Marketing Plans

How to prepare them, how to profit from them

Malcolm McDonald, Hugh Wilson

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781119217138
• eBook ISBN: 9781119217176
• Edition: 8
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Marketing
• Index: Marketing

A fully revised and updated 8th edition of the highly renowned international bestseller

The 8th edition of this highly acclaimed bestseller is thoroughly revised with every chapter having been updated with special attention to the latest developments in marketing.

Marketing Plans is designed as a tool and a user–friendly learning resource. Every point illustrated by powerful practical examples and made actionable through simple, step–by–step templates and exercises. The book is established as essential reading for all serious professional marketers and students of marketing, from undergraduate and postgraduate to professional courses for bodies such as CIM. Above all it provides a practical, hands–on guide to implementing every single concept included in the text.

New chapters and content include:

• A 'Does it Work' feature throughout demonstrating examples of real successes using the processes in the book
• More substantial coverage of consumer behaviour to balance the book's focus with B2B planning
• Digital techniques and practices brought fully up to date
• Also includes a comprehensive online Tutors' Guide and Market2Win Simulator for those who teach marketing strategy

Part One
The Marketing Planning
Process and the Output

Introduction to Chapters 1-6

Chapters 1-6 constitute the main purpose of this book, which is to spell out in detail what is required at each stage of the strategic marketing planning process. Each chapter leads logically on to the following chapter until a complete picture is provided of the actions required at each stage. Worksheets are provided to enable users to build their plan as they proceed.

Chapter 1
UNDERSTANDING THE MARKETING PROCESS

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SUMMARY

1. 
   What marketing is
2. 
   Its role in getting the best out of an organization’s asset base
3. 
   The link between the external environment, customers and their needs and the marketingmix
4. 
   Clearing up the confusion surrounding marketing’s role
5. 
   Clarification of what customers look for in their suppliers
6. 
   The differences and similarities between consumer, service and industrial marketing
7. 
   Whether a marketing department is essential
8. 
   Exercises to turn the theory into actionable propositions
9. 
   Readers who are already wholly familiar with the role of marketing in organizations may wish to go straight to Chapter 2, which begins to explain the marketing planning process

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THE MARKETING CONCEPT¹

In 1776, when Adam Smith said that consumption is the sole end and purpose of production, he was in fact describing what in recent decades has become known as the marketing concept.

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The central idea of marketing is of a matching between a company’s capabilities and the wants of customers in order to achieve the objectives of both parties.

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It is important at this stage to understand the difference between the marketing concept (often referred to as ‘market orientation’) and the marketing function, which is concerned with the management of the marketing mix. The management of the marketing mix involves using the various tools and techniques available to managers in order to implement the marketing concept.

For the sake of simplicity, these are often written about and referred to as the 4Ps, these being Product, Price, Promotion and Place, although today many scholars include a number of additional Ps, such as People and Process.

However, before any meaningful discussion can take place about how the marketing function should be managed, it is vital to have a full understanding about the idea of marketing itself, and it is this issue that we principally address in this chapter.

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The marketing concept implies that all the activities of an organization are driven by a desire to satisfy customer needs.

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For readers who are interested in a history of marketing and the role of key players like Levitt, Kotler, Hunt, Alderson, Holbrook and others, please refer to Jones (1999) in the references section at the end of the chapter.¹

THE MARKETING FUNCTION

There are many definitions of marketing and much confusion about what it is. The following definition should clarify this for readers.

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Marketing is a process for:

1. 
   Defining markets.
2. 
   Quantifying the needs of the customer groups (segments) within these markets.
3. 
   Determining the value propositions to meet these needs.
4. 
   Communicating these value propositions to all those people in the organization responsible for delivering them and getting their buy-in to their role.
5. 
   Playing an appropriate part in delivering these value propositions (usually only communications).
6. 
   Monitoring the value actually delivered.

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For this process to be effective, organizations need to be consumer/customer driven.

This definition is represented as a –map’ in Figure 1.1. This definition and map are important because we will refer to them throughout the remainder of this book.

Figure 1.1: A map of marketing.

Starting at the top and moving clockwise, it should be pointed out that the first two boxes are concerned with strategies for markets, whereas the bottom box and the box on the left are concerned with implementing the strategies, once formulated. The fundamental difference between strategies and tactics will be expanded on in Chapter 2.

COMPANY CAPABILITIES

For now, let us return to the notion of bringing about a matching between a company’s capabilities and the wants of its customers. In Chapter 4 we will explain what we mean when we talk about customer wants. But for now it is important to understand what we mean when we talk about a company’s capabilities. To explain this more fully, let us imagine that we have been made redundant and have decided to set ourselves up in our own busi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• TitlePage
• Copyright
• Preface and acknowledgements
• How to use this book to achieve the best results
• Learning features
• Tutor's guide
• An important note to the reader from the authors
• Part One: The Marketing Planning Process and the Output
• Part Two: The Major Element Of Marketing
• Part Three: Marketing Plans Measurements and Implementation
• Conclusion: Guidelines From the Authors on World-Class Marketing
• Marketing Planning: Yes, it really works! Experiences from the real world
• Index
• EULA