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

Developing Innovative Marketing Plans 607

The Maytag case shows that developing a successful marketing plan is a creative

process. But it is also a logical process. And the logic that leads to a sound strategy

may need to change as the market environment and target customers change.

Even so, the strategy planning process is guided by basic principles. The mar-

keting concept emphasizes that all of a firm’s activities should focus on its target

markets. Further, a firm should try to find a competitive advantage in meeting the

needs of some target market(s) that it can satisfy very well. If it can do that, it pro-

vides target customers with superior value. The target market(s) should be large

enough to support the firm’s efforts and yield a profit. And ideally, the strategy

should take advantage of trends in the external market, not buck them.

As we explained in Chapter 3, the marketing strategy planning process involves

narrowing down from a broad set of possible marketing opportunities to a specific

strategy the firm will pursue. A marketing strategyconsists of a target market and a

marketing mix; it specifies what a firm will do in some target market. A marketing

planincludes the time-related details—including expected costs and revenues—for

that strategy. In most firms, the marketing manager must ultimately combine the

different marketing plans into an overall marketing program.

With the plan finally in operation, Neptunes flew off the dealers’ floors and truck-

load orders began rolling in. This caused some implementation problems, but Maytag

production workers went into overdrive and moved Neptunes off the loading docks

around the clock. Swiftly, new tooling was installed to raise plant production rates.

As this product-market moves along in the growth stage, competition could get

tough. So far, however, Maytag marketers have developed creative strategies and

thorough plans that have stimulated growth in sales and profit. And along the way,

they’ve helped raise the social responsibility bar on conservation.^1

Marketing Planning Process Is More than Assembling the Four Ps

3M plans and develops different

marketing mixes—including

different products, promotion,

and pricing—for different target

markets around the world.