When companies develop strategies for their daily operations with limited resources, they must consider the internal conditions and the external environment. The economy, competitors, and government regulations that could affect what the firm wants to do are the external factors. And also, the contingency plans. The strategic planning process can help companies allocate their resources to capitalize on opportunities and gain their market share.
Generally, organizations have their own structures and parts to operate efficiently. A CEO may have too many tasks and too many decisions to make. They know where the treasure is, but they don't know how to move their ships. Even they know, they can not do this alone. They have to stay on track with the most valuable things. So, lower the opportunity cost, let the professionals do what they can do best.
What Is A CMO?
A CMO is a chief marketing officer, a marketing director that responsible for marketing activities in an organization. The CMO of a company is likely to be responsible for the creation of its marketing plan.
However, many CMOs are under unfair pressure like impossible sales forecasts. The CEOs may want their car to move like a Lamborghini, but they often find themselves in a 150 horsepower engine vehicle chasing their unrealistic goals. The forecasts are just what the investors and Wall Street analysts want. So, when CMOs overpromise and underdeliver, they set themselves up for a fall.
Therefore, one of the important functions of the marketing plan is communication. To inform everyone in the organization who has what marketing-related responsibilities. For instance, Facebook announced an excellent feature called, Facebook Business Manager. It helps companies to allocate their resources and to assign permissions to a lot of people working together.
In addition to CMOs, why do you believe so many other employees participate in marketing planning?
Generally, CMOs must set their organization’s marketing expectations. A well-designed marketing plan can help. It set realistic expectations and communicates to the CEO and other related stakeholders. CMOs are likely to be responsible for the creation of a company's marketing plan. However, they should be assisted by other professionals and other staff. For instance, to create a marketing plan on social media, you need staff who very familiar with those apps or even programmers to do it much more quickly.
One of the important functions of the marketing plan is communication. To inform everyone in the organization who has what marketing-related responsibilities. For instance, Facebook announced an excellent feature called, Facebook Business Manager. It helps companies to allocate their resources and to assign permissions to a lot of people working together.
So, What Is A Marketing Plan?
Typically, a marketing plan includes an overview of your business’s marketing, advertising goals, the current marketing position, the tasks within a limited time, the performance indicators for tracking efficiency, and the overall target market. And most importantly, it must meet customer needs. After all, if your customers do not like your products, all your marketing goals are very likely to fail.
The Most important Part of A Marketing Plan? Why?
The most important part of a marketing plan I think is your targeted customers and why you are targeting them.
Because your marketing plan is developed based on what your targets are. And also, you must set a goal for a plan, it is the crucial part of a business plan. For instance, if you are operating a coffee shop in the US, and you are setting your marketing goal as people all around the world. Some people just hate coffee and some even have a coffee allergy. You can not get everyone like you, but you can get loyalty from people already like you and people who have not made their decision yet.
Customers are central to all marketing plans. Business owners can break the market into customer segments and try to figure out each segment's needs. Because a kid's need is not the same as a gentleman or a teenager. What happens if Lamborghini tries to sell their cars to kids? They don't even know what it is, not to mention they are not allowed to drive or buy a car. But the customer segments do not only mean ages, for a coffee shop, but the customer segments can also be like "people who live nearby", or "people who just pass by".
What Is The Least Important? Why?
I think it is hard to say which one is the least important. An excellent marketing plan is like a Chess game. Each step you take and all the pieces are both counts, they all influence the final result. Although the queen can go almost everywhere, it is still limited by the pieces in front of it. I tend to think that the collaborators are relatively less important than the others because not every business needs collaborators to help them with marketing.
What Is The Most Important Part of A Marketing Audit? Why?
The marketing audit refers to the comprehensive, systematic, analysis, and evaluation of the business marketing objectives and performance. In short, It is an examination of all of the company’s marketing activities.
When you implement a plan, you must audit it regularly. Or, you are very unlikely to get success eventually. This means you must review your strategy regularly and adjust it if needed.
I think each part of a marketing audit is crucial and needs to be individually addressed to get the best outcomes. And you have to apply the right metrics. What happens if you measure temperature with cm and km? Or, measure a battery range with Gb or Mb? It can mislead you to the wrong conclusions. To be more specific, you have to identify your strategy and your objective first.
What Is the Least Important Part? Why?
As I said earlier, each part of a marketing audit is crucial and needs to be individually addressed to get the best outcomes. When I look at each factor of a marketing audit, it is hard to choose an unnecessary one. In the modern world, businesses are much more complicated and connected with each other.
Finally, a marketing audit is an examination of a company’s marketing strategies as the strategies are actually implemented. So, it is a great tool for companies to win their business chess, and each piece on the board counts. You need to see it as a player, not as a piece. That way, you can see the overall position you are in.
Reference
About Sara McGuire Sara McGuire is the Content Marketing Manager at Venngage. She believes that growth by content doesn't require a big budget if you're scrappy. Her writing has been published on Marketing Profs, & McGuire, A. (2021, January 06). What is a marketing plan and how to make one? Retrieved February 06, 2021, from https://venngage.com/blog/marketing-plan/
Principles of Marketing. (2015). University of Minnesota Open Textbook Library. Licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa.
What is a marketing STRATEGY? And why a MARKETING audit is important - SESOME - a digital marketing and SEO consultancy. (2019, December 30). Retrieved February 06, 2021, from https://sesome.co.uk/strategy/what-is-a-marketing-strategy-and-audits-important/