Strategic Planning and Marketing Planning

 A normal business plan includes a strategic plan and a marketing plan.

 The strategic plan is high-level thinking, without the details, defining strategic focus. It
ought to include thinking about how the business is different, and its special market
focus, and its business offering (product or service), and how those three elements work
together. In many ways it's like defining attributes, goals, and directions.

 A marketing plan usually (but not necessarily) includes a market analysis. It defines
target markets, messaging, media, promotion, pricing, and other elements of the
marketing mix – distribution channels, packaging, PR, as appropriate. And it sets specific
activities, budgets, metrics, and milestones.

An Introduction of Strategic Planning

Strategic planning is the process of documenting and establishing a direction of your
small business—by assessing both where you are and where you’re going. The strategic plan
gives you a place to record your mission, vision, and values, as well as your long-term goals and
the action plans you’ll use to reach them. A well-written strategic plan can play a pivotal role in
your small business’s growth and success because it tells you and your employees how best to
respond to opportunities and challenges.

Benefits of Strategic Planning

The strategic planning process can take some time, but it’s beneficial for everyone
involved. As the small business owner, you’ll have a better idea of the goals and objectives you
want to accomplish and a path to do that. For your employees, the process can foster an increase
in productivity—contributing to the success of the business.

 Communicating Your Strategic Plan

The strategic planning process should involve your employees. Your employees
are involved in the day-to-day operations and can provide you with a unique view of the
company. Employees can share with you what they think is and isn’t working with the
business today, which can inform your planning for the future.

 Increase Productivity

Involving your employees in the strategic planning process also means they
receive a sense of accountability that can increase productivity. Whether they contributed
in the process or were informed of the business’s goals and objectives after the strategic
plan was created, they’ll be more likely to want to help you achieve those targets.
  Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses

As part of the strategic planning process, you’ll examine and analyze your entire
business. You’ll take a look at what your business does well and the areas where it still
needs to improve. By identifying your business’s current strengths and weaknesses, the
process gives you and your employees an opportunity to improve in the future and
become a durable business by minimizing risks.

 Setting the Direction of the Business and Fostering a Proactive Business

By the end of the strategic planning process, you and your employees should have
a clear direction of where you want the business to go in the future. These discussions
and the planning process itself help put the business in the best position to succeed in the
future.
Strategic planning gives you and your business time to figure out how to grow
over the next few years and how to address new opportunities and challenges. Think
about the challenges or issues your business may face in four or five years and plan
accordingly, so your business doesn’t stumble down the road.

Strategic Planning Misconceptions

 There are many strategic planning misconceptions. From not having enough time or
thinking it only benefits larger businesses, to fearing you’ll put your business on the
wrong path, there are a variety of reasons why business owners may be wary of strategic
planning. But don’t be alarmed; strategic planning can help your business—big or small
—and the benefits far outweigh any perceived negatives.
 Regardless of the size of your business, a strategic plan is beneficial. Whether you are a
small business or a large corporation with hundreds or thousands of employees,
strategic planning helps you make sure the company is headed in the right direction.
 But how do you know if you’re steering the company in the right direction? The
beginning phases of strategic planning focus on research and discussions. The decisions
you make during strategic planning aren’t based on assumptions; they’re based on
research and information you’ve gathered while talking with your employees and people
outside of your company.
 The strategic planning process may seem daunting at first, but when you understand
what’s involved and how to do it, it’s not that complicated. It takes time, but the amount
you invest in the process pays off when everyone in your company works toward
accomplishing the goals and objectives you’ve laid out.
 The process doesn’t stymie creativity either. When you meet with your employees for
strategic planning, you’re asking everyone to have a discussion and brainstorm ideas. The
strategic planning process puts everyone’s minds together to think of creative ideas.
 If you go through the strategic planning process once, don’t think you won’t have to
do it again. The strategic plan is a living document; it should change over time. It’s not
uncommon for business owners to create a strategic plan with their employees and rarely
 —or never—revisit the document. Reviewing and evaluating your strategic plan regularly
will help keep you accountable and on track to achieve your goals and objectives.
Importance of Strategic Planning
Strategic planning is necessary to determine the direction for your organization. It
focuses your efforts and ensures that everyone in the business is working towards a common
goal. It also helps you:
 agree actions that will contribute to business growth
 align resources for optimal results
 priorities financial needs
 build competitive advantage
 engage with your staff and communicate what needs to be done

Another significant purpose of strategic planning is to help you manage and reduce business
risks. Growing a business is inherently risky. Detailed planning may help you to:
 remove uncertainty
 analyses potential risks
 implement risk control measures
 consider how to minimize the impact of risks, should they occur.

