Strategic Planning and Marketing

Learning Module #4 – Strategic Planning and Marketing – Beverly Braswell

Businesses that are successful have found a way to meet the needs of their customers that the competition cannot meet. Marketing requires constant developing of products and services that will provide better value (“competitive advantage”) (Riley, 2012). The problem is with the changing environment where businesses operate. So businesses must adapt to changes in the environment and make decisions about how to change the marketing in order to succeed. This process of adapting and decision-making is known as marketing planning (Riley, 2012).

Strategic planning is the overall direction of the business and how it should reach its goals. It is concerned with marketing; but it also involves decision-making about production and operations, finance, human resource management and other business issues (Riley, 2012). A business must consider how the planning will affect the entire company not just the front line product.

The objective of a strategic plan is to set the direction of a business and create its shape so that the products and services it provides meet the overall business objectives (Riley, 2012).

Marketing has a key role because it is the avenue from the business to the consumer. How the business plans to attract consumers is the key to the success of the business. It can be a simple task for a small business; or overwhelming for a large business with multiple products to market. Larger businesses are going to require a more developed marketing department.

To be successful the business will need to have a competitive advantage of others. Create a strategy that everyone will buy into. Make sure resources are available and notify stakeholders of the plan. Finally be sure to measure the performance of the strategy to make sure it is reaching the goal of the business.

References

Riley, J. (2012, September 23). Strategic Management and the Link to Marketing. Retrieved from Tutor 2 U: http://www.tutor2u.net/business/strategy/strategy_marketing.htm