Introduction
Marketing Plan is the broad roadmap to bring the product or service of a firm to the market place. Market analysis precedes the making of the marketing plan. The market analysis provides information on the market size, growth characteristics, buying trends of consumers and trends for the future. (Doug Williams & Associates) Based on this analysis it is possible to evolve marketing strategies. Marketing strategies that transform the product or service to the needs of the target customers form the basis of marketing plans. Good market research has the ability to uncover the marketing ideas for development of new products or services that are not presently met and based on a good market research new marketing strategies could be evolved. A good strategic marketing plan should consist of clearly established goals. Goals provide the directions for the organization. Strategic marketing plan should encompass goals for shorter periods say one year and objectives for relatively longer periods of time, say three years. Goals must be realistic and attainable.
Marketing research will greatly aid the formulation of goals since through market research specific market information can be gathered that will enable the firm to identify the target market segment and the firm will also be able to position the product offering within the chosen target market. Thus the formulation of market strategies include the processes of:
- segmentation,
- target market selection,
- positioning of the product within the target market,
- value proposition to the target market.
Marketing Mix Decisions
Once the market strategies are evolved the next logical step is to take detailed tactical decisions on important aspects of marketing mix. The marketing mix decisions are usually made on all controllable parameters like specification of product development, designing, pricing, distribution, channel penetration, advertising, internet, public relations, tradeshows, use of sales representatives, telemarketing, and direct mailing etc. (NetMBA).
Allocation of Resources
The firm should analyze the financial and other resources needed to implement the marketing plan drawn. This is one of the important steps in the implementation of the total marketing plan. The amount of money a firm has to spend on a marketing program and the allocation of such financial resources is influenced by many factors. Some of these factors are the nature of products are being offered, specific short term and long term marketing goals the firm would like to accomplish, target market and nature of customers of the target market, the advertising media selected and the number of product lines or services that the firm would like to introduce.
Allocation of marketing resources has always been a complex decision since there are a number of media choices are available to the firm to depend on. In the present day dynamic business environment where multiple factors interact to influence the sales and profits of a business, it is not possible to consider the impact of marketing tools in isolation and decide on the allocation. Therefore the managers continue to adopt the traditional method of allocating the resources on simple heuristic basis of a certain percentage of sales.
Another method of allocating the resources is to follow a ‘bottom-up’ method in which the managers decide the advertising budget based on the desired level of brand awareness and the relevant cost of various media vehicles to accomplish this objective. For instance in the pharmaceutical industry a firm may decide on the number of physicians the firm would like to reach and the number of times they should be contacted. However the allocation of resources on theses bases depends on the strength of the competitors and their marketing budgets. Moreover allocation of marketing resourced needs to be done across countries, products, marketing mix elements, and across different advertising vehicles within a marketing mix. It is to be noted that each decision needs the consideration of some specific aspects. (Sunil Gupta and Thomas J. Steenburg, 2008).
Organizational Position
The position of the organization in the market is determined by various elements like the purpose for which the firm’s products are being used and the actions of competitors with respect to the target market. In the marketing realm, positioning is the technique by which the marketers strive to create an image or identity for a product, brand or organization. Positioning is the place a product or organization occupies in a given market as perceived by the target market. Positioning is something which creates a place for the product in the minds of the consumers. Product position is usually expressed relative to the position of the competing products or firms in the market. Positioning process involves a number of steps like identifying the competing products, identifying the attributes of the product that define the product space, determining the ‘share of mind’ in respect of each product and determining the current location of each product in the product space. It also involves the determination of the combination of attributes preferred by the target market consumers.
Positioning is the way how a target market for a product defines the product in relation to the competitors. (Determan) Al Ries and Jack Trout (1981) have explained the way positioning is used as a communication tool in a crowded market place so that the communication reaches the target customers. The authors point out that though the market positioning starts with the product, the concept of positioning is concerned more with positioning of the product in the minds of the customers. The positioning approach becomes important in the wake of the fact that the consumers are confused with a large number of advertising messages reaching them everyday. There has been a rapid increase in the advertising budgets of large corporations spent with a view to reach their products to the consumer. In the midst of this high volume of advertising the customer’s mind will react to accept only the communication that is consistent with the prior knowledge or experience. Since positioning is a powerful tool that allows a firm to create its image, it is important for the entrepreneurs to define his product or service in such a way that it can occupy the leadership position in the market.
The position of the product can be enhanced by including a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) in the advertising messages. USP clearly puts in the minds of the consumers the specific reason why the firm’s products should be used in preference to those of the competitors. The organizational position is greatly improved by including the USP in the advertising messages, as the USP clearly differentiated the firm’s business in the eyes of the existing as well as the potential customers and the USP also requires the organizational team to focus on delivering the promise embedded in the USP thus improving the internal organizational performance. (Better Business Idea).
References
Al Ries and Jack Trout (1981) ‘Positioning: The Battle of Your Mind’ McGraw Hill Professional Publication.
Better Business Idea ‘The Unique Selling Proposition’. 2008. Web.
Doug Williams & Associates ‘Marketing Plan’. 2008. Web.
Net MBA ‘The Marketing Process’. 2008. Web.
Sunil Gupta and Thomas J. Steenburg (2008) ‘Allocating Marketing Resources’. 2008.