7

Strategic
Planning

13/10/09 American UNIVERSITY of Sharjah jah 1

COLLEGE of ARTS and SCIENCES
Dr. Mohammed Ibahrine MASS COMMUNICATIONS
 Objectives
• After studying this chapter, you will be able to:
 Explain the role and importance of a marketing plan.
 Give examples of need-satisfying and sales-target
objectives
 Explain the difference between objectives, strategies,
and tactics in marketing and advertising plans.
 Discuss the suitability of top-down, bottom-up, and
integrated marketing communications (IMC) planning
 Describe how marketing and advertising plans are
related
 Explain how to establish specific, realistic, and
measurable advertising objectives
13/10/09 2
 The Marketing Plan

• In spite of the brilliant creativity employed by BBDO in its ads

for Mountair:

• Dew, the Dew story actually demonstrates that business

success often depends more on careful marketing and
advertising planning than on advertising creativity

• Yet, every year, companies waste millions and millions of

dollars on ineffective advertising due to a woeful lack of prior
planning

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 The Marketing Plan

• The Importance of Marketing Planning

 Since marketing typically drives a company's income, the

marketing plan may well be its most important document

 The marketing plan assembles all the pertinent facts

about the organization, the markets it serves, and its
products, services, customers, competition and so on

 It forces all departments-product development, production,

sales advertising, finance, transportation-to focus on the
customer

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 The Marketing Plan

• The Importance of Marketing Planning

 Since marketing typically drives a company's income, the

marketing plan may well be its most important document

 The marketing plan assembles all the pertinent facts about the
organization, the markets it serves, and its products, services,
customers, competition and so on

 It forces all departments-product development, production,

sales advertising, finance, transportation-to focus on the
customer
13/10/09 5
 The Marketing Plan

• The Importance of Marketing Planning

 It sets goals and objectives for specified periods of time

 It lays out the precise strategies and tactics to achieve them

 The written marketing plan must reflect the goals of top

management and be consistent with the company’s mission and
capabilities

 Depending on its scope, the plan may be long and complex or, in
the case of a small firm or a single product line, very brief

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 The Marketing Plan

• The Importance of Marketing Planning

 Formal marketing plans are typically reviewed

and revised yearly, but planning is not a one-
time event

 It's a continuous process that includes

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 The Marketing Plan

 Research

 Formation

 Implementation

 Evaluation

 Review

 Reformulation
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 The Marketing Plan

• The Effect of the Marketing Plan on Advertising

 The marketing plan has a profound effect on an organization's

advertising

 It helps managers analyze and improve all company operations,

including marketing and advertising programs

 It dictates the role of advertising in the marketing mix

 It enables better implementation, control, and continuity of

advertising programs

 It ensures the most efficient allocation of advertising dollars

13/10/09 9
 The Marketing Plan

• The Effect of the Marketing Plan on Advertising

 Successful organizations do not separate advertising plans from

marketing

 They view each as a vital building block for success

 Companies have a choice in how they plan

 Most still use the traditional top-down planning model

 Some use a bottom-up model; and now, increasingly, companies

are starting to use an integrated marketing communications (IMC)
model

13/10/09 10
 Top-Down Marketing

• The traditional top-down marketing plan is

still the most common format

• It has been used for over 30 years and fits the

hierarchical organization of most companies

• It is often appropriate for companies planning

to launch completely new products

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 Top-Down Marketing

• As Exhibit 7-1 shows, the top-down plan

has four main elements:

 Situation analysis
 Marketing objectives
 Marketing strategy
 Marketing tactics (or action programs)

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Situation analysis
 Situation analysis section is a factual statement of the
organization' s current situation and how it got there

 It presents all the relevant facts about the company's

history, growth, products and services, sales volume,
share of market, competitive status, markets served,
distribution system, past advertising programs, marketing
research studies, company capabilities, strengths and
weaknesses, and other pertinent information

 To plan successfully for the future, company executives

must agree on the accuracy of the data and its
interpretation
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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing objectives