6 Key Elements of Strategic Planning

1.     Define your vision

The vision statement of an organization is an aspirational description of what an
organization would like to achieve or accomplish in the future – it is the goal. 
It is intended to serve as a clear guide for choosing current and future courses of action. It
is a definition of where you would like your organization to be. This is not a near-term milepost,
but rather a far-off, future destination. It sets the tone of your organization and provides a North
Star on the horizon for your organization to move toward.
2.     Create your mission
While your vision is an organization-wide goals and state of mind, your mission is the
foundational purpose that backs up that vision.  
Without a mission, your organization lacks the “why” of the vision. If everyone in your
organization has their own interpretation of why they are pursuing the vision, it can lead to
conflicting strategies and initiatives.

3.     Set your objectives

Objectives are specific results that a person or system aims to achieve within a time
frame and with
Defining what success looks like lets you know if you are on the path to achieve your
mission and realize your vision. Clearly articulating your objectives creates goalposts for your
organization that allow you to measure its overall health and the impact of strategic initiatives.
Boeing lists their 2025 objectives as: (Boeing site)
 Market Leadership
 Top-quartile Performance and Returns
 Growth Fueled by Productivity
 Design, Manufacturing, Services Excellence
 Accelerated Innovation
 Global Scale and Depth
 Best Team, Talent and Leaders
 Top Corporate Citizen
These objectives are clear, measurable, and can be supported by a number of strategic
initiatives across an organization. They allow their teams to understand if the work they are
doing is impactful.

4.    Develop your strategy

Your strategy is a long-term plan or plans that enables you to achieve your organization’s
objectives. 
Strategic plans might take 3-5 years, and there may be a separate plan for each objective
you have identified for your organization. Effective strategies are critical to long-term success.
Strategies are much more specific than the vision, mission, and objectives, and are typically only
shared within an organization.

5.     Outline your approach

An approach provides a methodology for executing your strategy. 
An approach provides a framework for building tactics that address the strategy and
guides an organization on how to execute their strategic plan.

6.    Get down to tactics

The tactics are the final, and smallest pieces of a good strategic plan, but by no means the
least necessary. Tactics are focused initiatives, projects, or programs that allow organizations to
execute a strategic plan as defined by the approach.
Tactics are the key to execution, the actions that you actually take to make it all happen. 

The Definition of 'Marketing Planning/Plan'

A marketing plan is a comprehensive document that outlines a company’s overall

marketing effort. It is a blueprint that outlines how a company will implement its marketing
strategy, and use a combination of resources to achieve business objectives including sales
targets or customer acquisition.
Due to the ever-changing environment and marketing tools that become available, the
modern day marketing plan tends to be relatively short in nature, covering from one to a few
years.
6 Main Elements of Marketing Plan/Planning
1. Description of your product or service
Start out by describing the product or service you offer and what makes it unique
compared to the competition. Include the following information:
 Product or service summary. Briefly outline what your business offers, how it works
and where customers can buy it.
 Unique selling proposition. Describe what sets your business apart from other similar
products or services in a sentence.
 Customer benefits. Tell the reader why your customer might want to buy your product
or pay for your service — as opposed to your competitors’.
 Potential drawbacks — and solutions. Mention any roadblocks you might face and
how your business might overcome them.
You might also want to mention packaging information, warranties and guarantees that will
be provided with the products, information relating to repair of damaged products and also
customer support information.

2. Market analysis
This is where you describe your business’s target audience. If you’re planning to sell
your products to different audiences, include a complete analysis of all the market segments and
a customer profile. Your analysis should answer the following:
 Defining factors. What are the factors that define your target market?
 Appeal. Why will your products or services appeal to your audience?
 Goals. What are your customers’ goals?
 Motivations. What motivates your target audience?
 Problems. What are your target audience’s biggest problems?
 How your product fits in. How does your product or service help your target audience
reach its goals or solve a problem?
Pro tip: Invest in research
This section requires some research if you want to do it right. Some popular strategies
include interviewing customers, holding focus groups, conducting surveys and looking into the
competition. Consider factors in your customers’ daily lives that would affect their interaction
with your company — including how they spend their time, salaries, living arrangements and
general habits.

3. Marketing goals and objectives

Aside from bringing in more customers, describe what your business wants to achieve by
marketing. This might include:
 Brand awareness. Will your campaign be considered a success if more people know the
name of your brand?
 Brand perception. Do you want your target audience to view your products or services
in a different light?
  Making way for another product or service. Will your marketing strategy set the stage
for future products or services down the line?
After you’ve laid out your marketing goals, describe how you’re planning to achieve these
goals through your marketing and promotional activities.

