Marketing planning

In this session we focused on marketing planning. Kotler defined marketing
"a systematic process that involves assessing marketing opportunities and resources, determining marketing objectives and developing a plan for implementation and control".


As part of the marketing planning process a marketing manager has to undertake an analysis of the marketing environment (this will be discussed in detail in the next session. A SWOT analysis also has to be undertaken. This entail analysis the companies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Examples of strengths may be the company's brand name, logo, employee knowledge, company location, if the company is a market leader, worldwide distribution, emphasis on innovation.
Weaknesses-economic climate, poor branding strategy, dependence on one product, lack of innovation, not a market leader
Opportunities-economic climate, demographic changes, technological changes
Threats-new entrants into the market, change in government regulations, demographic changes


Some thought should go into segmenting the market. In some markets there may be lots of segments-the company has to decide which segment to target. For example in car market companies may divide the market into the following segments-city car, family saloon car, sports car.


Once the segment has been identified then the targeting process begins. Targeting is usually based on the following factors-geographic, demographic,psychograhic and behavioural.


How do we want to position our company or product in the market. This will be dependent on the 4p's (product, price, place and promotion). For example if the company is selling expensive perfume, the price charged for the product should reflect that. It will be sold in department stores that sell high end products and the promotion (mainly advertising) will probably take place in glossy magazines or TV ads that portray the expensive nature of the product.