Basic Marketing: A Global Managerial Approach

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic

Marketing: A

Global−Managerial

Approach, 14/e

21. Developing Innovative
    Marketing Plans

Text © The McGraw−Hill

Companies, 2002

608 Chapter 21

Developing a good marketing strategy and turning the strategy into a marketing

plan requires blending the ideas we’ve discussed throughout this text. Exhibit 21-1

provides a broad overview of the major areas we’ve been talking about. You’ve seen

this before in Chapter 3—before you learned what’s really involved in each idea.

Now we must integrate ideas about these different areas to narrow down to logical

marketing mixes, marketing strategies, marketing plans—and a marketing program.

As suggested in Exhibit 21-1, developing an effective marketing strategy involves

a process of narrowing down to a specific target market and marketing mix that rep-

resents a real opportunity. This narrowing-down process requires a thorough

understanding of the market. That understanding is enhanced by careful analysis of

customers’ needs, current or prospective competitors, and the firm’s own objectives

and resources. Similarly, favorable or unfavorable factors and trends in the external

market environment may make a potential opportunity more or less attractive.

There are usually more different strategy possibilities than a firm can pursue. Each

possible strategy usually has a number of different potential advantages and disad-

vantages. This can make it difficult to zero in on the best target market and

marketing mix. However, as we discussed in Chapter 4, developing a set of specific

Customers

Needs and Other

Segmenting

Dimensions

S.

W.

O.

T.

Segmentation

& Targeting

Differentiation

& Positioning

Product Place

Price

Target

Market

Promotion

Company

Objectives

and

Resources

Competitors

Current

and

Prospective

External Market Environment

Technological Political and Legal Cultural and Social Economic

Narrowing down to focused strategy with quantitative and qualitative screening criteria

Exhibit 21-1
Overview of Marketing
Strategy Planning Process

Blending the Four Ps Takes Understanding of a Target Market

Marketing strategy
planning process
brings focus to efforts

We’ll start with a review of the many variables that must be considered in the

marketing strategy planning process. You’ll recognize that most of these are high-

lighted in the Maytag case. Next we’ll look at some of the key ways a marketing

manager can identify the right blend of the marketing mix for an innovative strat-

egy. Then we’ll discuss how these ideas come together in a marketing plan.

We’ll also discuss ways to forecast target market potential and sales, which is

important not only in evaluating opportunities but also in developing the time-

related details for a plan. Of course, plans must ultimately be blended into an overall

program—and we’ll suggest ways to approach that task. Planning strategies for inter-

national markets presents some special challenges, so we’ll conclude the chapter by

describing the different ways a marketer can address these challenges.