Planning & Strategy Articles & Resources
How To Write a Marketing Plan and What to Include Marketing plans are an essential part of a successful marketing strategy. This article discusses the importance of a marketing plan, what needs to be included in a marketing plan and how to create a successful marketing plan. What is a Marketing Plan? A marketing [.....]
Competitor Analysis: Doing it the Right Way Competitor Analysis is a lot of work - it needs to be done correctly. In this article, we will teach you how to do a good competitor analysis for your business so that you can build a strong marketing plan and execute it with ease. Why Do [.....]
A marketing audit is a structured survey of an organisation's Marketing efforts. It looks at the way Marketing is planned and managed. It asks what has been done and what else should be done. In other words: what has worked? and what has failed? An audit provides a "snap shot" of the current situation.A marketing [.....]
The sales channel support process involves: Sales representatives who meet with prospects Retail staff at retailers Agents – partners or alliances who sell on behalf of the company Wholesalers and distributors who also sell on behalf of the company. Here are the ‘7P’ stages of Sales Channel Support: 1. Prospecting – identifying potential customers 2. [.....]
The benefits of using the Internet to exploit international markets are straightforward: Additional revenue can be generated from new international markets. Higher margins, or profits because of lower costs, since: less need for local agents and distributors less need for local fulfilment infrastructure such as shops or distribution centres less need for the expense of [.....]
What Is an Integrated Marketing Communications Plan? Consumers today have moved on in different ways from those of even 10 years ago, as a result of big changes: The financial collapse of 2008 and subsequent recession in Europe has changed the behaviour of consumers, who are still struggling to recover. They are more [.....]
Marketing Communications For Marketers, you must understand the importance of effective internal and external communications in building sustainable relationships and delivering customer value. Recognise the importance of communications planning in delivering marketing solutions, and of how product and brand management can enable organisations to deliver customer value. There are different components of the [.....]
How To Write A Marketing Communications Strategy To gain strategic advantage in your Marketing Communication Strategy, an organisation has to formulate and implement a value-creating strategy - that is, a comprehensive set of decisions and commitments on the direction to take in order to fully achieve its aims and goals. This process begins [.....]
Integrated Marketing Strategy For your Integrated Marketing Strategy to be effective, start with the audit. In conducting the marketing organisation audit the McKinsey 7-S model is extremely useful - it provides a framework for analysing seven important aspects of any organisation: structure, systems, strategy, shared values, staffing, skills and style. The three following elements [.....]
How To Create an Integrated Marketing Plan Integrated Marketing Plan Campaign objectives Marketing communications objectives form part of an organisational hierarchy of objectives - marketing objectives cascade down from the organisational objectives, and communication objectives cascade down from marketing objectives. All objectives should be ‘SMART’ - Specific, Measurable, Achievable/Actionable, Relevant and Time-bound. Typical [.....]
How to Create a Marketing Strategy If you want to develop a marketing strategy for your business, it's important to understand the key steps involved. What is a marketing strategy? A marketing strategy is a plan put forth by an organization to achieve its goal. These goals can be accomplished through many different avenues, [.....]
What Is A Marketing Plan? A marketing plan is a detailed set of strategies for communicating, promoting, and delivering a product or service to a defined audience. A marketing plan may cover media advertising, social media, public relations, sponsorship, direct mail, and more. There is a lot of jargon in the world of marketing, [.....]
