Which of the following is not included in the phases of strategic marketing planning

Week 2.3 Strategic Marketing Process: Planning Phase

Strategic Marketing Process 

You have seen how an organization assesses where it is and identifies where it wants to go. Strategic direction involves the plan for future growth, but how do we convert the plan to actions? The strategic marketing process defines how the organization acts to achieve the strategic direction that it has set. It involves carefully creating the marketing mix elements to reach its target markets. 

The strategic marketing process is completed in three phases. 

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This is the phase in which the goals are set and actions defined for achieving the goals. 

It consists of three steps.

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Step 1: Situation Analysis 

Situation analysis looks at where the firm or product has been recently, where it is now, and where it is headed in terms of the organization's plans and the external factors and trends affecting it. 

An important component of situation analysis is SWOT analysis. It stands for internal Strengths and Weaknesses and external Opportunities and Threats. SWOT uses knowledge from many areas including:

• identifying trends in the firm's industry,
• analyzing the firm's competitors,
• assessing the firm itself, and
• researching the firm's present and prospective customers.

SWOT analysis is helpful in identifying the critical factors affecting the firm. A successful SWOT analysis enables us to respond to these critical factors. We are able to:

• build on vital strengths, 
• correct weaknesses, 
• exploit opportunities, and
• avoid threats.

Example: SWOT analysis for Ben & Jerry's. 

Stop and Think Question: What would be the actions to take in response to the statements in each of the four cells in the table above? Remember that we want to build on vital strengths, correct weaknesses, exploit opportunities, and avoid threats.

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Retrieved from https://www.benandjerrys.ca/

Some examples of actions would be as follows.

• Build on a strength. Ben & Jerry’s parent company is one of the strengths that the company has. Ben & Jerry's can use efficient distribution channels of its parent company to achieve cost effective ways of supply chain management. 
• Correct a weakness. One of the weaknesses is the lack of experienced managers. The company should focus on recruiting experienced managers to help stimulate growth in the supermarket segment. A bright entrepreneur who wishes to own his/her own business is going to make a great franchisee. Ben & Jerry's should seek such talent to operate Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shops.
• Exploit an opportunity. There is high demand for low-fat desserts. To exploit such an opportunity, the company can develop a new line of low-fat frozen yogourts, which will allow them to respond to consumers’ health concerns.
• Avoid a threat. A downturn in the economy is a threat for any business. There is nothing much to do to avoid such a threat. Ben & Jerry's can try to focus on physical markets only where there is high consumer discretionary income and desire for a premium ice cream product.

Step 2:  Market-Product Focus and Goal Setting

In this step, we determine which products will be directed toward which customers and the goals. The products are aligned with the customer segments in a process of target market selection. We will cover this process in detail in the coming weeks by introducing the concept of market segmentation using a market-product grid. Market segmentation involves dividing buyers into groups who have common needs. We expect potential buyers in the same group to respond similarly to a marketing action. Firms use market segmentation to identify the segments they will be targeting and develop marketing programs to reach them. 

Goal setting involves setting measurable marketing objectives to be achieved. For example, if we are setting a goal for a specific market, we might consider introducing a new product. If we are setting a goal for a specific product, we might consider creating a promotional campaign or a new pricing strategy. We will cover promotional strategies and pricing strategies in the coming chapters. Remember how the goals should satisfy the SMART criteria as we covered earlier.

Example: applying market-product focus and goal setting to the case of Medtronic.

Medtronic is one of the world's largest medical equipment development companies. In this example, we are considering developing and marketing a new product, the Champion heart pacemaker. This is a product that is easy to install and has a long battery life. It is directed at the needs of the Asian market segment.  

• Set marketing and product goals: The goal is to design and market the pacemaker in the next three years, and to manufacture the pacemaker in China for the Asian market.
• Select target markets: The target market is going to be the cardiologists and medical clinics performing heart surgery in India, China, and other Asian countries. Notice that we are not targeting the patients as most of them are not medically trained to assess such a device. 
• Find points of difference: The product’s points of difference are high quality, long life, reliability, ease of use, and low cost. Points of difference refers to unique characteristics of a product that make it superior to competitive substitutes.
• Position the product: The pacemaker will be “positioned” in cardiologists' and patients' minds as a medical device that is high quality and reliable with a long, nine-year life.

Step 3: Marketing Program

The third step in the planning phase is the marketing program.

You have seen in Step 2 that the organization identified which customers to target and the customer need to satisfy. This refers to the who and what aspects of the strategic marketing process. Now in Step 3 we are looking into the how aspect. We will develop the program's marketing mix and its budget. As previously shown, there are 4Ps of marketing, also known as marketing mix elements. These elements are under the control of the organization and our goal in this step is to mix them in a clever way that will allow us to satisfy the needs of the consumers. 

The following figure shows the contributions from the 4Ps (marketing mix elements) into the cohesive marketing program. 

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Concept Check Questions:

1. The three phases of the strategic marketing process are

goal-setting, SWOT analysis, and goal-evaluation.

awareness, implementation, and evaluation.

planning, implementation, and evaluation.

strategic planning, situation analysis, and control.

2.Which of the following is considered as a task of SWOT analysis in the planning phase of the strategic marketing process?

obtain resources

compare results to identify deviations

develop the program's marketing mix

identify market trends

What are the 4 phases of a marketing plan?

What are the 5 parts of strategic marketing plan?

What are the 5 steps of strategic marketing process?

What are the 3 phases of strategic marketing?