 The organization's next step is to determine specific

marketing objectives

 These must consider the amount of money the company

has to invest in marketing and production, its knowledge
of the marketplace, and the competitive environment

 Marketing objectives follow logically from a review of the

company's current situation, management's prediction of
future trends, and the hierarchy of company objectives

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing objectives

 For example, corporate objectives are stated in terms of

profit or return on investment, or net worth, earnings
ratios, growth, or corporate reputation

 Marketing objectives, which derive from corporate

objectives, should relate to the needs of target markers as
well as to specific sales goals

 These may be referred to as general need-satisfying

objectives and specific sales-target objectives

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing objectives

 To shift management's view of the organization from a

producer of products to a satisfier of target market needs,
companies set need-satisfying objectives

 These have a couple of important purposes

 First, they enable the firm to view its business broadly

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing objectives

 Second, by setting need-satisfying objectives, managers

force the company to look through the customer's eyes

 They have to ask "What are we planning to do for the

customer?" and "What is the value of that to our
customer?"

 One of the best ways to define a market is to think about

customer needs first and then identify the products that
meet those needs

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing objectives

 The second kind of marketing objective is the sales-target

objective

 This is a specific, quantitative, realistic marketing goal to

be achieved within a specified period of time

 A sales-target objective could be phrased as "What are

we planning to do for ourselves?“

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing objectives

 They may be expressed in several ways:

 Total sales volume
 Sales volume by product
 Market segment
 Customer type
 Market share in total or by product line
 Growth rate of sales volume in total or by product line
 Gross profit in total or by product line

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing strategy
 The marketing strategy describes how the
company plans to meet its marketing objectives

 ''Developing and following a strategy is what

keeps you and everybody else on the same
course so that you can maximize the
effectiveness of your marketing.,,

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing strategy
 Marketing strategy typically involves three steps:
 (1) defining the particular target markets

 (2) determining the strategies positioning

 (3) developing an appropriate marketing mix for each

target market

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing strategy

 A company's marketing strategy has a dramatic impact on

its advertising

 It determines the role and amount of advertising in the

marketing mix, its creative thrust, and the media to be
employed

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing strategy

 Selecting the target market In top-down marketing, the

first step in strategy development is to define and select
the target market, using the processes of market
segmentation and research

 Positioning the product The famous researcher and

copywriter David Ogilvy said one of the first decisions in
marketing and advertising is also the most important:

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 Top-Down Marketing

 How to position the product

 Positioning refers to the place a brand

occupies competitively in the minds of
consumers

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing strategy

 Professor Ernest Martin at Virginia Commonwealth University

proposes seven distinct approaches to developing a positioning
strategy:

 1. Product attribute--setting the brand apart by stressing a

particular product feature important to consumers

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing strategy

 2. Price/quality--positioning on the basis of price or quality

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing strategy

 3. Use/application-positioning on the basis of how a product

is used

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing strategy

 4. Product class-positioning the brand against other products

that, while not the same, offer the same class of benefits

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing strategy

 5. Product users - positioning against the particular group

who uses the product

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing strategy

 6. Product competitor - positioning against competitors, using

the strength of the competitor's position to help define the
subject brand

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing strategy

 7. Cultural symbol-positioning apart from competitors through

the creation or use of some recognized symbol or icon

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing strategy
 We would add an eighth approach:

 8. category -positioning by defining or redefining a

business category

 A simple way for a company to get the number one

position is to invent a new product category

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing strategy

 Determining the marketing mix

 The next step in developing the marketing strategy is to

determine a cost-effective marketing mix for each target
market the company pursues

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing strategy

 The mix blends the various marketing elements the

company controls:

 Product

 Price

 Distribution

 Communications

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 Top-Down Marketing

• Marketing tactics (or action programs)

 A company's objectives indicate where it wants to go

 The strategy indicates the intended route

 The tactics (or action programs) determine the specific

short-term actions to be taken, internally and externally, by
whom, and when

 Advertising campaigns live in the world of marketing

tactics
 These tactics are the key to bottom-up marketing

13/10/09 35
• strategic planning is the process of identifying a
problem that can be solved with marketing
communications, determining objectives, and
deciding on strategies, and implementing tactics.

