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Marketing Planning

Analyzing the Marketing Environment and Developing a Marketing Strategy and Plan

Your Marketing Strategy is the way your business will achieve success – the way you will grow your business.

Marketing Strategy

Your marketing strategy will include your marketing mix and your target market, and look at what’s going on around you.

Marketing Strategy

You will describe and summarize your marketing strategy in a Marketing Plan.

Marketing Plan

A document that describes the marketing environment, outlines the marketing objectives and strategies, and describes how each part of the marketing strategy will be carried out

What is a Marketing Plan?

A Marketing Plan is a description, using words and numbers, of how you plan to run your marketing program – how you will market your product.

What does that mean?

In a Marketing Plan, managers set marketing objectives (goals) and determine the marketing strategies to achieve those objectivesMarketing Plan, continued

A Marketing Plan asks:1. Where are we?2. Where do we want to go?

3. How do we get there?

In other words . . .

Describe the product - use consumer-focused language – wants and needs

Ask -- Where are we?

Who are your current customers?

Who is your competition?

Which products do you sell to which customers?

Segment the market – divide it up, and determine who is buying your product

Current customers

Mass Market (sell to all possible customers in a market) v.

Market Segment (dividing customers up into groups; members of a group have similar needs/wants, which are different from other groups’ members

Market Segments

The Target Market is the market segment(s) on which a business focuses its market plan and directs its marketing effortWhat is the Target

Market?

You want to grow your business.

Who else will buy your product?

What customers should you target?

Where do you want to go?

A trend is a general direction or pattern, or change in events or conditions

What is popular or “hip” – what will be

Businesses analyze trends – look for patterns -to understand changes in their own business, the industry, or the market

To plan where to go -- Analyzing Trends

Strengths (Internal)Weaknesses (Internal)Opportunities (External)Threats (External)

SWOT Analysis

Helps the business develop strategies for getting where they want to go -- increasing sales, gaining an advantage over the competition, and avoid problems

Why do businesses do SWOT Analysis?

What does your business do well? What areas are weak? Look at staff, financial situation? Is it profitable? What is its financial situation? Website? Strong brand?

Internal – Strengths and Weaknesses

Product / Customer – Who is buying / will buy the product? Can you compete on quality, service, and value? Will customer base increase or decrease?Marketing Mix - Product

Is your product competitively priced?

Does the cost to the consumer / customer give good value?

Will competitors be able to compete by reducing costs?

Marketing Mix: Price / Cost

Where will you manufacture it? Where will you sell it?

How will you get it from manufacturer to retailer?

Will it be a convenient experience for customers?Marketing Mix: Place /

Convenience

How will you communicate with customers to promote your product? (Remember, it should be 2-way.)

Are there existing groups that would be a good fit for communication / promotion?Marketing Mix:

Promotion / Communication

Competition – What advantages does it have over competitors? Does it have a better reputation, patents, special resources, or better distribution arrangements? Do they have better products, better promotion?

Internal (continued)

Companies need to monitor their competitors constantly. Successful companies scan the external environment continually.

External- Opportunities and Threats

Common Opportunities: New products, New ways to promote/ communicate / sell (new technology?), New types of customers

Opportunities - External

Common Threats: new competitors, economic problems or trends, aging or loss of a customer base, new laws and regulations

Threats - External

An environmental scan is an analysis of external (i.e., outside the company) influences – opportunities and threats -- that may affect the business

External - continued

PEST analysis PoliticalEconomicSocial / culturalTechnological

External -- continued

Political – government involvement / regulation“do not call” registry – affected telemarketing

New school lunch regulationsNew York City regulates size of soft drinks

External -- continued

External - continued

EconomicWhat is the current state of the economy?

Is there a recession or downturn?

Unemployment rate, inflation, consumer confidence

Social / CulturalLook at customers and potential customers

Are attitudes, lifestyles, opinions changing? (e.g., casual dress)

U.S. is more diverse ethnicallyPopulation is agingObesity is a serious health issue

External - continued

TechnologicalChanging technology may be a threat to a company (or an opportunity!)

Kodak film no longer needed with digital cameras

Satellite navigation system – do we still need maps?

Downloading music – CD sales plummet

External (continued)

You need to do only a social / cultural scan and a technological scan. You do NOT need to include an economic analysis or a political (legal / regulatory) analysis– we will add those parts when we cover those units.

For this project: