommodated in a strategic plan. Departmental conflict can be reduced by improving communications, employing personnel with broad backgrounds, establishing interdepartmental programs, and blending departmental goals.
4. To describe thoroughly each of the steps in the strategic planning process First, a firm defines its organizational mission—the long-term commitment to a type of business and a place in the market. Second, it establishes strategic business units (SBUs), the self-contained divisions, product lines, or product departments with specific market focuses and separate managers. Third, quantitative and qualitative marketing objectives are set. Fourth, through situation analysis, a firm identifies its internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats.
Fifth, a firm develops a marketing strategy—to outline the way in which the marketing mix is used to attract and satisfy the target market(s) and accomplish organizational goals. Every SBU has its own marketing mix. The approaches to strategy planning include the product/market opportunity matrix, the Boston Consulting Group matrix, the General Electric business screen, and the Porter generic strategy model. They should be viewed as planning tools that aid decision making; they do not replace the need for executives to engage in hands-on planning for each situation.
Sixth, a firm uses tactical plans to specify the short-run actions necessary to implement a given marketing strategy. At this stage, specific tasks, a time horizon, and resource allocation are made operational. Seventh, a firm monitors results by comparing actual performance against planned performance, and this information is fed back into the strategic planning process. Adjustments in strategy are made as needed.
5. To show how a strategic marketing plan may be devised and applied Strategic marketing plans work best when they are integrated within the overall strategic business plan and prepared systematically and comprehensively—as illustrated in Table 3-2. This is exemplified by Moonstruck Chocolate, a small confectionary firm.