1. Objective—a goal you want to accomplish.

2. Strategy—means, design, or plan for accomplishing

objectives.

3. Tactics—actions that execute the plan, such as how

an ad is designed or written.

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 The Business Plan
• The business plan and marketing plan provide
direction for advertising planning and other areas.
• The business plan may cover an SBU (strategic
business unit), which is a line of products or all
offerings of a brand.
– The objective is profit or Return-on-Investment
(ROI).
– ROI is revenue earned above the amount invested.
– Business planning starts with a a mission statement;
an expression of goals and policies.

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 Steps in the Business Plan
• Business mission statement
• Research (external and internal environment
analysis)
• Goal formulation
• Strategy formulation
• Tactical formulation
• Implementation
• Feedback and control

7-38
• A market situation analysis
assesses the environment affecting
marketing.

• Objectives are focused on sales

levels and share of market.

7-39
Steps in the Marketing Plan
• Select marketing objectives
• Identify threats and opportunities
• Select target markets
• Develop marketing strategies
• Design action plans
• Execute plans
• Measure results/take action

7-40
The Advertising or IMC Plan
• Advertising or IMC plan also includes
objectives, strategies, and tactics (like
business and marketing plan).
• The focus is on the communication program
supporting a brand.

7-41
What is a
campaign plan?

7-42
 What is a campaign plan?
• More tightly focused on solving a
particular problem in a particular time
frame.

• Includes a variety of messages carried in

different media and sometimes targeted
to different audiences

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 What is a campaign plan?
• Typical campaign plan outline:

1. Situation analysis
2. Key strategic campaign decisions
3. Media strategy (or points of contact in an IMC plan)
4. Message strategy
5. Other Marcom tools used in support
6. Campaign management

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 Situation Analysis
 Backgrounding
 Research and review the state of the business that is
relevant to the brand and gather all pertinent
information.
 A problem statement identifies the problem to be solved.
 SWOT Analysis
 Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
 Finding ways to address the weaknesses and threats and
leverage the strengths and opportunities.
 Key Problems and Opportunities
 Look for communication problems that hinder successful
marketing; find opportunities advertising can create or
exploit.
 Advertising can’t solve price, availability, or quality
problems; but it can address the perception of high prices
or portray limited distribution as exclusivity.

7-45
 SWOT Analysis

Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities Threats
 Objectives
• Objective—formal goal statement outlining what
the message is supposed to achieve and how it will
be measured.
• The six categories of effects or facets can serve as a
basis for common consumer-focused objectives.
• Some objectives are tightly focused on a single
effect; others require a complex set of effects.
– A campaign to create brand loyalty must have both
cognitive (rational) and affective (emotional) effects, and it
must move people to repeat buying (behavioral).
• Advertising is effective if it creates an impression,
influences people to respond, and separates the
brand from the competition.
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 Measurable Objectives
• Objectives must be measurable so advertisers
know if the campaign or advertising is effective.
• Five requirements of a measurable objective:
– Specific effect that can be measured
– A time frame
– A baseline (where we are, where we begin)
– The goal (realistic estimate of change to be created)
– Percentage change (subtract the baseline from the goal;
divide the difference by the baseline)
• Sample objective: “The goal of this campaign is to
increase customer awareness of Kodak’s digital
products from 20% to 25% in 12 months.”

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 Positioning
• A brand’s position its place in consumers’ minds
where the product or brand stands in comparison to
the competition.
• Factors that define the competitive situation:
– Product features and attributes, both tangible and
intangible.
• Feature analysis is used to assess features relative
to competitors’ products.
– Competitive advantage is where 1) the product has
a strong feature, 2) in an area that is important to the
target, and 3) where the competition is weaker.
– Differentiation is a strategy that focuses attention to
product differences that distinguish the company’s
product from all others in the eyes of consumers.