4. Pricing details
This section describes on how much you charge for your products or services and the
reason for those prices. You need to show that you’re still competitive in your current market,
while also bringing in a profit. You might want to include the following details:
 Pricing breakdown. List the prices your business charges for all products and services it
offers.
 Cost of production. Break down all of the costs involved with creating and distributing
your product or services.
 Competitor prices. How much do your competitors charge for similar products? And
how does it compare with yours?
 Justification of pricing. Explain why you chose those prices and, if you charge less than
the competition, how you can afford to do so.
 Return on investment. How much of a profit do you expect to make based on the prices
and costs?
 Promotions. Include information regarding discounts and rebates, such as holiday
discounts or seasonal sales.

5. Advertising Plan
This is the heart of your marketing plan. Your advertising plan should outline how you
plan on reaching out to your target audience and its different stages. You might want to discuss
how you plan on using all of the following advertising methods:
 Social media. Which platforms do you plan on using, which is the priority and what
types of targeted ads do you intend to use?
 Online campaigns. Describe any banners or other online ads you intend on purchasing
and why.
 Email. Explain who you intend on reaching through email, describe the content and why
you chose this method.
 Ads in public space. List any billboards, subway advertisements and other ads that
appear in public space and how that would best reach your target audience.
 Television or radio ads. Which TV channels, stations or streaming services do you plan
on advertising on and what will the ads contain?
Also, discuss any other strategies you might use to promote your company, such as
special events, community service, articles and testimonials.
6. Marketing budget
In this section, you’ll break down the costs involved in each stage of your advertising
plan. This will help you determine your exact financial needs for thorough marketing and
advertising of your products.
You should also break down costs depending on the media you’re using for advertising,
such as social media campaigns or paid online ads. And include a budget for initial promotional
activities when you first launch your products, as well as for continued advertising once you
have established yourself in the market.
(https://www.finder.com/essentials-of-business-marketing-plan)

Importance of Marketing Planning (Ghose, Sheryasi)

Marketing planning is a systematic and disciplined exercise to formulate marketing
strategies. Marketing planning can be related to the organization as a whole or to strategic
business units (SBU). Marketing planning is a forward looking exercise, which determines the
future strategies of an organization with special reference to its product development, market
development, channel design, sales promotion and profitability.

We may now summaries the importance of marketing planning in the following points:
1. It helps in avoiding future uncertainties.
2. It helps in management by objectives.
3. It helps in achieving objectives.
4. It helps in coordination and communication among the departments.
5. It helps in control.
6. It helps the customers in getting full satisfaction.

Benefits of Marketing Planning:

1. Marketing planning promotes successful marketing operations.
2. Planning helps to co-ordinate activities which can facilitate the attainment of objectives over
time.
3. It forces management to reflect upon the future in a systematic way.
4. Resources can be better balanced in relation to identified market opportunities.
5. A plan provides a frame work for a continuing review of operations. It will make the firm to
give more attention to market enlargement rather than market maintenance.
6. Marketing planning helps to appraise performance, capitalize on strength, minimize
weaknesses
and threats and finally open up new opportunities.
7. Planning can be advocated to minimize the risk of failure.
8. Marketing planning reduces the adverse consequences of unfavorable circumstances beyond
the influence of management.
9. A marketing plan promotes a comprehensive view of the business firm and acts as a process of
communication and co-ordination between marketing department and other departments.
10. A greater preparedness to accommodate change can be stimulated.
 Marketing Strategy = The marketing logic by which the business unit hopes to achieve its
marketing objectives.

Characteristics of Marketing Planning:

Marketing planning has the following characteristic features:

1. The success depends to a large extent upon human behavior and response.
2. They are complicated in nature.
3. Marketing decisions have long term effects on efficiency, profitability and market standing of
the firm.
4. Marketing planning is a formal and systematic approach towards planning of all marketing
activities-product positioning, price setting, distribution channels etc.
5. Marketing planning, as a rational activity, requires thinking; imagination and foresight. Market
analysis, market projection, consumer behavior analysis and marketing-guided conclusions are
based on data and measurements drawn from internal and external environments.
6. Marketing planning is a forward-looking and dynamic process designed to promote market-
oriented or consumer-oriented business actions.
7. Planning is concerned with two things:
(i) Avoiding incorrect actions and
(ii) Reducing frequency of failure to exploit opportunities.
Thus, marketing planning has both an optimistic and a pessimistic component.
8. Marketing planning is done by the marketing department. Various sub-divisions and sections
under the department give their proposals based on which the overall company marketing
plans
are developed and designed.
9. Planning is a process of deciding in advance what to do and how to do it. If the marketing
planner desires to achieve a target market at some future date and if he needs some time to
decide what to do and how to do it, he must make the necessary marketing decisions before
taking action.
10. Planning is basically a decision-making process. Marketing planning is a programme of
marketing-based actions regarding the future with the object of minimizing risk and
uncertainty and producing a set of interrelated decisions