Chapter summary overview and key concepts

¶ … marketing plan is essential to help to establish goals and objectives and to fulfill these goals and objectives. In order to successfully implement a marketing plan, one must first determine the direction the marketing plan is going to take. Marketing plans are often utilized during times of economic downturn and help to take advantage of opportunities that will benefit a company in the long-term. In order to determine the best marketing plan and approach for a company there are several factors that must be looked at including growth and non-growth strategies, the determination of objectives, and the use of marketing support.

Growth strategies are intended to help an organization increase their profits, market share, and customer base. This can be achieved through market penetration, market development, product development, and diversification. Market penetration is the sale of existing products in existing markets whereas product development allows for an organization to sell new products in an existing market; market penetration complements and allows for product development. On the other hand, market development requires that an organization analyzes and identifies new segments or markets into which existing products can be introduced. Diversification utilizes the same premise, however, focuses on the introduction of new products into new markets and takes advantage of opportunities that arise through product development or the introduction of a new business into an existing market.

Non-Growth strategies are utilized when an organization does not necessarily want to grow, but rather when said organization wants to maintain current sales or achieve a higher profit margin through current products and current customers. Non-Growth strategies are often implemented when a company is adversely affected by rising costs, slower sales, and/or lower profits.

Once the marketing strategy has been identified, then one must set marketing plan objectives. Marketing plan objectives often fall into one of three categories: marketing, financial, and societal. Marketing objectives are those that seek to utilize marketing to manage relationships between an organization and its customers and an organization and distribution channels. Financial objectives utilize marketing to attain financial results that are determined through financial audits. Societal objectives utilize marketing to achieve social responsibility through cleaner operations/energy conservation and community involvement. When setting marketing plan objectives one must make sure objectives are: 1) specific, time-defined, and measureable; 2) realistic, but challenging; 3) consistent with the defined goals; 4) consistent with internal environment analysis; and 5) appropriate given the opportunities and threats. In order to successfully implement a marketing strategy, an organization must also establish a solid foundation of marketing support. The two main contributors to the success of a marketing plan are gained through internal marketing, whose main objective is to focus on marketing objective and the objective's impact on the customer and to provide support for the marketing plan, and through customer service, by gauging customer's response to the marketing plan before, at the point of sale, and after the sale of a product.