Top-down, Bottom-up and IMC
1. The Marketing Plan
1. The Importance of Marketing Planning
1. The marketing plan assembles all the pertinent facts about the organization, the markets it serves, and its products, services, customers, competition, and so on. 2. It forces all of the departments-product development, production, selling, advertising, credit, transportation-to focus on the customer. 3. Finally, it sets goals and objectives for specified periods of time and lays out strategies and tactics to achieve them.
2. The Effect of the Marketing Plan on Advertising
1. It helps managers analyze and improve all company operations, including marketing and advertising programs. 2. It dictates the role of advertising in the marketing mix. 3. It enables better implementation, control, and continuity of advertising programs, and it ensures the most efficient allocation of advertising dollars.
3. Top-Down Marketing Planning
1. Situation analysis - factual statement of the organization’s current situation and how it got there. It also:
1. Present all relevant facts about the company’s history, growth, products, sales volume, share of market, competitive status, markets served, distribution system, past advertising programs, results of marketing research studies, company capabilities, strengths and weaknesses, and any other pertinent information. 2. After gathering historical information, on focus changes to potential threats and opportunities based on key factors outside the company’s control: economic, political, social, technological, or commercial environments the company operates in.
2. Marketing Objectives
1. Corporate objectives are usually stated in terms of profit or return on investment-or net worth, earnings ratio, growth, or corporate reputation. 2. Marketing objectives, which derive from corporate objectives, relate