2.1.4 Reasons for Planning a Marketing Strategy
To develop an effective marketing programme, management should first prepare a strategic plan for the organizational efforts. This overall planning should be followed by strategic planning in the organizations various functional divisions. Planning a marketing strategy starts with the detailed and ongoing investigation of the market and its sub-markets or segments. Firms consider the social, political and economic trends which are shaping the market, their own position within it and the resources they can marshal out to change or influence it. A marketing plan defines objectives, targets and performance measures which are then developed with a financial budget. The scope of planning activities may be over a short or long period of time. Planning activities that determine marketing strategies in a firm may be conducted on three different levels as follows:-
Irrespective of the level in which planning activities are conducted, it is mainly designed to achieve specific objectives or benefits. The benefits accruable to a firm through effective marketing plan includes:-
  1. It encourages systematic evaluation by management
  2. It enhances the development of performance standards
  3. It leads to consideration
  4. It causes the company to strengthen its guiding objectives and policies
  5. It results in better preparedness of sudden developments.
  6. It brings about a more vivid sense in the participating executives of their increasing responsibilities (Inyanga, 2014).
For the marketing plan to achieve the outlined objectives within a specified period of time, it must possess the following characteristics:-
• It must be realistic and achievable
• It should be clear
• Plan must be comprehensive
• It should be reasonably flexible
• It should be economically effective (Inyanga, 2014).
Planning an effective marketing strategy within an organization is intimately bound up with the total business planning process because it is linked to the overall corporate strategy and requires endorsement from the top (Chartered Institute of Marketing, 2009). Therefore, collaboration between marketing and other corporate activities/ such as finance, research, development and production is important to ensure that marketing strategy is implemented effectively. Strategic planning is concerned with the managerial process of matching a firm’s resources with its marketing opportunities and avoiding imminent threats. Also formal strategic planning is recognized as one of the most efficient management tool for reducing risks and other associated threats which enhance the attainment of stated marketing objectives and targets. Some aspects of marketing strategy deal solely in facts and finances while others explore the ambiguities and uncertainties of changing consumer styles. However, a coherent marketing strategy is essential to manage change, as firms everywhere operate in technological, legislative, corporate and market environments of rapid transition and change (Best, 2006).