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This article explores why, given the acknowledged benefits companies can enjoy carrying out formalized marketing planning, most industrial companies still rely largely on forecasting and budgeting systems as their principal means of addressing the future.
Ten barriers to the preparation and implementation of marketing plans are identified:
1. Confusion between tactics and strategy
2. Isolating the marketing function from operations
3. Confusion between the marketing function and the marketing concept
4. Organizational barriers
5. Lack of in-depth analysis
6. Confusion between process and output
7. Lack of knowledge and skills
8. Lack of a systematic approach to marketing planning
9. Failure to prioritize objectives
10. Hostile corporate cultures
Ways of overcoming these barriers are recommended.
INTRODUCTION
The overall purpose of marketing planning and its principal focus, is the identification and creation of a competitive advantage. Yet twenty years of doing, researching,(10) teaching, and writing about the subject have not changed this author's view that marketing planning is the most enigmatic of all the problems facing management as they brace themselves for whatever challenges the 1990s hold.
WHAT IS MARKETING PLANNING?
Marketing planning is simply a series of activities in a logical sequence leading to the setting of marketing objectives and the formulation of plans for achieving them. Companies generally go through some kind of management process in developing marketing plans. In small, undiversified companies this process is usually informal, whereas in larger, more diversified organizations it is often systematized. Conceptually, the process is simple, involving a situation review, the formulation of some basic assumptions, setting objectives for what is being sold and to whom, deciding on how the objectives are to be achieved, and scheduling and costing-out the actions necessary for implementation.
WHY IS MARKETING PLANNING NECESSARY?
Apart from helping some companies cope with increasing turbulence, environmental complexity, more intense competitive pressures, and the sheer speed of technological change, a marketing plan is useful for the following purposes:
FOR YOU
* To help identify sources of competitive advantage
* To force an organized approach
* To develop specificity
* To ensure consistent relationships
FOR SUPERIORS
* To inform
FOR NON-MARKETING FUNCTIONS
* To get resources
FOR SUBORDINATES
* To get support
* To gain commitment
* To set objectives and strategies
NAIVETE ABOUT MARKETING PLANNING