Marketing Planning Process (5 Steps)

The steps involved in the marketing planning process are:

1. Scanning the marketing environment.

2. Internal scanning.

3. Setting the marketing objectives.

4. Formulating the marketing strategy.

5. Developing the functional plans.

We shall briefly discuss these steps: 

1. Scanning the Marketing Environment:

First, a firm scans its marketing environment.

The purpose is to find out:

(i) The favourable and unfavourable factors prevailing in the environment and

(ii) The specific business opportunities available to the business unit and their relative attractiveness. Study of marketing environment analysis helps to locate marketing opportunities and discover unsatisfied consumer demand. It also undertakes customer sensing, reactions of the customer to its products and tries to locate the causes of the customers patronage of a particular brand and who remain closest to the customer, and why.

2. Internal scanning:

Internal scanning is the process of assessing the firm’s strength and weaknesses and identifying its core competencies and competitive advantages. While environmental scanning may help to identify the various possible opportunities in areas of interest to the firm, the firm obviously cannot tap all the identified opportunities. It has to be selective and decide on the opportunities it has to tap and the business it has to pursue. It also has to build defences against impending problems.

3. Setting Marketing Objectives:

The very purpose of setting objectives is to provide clear cut direction to the business regarding its future course of action. Objectives are set in all the key areas of marketing such as sales volume, market share, market standing, innovation, productivity, profit etc. The business unit has to develop its marketing objectives after weighing the opportunities available in the environment, the threats, the forces of competitions, the resources and capabilities of the unit and its marketing organisation.

For example, marketing objectives may be set as follows:

1. The distribution costs per unit of the product will be reduced by 10% in the current financial year.

2. Market share of the product will be increased by 10% during the next financial year.

3. The sales volume of the product will be increased by 15% during the coming financial year.

4. Formulating Marketing Strategy:

Marketing strategy formulation is the core of marketing planning. Marketing strategy is a set of objectives, policies and rules that guide over time marketing efforts of the concern. Stated in simple terms, marketing strategy is the complete and unbeatable plan designed specifically for attaining the marketing objectives of the firm, the marketing objectives indicate what the firm wants to achieve, and the marketing strategy provides the design for achieving them.

5. Developing Functional Plans:

Once the marketing strategy is formulated, the next step is elaborating the marketing strategy into detailed plans and programmes. The detailed functional plans will emanate from and be in tune with the marketing objectives and marketing strategy of the firm. Even the best marketing strategy may turn out to be a failure in the marketplace, if the detailed functional plans are drawn up in a haphazard manner. A plan may have to be developed for each marketing function.

A mechanism for monitoring at regular intervals, the attainment of key results areas is an essential part of the whole process. This mechanism, with its supportive procedures, should seek to provide the appropriate feedback upon which corrective measures can be taken.