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 627

Pepsi’s billboard is only one

element of a comprehensive

market plan, but it cleverly

reinforces Pepsi’s “The Joy of

Cola” positioning.

Most companies implement more than one marketing plan at the same time. A

marketing programblends all a firm’s marketing plans into one big plan.

When the various plans in the company’s program are different, managers may

be less concerned with how well the plans fit together—except as they compete for

the firm’s usually limited financial resources.

When the plans are more similar, however, the same sales force may be

expected to carry out several plans. Or the firm’s advertising department may

develop the publicity and advertising for several plans. In these cases, product

managers try to get enough of the common resources, say, salespeople’s time, for

their own plans.

Since a company’s resources are usually limited, the marketing manager must

make hard choices. You can’t launch plans to pursue every promising opportunity.

Instead, limited resources force you to choose among alternative plans—while you

develop the program.

How do you find the best program? There is no one best way to compare vari-

ous plans. Managers usually rely on evaluation tools like those discussed in Chapter

4. Even so, much management judgment is usually required. Some calculations are
   helpful too. If a five-year planning horizon seems realistic for the firm’s markets,
   managers can compare expected profits over the five-year period for each plan.
   Assuming the company has a profit-oriented objective, managers can evaluate
   the more profitable plans first—in terms of both potential profit and resources
   required. They also need to evaluate a plan’s impact on the entire program. One
   profitable-looking alternative might be a poor first choice if it eats up all the com-
   pany’s resources and sidetracks several plans that together would be more profitable
   and spread the risks.
   Some juggling among the various plans—comparing profitability versus resources
   needed and available—moves the company toward the most profitable program.
   This is another area where spreadsheet analysis can help the manager evaluate a
   large number of alternatives.^8

Companies Plan and Implement Whole Marketing Programs

Several plans make a

program

Finding the best

program requires

judgment