Strategic Marketing: Planning and Control, Third Edition

2 Corporate objectives and strategy: Collective goals and strategy define
the ‘benchmarks’ for success, and ways of achieving success. This level
co-ordinates corporate activity and initiate activities to achieve desired
results.
3 SBU/functional objectives and strategy: Corporate strategy translates into
objectives and plans for individual elements of the business. This may
take the form of SBUs’ (divisions within a company) or functional
activities. For example, a hotel chain could divide its business into
three SBUs – accommodation, food and beverage and conferences and
leisure.
4 Resources: For a given strategy, the need exists to match resources to
strategic intent. This process normally involves annual budgeting.
5 Structure: Management must develop the appropriate organisational
and staffing structures to facilitate success.

The strategic marketing plan 245

Vision

Corporate

objectives and

strategy

SBU/functional

objectives and strategy

Resources Structure

How will success be

defined and how will

it be achieved?

Plans for

individual business

elements

Aligning resources

and organisational

structure with

strategic intent

What sort of

business?

Figure 12.2

The strategic

process

Successful businesses ensure these factors are aligned in order to turn
strategic intent into business reality.

■ Marketing plans: strategy or

tactics?

There are two types of marketing plan – strategic and tactical. This distinc-
tion generates much confusion and debate; is it a strategy or a tactic? This
question may be academic when faced with the reality of the business
world, as the distinction between the two will vary from organisation to
organisation and manager to manager. However, much of the confusion