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 Brand Communication Strategy

• Brand identity
– Must be distinctive and familiar in terms of name, logo, colors,
typeface, design, and slogan.
• Brand personality
– Human characteristics like loving, trustworthy, sophisticated.
• Brand position
– The soul or essence of the brand; it stands for something that
matters to consumers
• Brand image
– The mental image consumers construct for a product based on
symbols and associations that customer link to a brand
• Brand promise and brand preference
– Believing the promise that a brand will meet your expectations
leads to brand preference
• Brand loyalty
– A connection built over time that leads to repeat purchases

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 Insight Mining
• Finding the “a-ha” in a stack of research
reports, data, and transcripts is the greatest
challenge for an account planner.
• Consumer insights provide fuel for the big
ideas.
• Account planners use strategic and critical
thinking to interpret consumer research to find
relevant consumer insights that explain why
consumers will care about a brand message.

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 The Communications Brief
 The outcome of research reaches agency
creative department in the form of
communication brief (or creative brief)

 Communication/Creative brief is a
document that explains the consumer
insight and summarizes the basic strategy
decisions.

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 The Communications Brief

• The brief is an outline of the message

strategy that guides the creative team and
helps keep its ideas strategically sound.

• The first step in the creative process, it is

designed to spark creativity and serve as a
springboard for ideas.

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 Communications Brief Outline

1. Problem

 What’s the problem that

communication can solve? (establish
position, increase loyalty, increase
liking, etc.)

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 Communications Brief Outline

2. Target audience

 To whom Who do we want to speak?

(brand loyal, heavy users, infrequent
users, competition’s users, etc.)

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 Communications Brief Outline

3. Consumer insights

 What motivates the target? What are the

“major truths” about the target’s
relationship to the product category or
brand?

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 Communications Brief Outline

4. The brand imperatives

 What are the important features and

competitive advantage? What’s the
position? Also, what’s the brand
essence, brand personality and/or
image?

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 Communications Brief Outline

5. Communication objectives

 What do we want customers to do in

response to our messages?
(perception, knowledge, feelings,
symbolic meanings, attitudes and
conviction, action)

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 Communications Brief Outline

6. The proposition or selling idea

 What is the single thought that the

communication will bring to life in a
provocative way?

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 Communications Brief Outline

7. Support

 What is the reason to believe the

proposition?

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 Communications Brief Outline

8. Creative direction

 How can you best stimulate the

desired response? How can we best
say it?

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 Communications Brief Outline

9. Media imperatives

 Where and when should we say it?

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 Typical Campaign Plan Outline
• Situation Analysis
• • Background research
• • SWOTs: strengths , weaknesses,
opportunities, threats
• • Key advertising problem/s to be
solved
• •
• Key strategic campaign decisions
• • Objectives
• • Target audience (or stakeholder
targets in an IMC Plan)
• • Brand position: Product features
and competitive advantage
• • Campaign Strategy: Key strategic
approach or marcom tool
• •
• Media strategy (or Points of Contact
in an IMC Plan)
• • Media objectives
• • Media selection
• • Media planning and buying:
• • Vehicle selection
• • Budget allocation
• • Scheduling
• Message strategy
• • Key Consumer Insight (Brand Relationship
Insight in IMC)
• • Message objectives
• • Selling premise
• Big idea
• • Message design and executions
•
• Other marcom tools used in support
• • Sales promotion
• • Public relations
• • Direct marketing
• • Personal selling
• Sponsorships, merchandising, packaging,
point-of-purchase
• • Integration Strategy (maximize synergy)
•
•
• Campaign Management
• Evaluation of effectiveness
• • Campaign Budget
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 Setting Objectives
The traditional
advertising
pyramid
 Determining the Strategy
Advertising Strategy

Creative Media
Strategy Strategy