Question

As the Chief Marketing Office (CMO) for a $100 million product company you need to lead the development of marketing plan for the company for the upcoming fiscal year. 1. What are the key success factors for the marketing plan process for the company? 2. Briefly describe the key elements of a strategic marketing plan.

Answer 1

Marketing is a process in which organisation has to understand the need and requirement of the customer and develop a product or service and then promote and sell it to the customer. And the key success factors for the marketing plan process are as follows-

1. Firstly the company has to identify its mission or goal. It should be clear to everyone, for what they are working for and towards what direction they have to go.

2. Secondly, the organisation has to understand the internal as well as the external factors which can impact the business. It is also known as situation analysis and it gives the idea about the strength and the challenges the company is going to face.There are many methods through which the org can analyse but the most common one is SWOT analysis.

Strengths- what are the advantages and what all the organisation can do.

Weakness- limitations, areas where the organisation lacks.

Opportunities- understanding the market trends and the opportunities available in the market.

Threats- problems and obstacle which can cause the problem to the organisation.

3.After analysing the opportunities, the organisation has to build a marketing plan. It should include planning of budget, targeted audience, the response of the customer.

4. In this step, the organisation will come up with a marketing mix, which will give the idea to the organisation how to plan and what all things to focus. There are 4p's of marketing-

a) Product- identification of the product, what is the product, how it will help the customer, what is the requirement of the customer and what types of product are available in the market.

b) Price- determination of price, what is the price of a similar product in the market.

c) Place- the place for product distribution, how will the product reach to the customer and identifying distribution channel.

d) Promotion- development of the promotion plan of the product.

5.After all this, now to put the plan into action, analysing all the things and implement new things into the plan if something goes wrong. The organisation also need to monitor the actions of the competitors.

The key element of a strategic marketing plan is as follows=

1. PRODUCT-

What will be the product, what are the features, uses of the product, design , name of the product, these all things has to be identified by the organsion.

2. PRICE-

The organsation has to determine the price of the product by keeping in mind the compettor's price.

3. PROMOTION-

The organisation has make a promotion plan , in which they have to come up which such unique ideas in which they can promote their product and grab the attention of the customer.

4. PLACE-

The organsation has to lay out a play through which the product will be reaching the customer and as well as identifying the distribution channel through which the product willbe distributed in the market.

5. PEOPLE-

The organisation hsa to understand the need of the customer , then prepare a product which will be usefull as well competitive in the market. While designing the product, the organisation has to keep in mind the need and requirement of the people.