Marketing planning provides a framework for focussing scarce organisational resources on the right markets and activities within those markets in order to maintain organisational growth, defend markets and customer relationships against threats, minimise the long-term damage of market downturns and enter new markets or develop new products or services. The aim of a marketing plan is to ensure that in carrying out the matching process the organisation's resources are used in the most efficient manner to create, communicate, deliver and sustain superior value for both the customer and the organisation.

McDonald (2007) suggests that the marketing planning process involves the seven steps
outlined below. These steps will be expanded upon throughout this topic.

Step 1 Analyse and understand the corporate mission and objectives.
Step 2 Conduct a marketing audit as part of the organisation's overall management audit.
Step 3 Develop marketing objectives. These are statements of what the marketing plan intends to achieve.
Step 4 Develop marketing strategies. These are statements of how the organisation will accomplish the marketing objectives.
Step 5 Prepare a marketing plan that documents the outcomes of the previous steps in the marketing planning process.
Step 6 Integrate the marketing plan with other functional elements of the corporate plans (technology, HR, finance, etc).
Step 7 Measure, review and amend operating plans. This is conducted continuously throughout the planning cycle.

You will notice in the preceding section that we use the term 'strategy development' as opposed to 'strategic planning'. This is an important distinction. Many of the books, articles and seminars that you may come across in your management career and in your studies focus on the importance of strategic planning. The perspective we take in this section is that strategic planning is the process that gives form (a document or a map if you like) to the strategic thinking (ideas on future directions) of the people responsible for an organisation, business or unit.

Once the corporate outcomes or objectives and strategies to achieve them are known, marketers can then begin the process of analysing relevant environments and setting marketing objectives. In order to set the objectives however marketers must first develop
an accurate and objective appreciation of the issues in relevant internal and external
environments that will affect the organisation and the resources that it can bring to bear in achieving its outcomes.

Marketing objectives are principally concerned with creating, communicating, delivering
and sustaining value. This is then captured in a superior vale proposition targeted to a
particular segment. To do this effectively, there are two distinct matters that the marketing planners must address: first, existing and potential customers (market segments); second, the value proposition to be offered (created and communicated) to those customers. One way to consider and structure this is via the Ansoff Matrix.

The Ansoff Matrix provides a logical framework for the development of marketing objectives.
Marketing objectives should primarily be concerned only with products and markets. The
results of the marketing audits (usually summarised in a SWOT format) will indicate the
general direction of the organisation by highlighting the product and market opportunities.

When the marketing plan has been finalised it needs to be implemented. The old management axiom that no one welcomes change will usually apply to the implementation that flows from any planning process. In fact 'resistance to change' is often cited as one of the principal reasons for the failure of plans in the implementation phase. The task of marketing management is to anticipate these sorts of potential obstacles, and provide the means of overcoming them. Research and experience indicate that the following obstacles are likely to occur in the implementation of many plans.

1. Failure to distinguish marketing tactics from marketing strategy
2. Isolated planning, or the separation of marketing from other functions
3. The lack of detailed and informed market analysis
4. The inability to adopt a systematic approach to marketing planning
5. Insufficient time in which to conduct the analysis prior to the determination of strategies

The following are suggestions for ways in which some of these barriers may be overcome.

1. Ensure that the corporate strategic plan is prepared first
2. Position of the marketing department in the organisation
3. Make the marketing audit systematic

The evaluation of alternative marketing actions is an important aspect of the marketing
control function, as well as the marketing strategy development task. Marketing strategies
must be evaluated prior to implementation in order to assess the extent to which they
contribute towards the achievement of the organisation's objectives. They must also be
evaluated during and after implementation to determine whether results are as anticipated
and the assumptions sound.

1. Sales analysis—measuring the actual sales and comparing them to the intended or
targeted sales.
2. Market share analysis—measuring the proportion of customers in a market or targeted
segment of the market that the organisation is satisfying.
3. Return on marketing investment measures such as marketing expenses to sales ratio—
like all areas of any organisation marketing must return an adequate amount for the
resources that are invested.
4. A market scorecard approach.