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Marketing plans how to prepare them, how to use them
McDonald, Malcolm
In a sentence
A practical, research-grounded guide that demystifies marketing planning by teaching managers how to prepare and use strategic and tactical marketing plans that match company capabilities to customer wants in order to create sustainable competitive advantage.
Based on extensive research into the marketing planning practices of industrial, consumer, and service companies, this book strips away the confusion and mythology surrounding marketing planning. Malcolm McDonald shows that most companies that think they are planning are merely forecasting and budgeting, and suffer grave operational consequences as a result. The book takes the reader painstakingly through the entire process: understanding the marketing concept, conducting a marketing audit, performing SWOT and portfolio analyses, setting marketing objectives and strategies, building advertising, sales, pricing and distribution plans, and finally designing and implementing a simple, step-by-step marketing planning system. Crucially, it deals not only with what should happen but with what goes wrong—the cultural, organizational, and political barriers to planning—and how to overcome them. It combines current best practice with the necessary theoretical background, making it equally valuable to practising marketing directors and to students preparing for professional marketing qualifications.
The four lenses
- Science
- Statistics
- Systems
- Strategy
The model
A causal model in which the design and implementation of a structured marketing planning system, combined with rigorous analytical practices and leadership/cultural support, drives intermediate psychological and behavioral states (clarity of objectives, strategic orientation, competitive advantage) that in turn produce business outcomes such as profitability and stability.
Formalized Marketing Planning Systemdesign lever
A structured set of written procedures and a common format that leads logically from situation review through assumptions, objectives, strategies, programmes, and measurement and review, institutionalizing the marketing planning process across the organization.
Marketing Audit Rigordesign lever
The thoroughness, systematicness, and unbiased nature of the structured collection and analysis of internal (controllable) and external (uncontrollable) information about the company and its environment that forms the data base for planning.
Market Segmentation Qualitybehavioral pattern
The degree to which a company identifies viable, adequately sized, reachable, distinct groups of customers sharing similar needs and matches its distinctive competence to chosen segments, rather than selling undifferentiated 'me-too' products.
Strategic Orientationpsychological state
The extent to which management thinks beyond the current fiscal year, scans the external environment, develops the strategic plan before the operational plan, and involves all levels of management in identifying long-term forces and responses.
Clarity and Prioritization of Marketing Objectivespsychological state
The degree to which marketing objectives are quantified, measurable, focused on products and markets, prioritized by impact and urgency, and logically derived from the audit and corporate objectives.
Sustainable Competitive Advantagebehavioral pattern
A benefit or cluster of benefits, valued by a sizeable customer group and not obtainable elsewhere, achieved through cost leadership, differentiation, or focus, that the company can maintain over time relative to competitors.
Chief Executive Support and Participationcontextual condition
The degree to which the chief executive understands, actively participates in, and is committed to the marketing planning process, opening the planning loop through personal intervention to prevent bureaucratic inertia.
Corporate Culture Readiness and Acceptance Levelcontextual condition
The organization's life-phase culture and the four levels of acceptance of marketing planning (from deliberate ignoring to taking it very seriously), shaped by the behaviors of culture carriers and the organization's readiness to change.
Company Size and Diversity of Operationscontextual condition
The scale and heterogeneity of the company's products, markets, and operations, which determines the requisite degree of formalization of the marketing planning system.
Business Performance (Profitability and Stability)outcome metric
The company's financial performance over a number of years and the effectiveness with which it copes with its environment, including profitability, return on investment, market share, and long-term stability.
How they connect
- marketing planning system → predicts strategic orientation
- marketing audit rigor → predicts objective clarity
- marketing audit rigor → predicts market segmentation quality
- market segmentation quality → predicts competitive advantage
- objective clarity → influences competitive advantage
- strategic orientation → predicts business performance
- competitive advantage → predicts business performance
- marketing planning system → predicts business performance
- chief executive support → moderates marketing planning system
- corporate culture readiness → moderates marketing planning system
- company size diversity → moderates marketing planning system
A candidate measure
Marketing plans how to prepare them, how to use them — derived measurement candidates
Formalized Marketing Planning System
Presence/completeness of marketing plan documents; Adherence rate to planning timetable; Consistency of format across SBUs
self-report suitability: medium
Marketing Audit Rigor
Audit checklist completion rate; Number of analytical tools applied; SWOT focus/length appropriateness
self-report suitability: medium
Market Segmentation Quality
Number of distinct viable segments defined; Differential benefits identified per segment; Segment-level market share/growth data availability
self-report suitability: medium
Strategic Orientation
Planning horizon length (years); Proportion of plan devoted to external analysis; Multi-level participation in strategy formulation
self-report suitability: high
Clarity and Prioritization of Marketing Objectives
Percentage of objectives quantified; Use of objectives priority matrix; Logical traceability to SWOT
self-report suitability: high
Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Weighted CSF score ratio versus largest competitor; Relative market share/dominance ratio; Porter matrix quadrant position
self-report suitability: medium
Chief Executive Support and Participation
Frequency of CEO involvement in planning events; Manager-rated CEO commitment; Whether emerging plans influence key decisions
self-report suitability: high
Corporate Culture Readiness and Acceptance Level
Acceptance level score (1-4); Lifeline phase classification; Readiness-to-change rating
self-report suitability: medium
Company Size and Diversity of Operations
Annual turnover and employee count; Count of product lines and served markets; Geographic/international spread index
self-report suitability: high
Business Performance (Profitability and Stability)
Turnover, profit before tax, gross margin trends; ROI/ROCE; Market share over multiple years
self-report suitability: low
The story
The reader A practising manager or marketing executive responsible for a company's revenue-earning activities who wants to prepare and use an effective marketing plan that secures profitable growth and competitive advantage.
External problem
Their company is only forecasting and budgeting rather than truly planning, leaving them unable to match capabilities to market opportunities or to know what to sell and to whom.
Internal problem
They feel baffled, frustrated, and confused by a complex, jargon-laden subject where confusion 'reigns supreme' and little practical guidance exists.
Philosophical problem
It is just plain wrong for companies to drift into commercial decline through ignorance of a process that lies at the heart of every business's survival and success.
The plan
- Understand the marketing concept and the marketing mix.
- Carry out a thorough, structured marketing audit and summarize it as focused SWOT analyses.
- Analyze customers, markets, and products using segmentation, life cycles, and portfolio matrices.
- Set quantified marketing objectives about products and markets, and develop matching strategies.
- Build supporting communication, pricing, and distribution plans.
- Design and implement a simple, step-by-step marketing planning system with chief executive support.
Success
- The reader's life looks like running a company firmly in control of its diverse activities, with widely understood objectives, motivated employees, actionable market information, minimal waste, and regained profitability and confidence.
At stake
- Without it, the company suffers lost profit opportunities, meaningless numbers, interfunctional strife, management frustration, growing vulnerability to environmental change, loss of control, and eventual commercial decline or bankruptcy.
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