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

632 Chapter 21

estimates. And they may use surveys, panels, and market
tests. Of course, any sales forecast depends on the
marketing mix the firm actually selects.
Once forecasts of the expected sales and estimates of
the associated costs for possible strategies are available,
alternatives can be compared on potential profitability.
Spreadsheet analysis software is an important tool for
such comparisons. In the same vein, project planning
approaches, such as CPM and PERT, can help the mar-
keting manager do a better job in planning the
time-related details for the strategy that is selected.

Throughout the text, we’ve emphasized the impor-

tance of marketing strategy planning. In this chapter, we

went on to show that the marketing manager must de-

velop a marketing plan for carrying out each strategy and

then merge a set of plans into a marketing program.

Finally, we discussed different approaches that are

helpful in planning strategies to enter international mar-

kets. The different approaches have different strengths

and weaknesses.

Questions and Problems

1. Distinguish clearly between a marketing strategy, a
   marketing plan, and a marketing program.


2. Discuss how a marketing manager could go about
   choosing among several possible marketing plans,
   given that choices must be made because of limited
   resources. Would the job be easier in the consumer
   product or in the business product area? Why?


3. Explain how understanding the product classes can
   help a marketing manager develop a marketing
   strategy for a really new product that is unlike any-
   thing currently available.


4. Distinguish between competitive marketing mixes
   and superior mixes that lead to breakthrough oppor-
   tunities.


5. Explain the difference between a forecast of market
   potential and a sales forecast.


6. Suggest a plausible explanation for sales fluctuations
   for (a)computers, (b)ice cream, (c)washing ma-
   chines, (d)tennis rackets, (e)oats, (f)disposable
   diapers, and (g)latex for rubber-based paint.


7. Explain the factor method of forecasting. Illustrate
   your answer.


8. Based on data in Exhibit 21-5, discuss the relative
   market potential of the city of Boulder, Colorado,
   and the city of Lakewood, Colorado, for (a)pre-
   pared cereals, (b)automobiles, and (c)furniture.


9. Why is spreadsheet analysis a popular tool for mar-
   keting strategy planning?
   10. In your own words, explain how a project manage-
   ment technique such as PERT or CPM can help a
   marketing manager develop a better marketing plan.
   11. Why should a complete marketing plan include de-
   tails concerning the reasons for the marketing
   strategy decisions and not just the marketing activi-
   ties central to the four Ps?
   12. Consider how the marketing manager’s job becomes
   more complex when it’s necessary to develop and
   plan severalstrategies as part of a marketing pro-
   gram. Be sure to discuss how the manager might
   have to handle different strategies at different stages
   in the product life cycle. To make your discussion
   more concrete, consider the job of a marketing
   manager for a sporting product manufacturer.
   13. How would marketing planning be different for a
   firm that has entered foreign marketing with a joint
   venture and a firm that has set up a wholly owned
   subsidiary?
   14. How can a firm set the details of its marketing plan
   when it has little information about a foreign mar-
   ket it wants to enter?
   15. Review the Maytag case at the beginning of this
   chapter and the outline of a marketing plan in
   Exhibit 21-9. Indicate which sections of the plan
   would probably require the most change as the
   competition among high-efficiency front-load
   washing machines significantly increases. Briefly
   explain your thinking.