Strategic Planning

Lecture Outline

I. Strategic Planning

II. Basic Strategic Planning Decisions

III. Account Planning: What Is It?

IV. Planning for IMC

Strategic Planning

• The process of determining objectives, deciding on strategies, and implementing the tactics

• Objectives– What you want to

accomplish

• Strategies– How to accomplish the

objectives

• Tactics– Make the plan come to

life

A Three-Tiered Process

1. The business plan

• May cover a specific division of the company or a strategic business unit with a common set of problems

A Three-Tiered Process

1. The business plan

2. The marketing plan

• Parallels the business strategic plan and contains many of the same components

A Three-Tiered Process

1. The business plan

2. The marketing plan

3. The advertising or IMC plan

• Operates with the same concern for objectives, strategies, and tactics as business and marketing plans

Basic Strategic Planning Decisions

• Annual advertising or IMC plan– Outlines all the

advertising or marketing communication activities

• Campaign plan– More tightly focused on

solving a particular marketing communication problem

Typical Plan Outline

I. Situation analysis

II. Key strategic decisions

III. Media strategy

IV. Message strategy

V. Other tools

VI. Evaluation of effectiveness

Basic Strategic Planning Decisions

• Situation analysis– Researching and

reviewing the current state of the business that is relevant to the brand and gathering all relevant information

– After the research is compiled, analysis begins

• SWOT analysis– Strengths

– Weaknesses

– Opportunities

– Threats

• Key problems and opportunities

Basic Strategic Planning Decisions

• Objectives and strategies– Planners develop

specific objectives to be accomplished during a specific time period

– The main categories of effects can be used to identify the most common advertising and IMC strategies

• It is important for advertisers to know what to expect from a campaign or an ad

• Measurable objectives– Specific effect that can

be measured– A time frame– A baseline– The goal– Percentage change

Basic Strategic Planning Decisions

• Segmenting and targeting– Market segment: a

group of consumers having similar characteristics

– The segments the planner selects becomes the target audience

• Getting deeper insight into consumers is the responsibility of the account planning function

Basic Strategic Planning Decisions

• Positioning Strategy– Determining what

place a product should occupy in a given market

– To establish a location in the consumer’s mind based on what the product offers and how that compares with the competition

• Product features– Feature analysis

• Competitive advantage– Importance/performance

• Differentiation– Branding

• Locating the brand position– Perceptual mapping

Basic Strategic Planning Decisions

• Budgeting– Determines how many

targets and multiple campaign plans a company or brand can support and the length of time the campaign can run

• Historical method• Objective-task method• Percentage-of-sales

method• Competitive budgets• All you can afford

Account Planning: What is It?

• Account planning– The research-and-

analysis process used to gain knowledge and understanding of the consumer

Account Planning Elements

1. Consumer insight

2. Message strategy

3. Media strategy

Account Planning: What is It?

• Account planner– A person in an agency

who uses account planning to research a brand and its customer relationships in order to devise advertising message strategies that are effective in addressing consumer needs and wants

Account Planner Tasks

1. Understand brand

2. Understand audience relationship

3. Articulate strategies

4. Prepare creative briefs

5. Evaluate effectiveness

Account Planning: What is It?

• The Research Foundation

• Used in three phases of the advertising planning process– Strategy generation

– Creative development

– Campaign evaluation

Account Planning: What is It?

• The Research Foundation

• Consumer Insight

• Intersects with the interests of the customer and the brand features

• Insight mining– Realistic response objective?

– Causes of nonresponse?

– Barriers to desired response?

– Motivation to respond?

– Role of each element in the communication mix

Account Planning: What is It?

• The Research Foundation

• Consumer Insight

• The Communication Brief

• Explains the consumer insight and summarizes the basic strategy decisions

• Six major parts:– Marketing objective– Product– Target audience– The promise and support– Brand personality– Strategy statement

Planning for IMC

• Follows same basic outline as an ad plan

• Objective is to make the most effective use of all marketing communication functions

• Effective plans lead to profitable long-term brand relationships

• Differences in IMC strategic decisions– Stakeholders

– Contact points

– IMC objectives

Principles of Advertising & IMC by Tom Duncan 2nd Edition, Published by McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Event Management For Tourism, Cultural, Business and Sporting Events by Lynn Van Der Wagen Brenda R. Carlos Published by Pearson Prentice Hall.

Advertising Principles and Practice by W. Wells, S. Moriarty and J. Burnett, Published by Prentice Hall International.

Integrated Marketing Communications by David Pickton & Amanda Broderick Published by Prentice Hall.

Bibliography

The End

“Good behaviour and positive attitude do not have any monetary

value but, It has a power to purchase hearts of the people.”