BA (Hons) Business, Management & Communications Managing Marketing Activities Week 9

Objectives for today Learners will be able to: Understand the different elements of marketing planning Link marketing planning to strategy effectively Use tools to evaluate the success of a marketing plan

A crossroads

Differing roles of corporate and marketing strategy Corporate Strategy Allocation of resources across the whole organisation Agreeing the portfolio of activities for the whole organisation Specifying the organisation's mission Defining and promoting organisational objectives Marketing Strategy Identifying, monitoring and beating competitors Selecting markets and segments to help maximise profits Determining the marketing mix Allocating marketing budget to achieve objectives Management and implementation of Marketing strategies and marketing plans (B&P Chpt 20 & 21)

What influences marketing strategy? [B&P, p941] Organisational objectives and resources Competitor strategies and resources Organisation's attitude to change and risk Structure of the market and opportunities These are influences that an organisations marketing team are unlikely to be able to change

Strategic Business Units (SBUs) SBU Business Strategy Generic Strategies Cost Leadership Differentiation Focus Hybrid Strategies Interactive Strategies Hypercompetitive Strategy (J&S p 209) Co-Operation/collaboration Game Theory

Marketing Planning “The systematic process of forecasting the future business environment and then deciding on the most appropriate goals, objectives and positions for best exploiting that environment” [B&P p995]

Marketing Planning Model model/ SOSTAC® is a planning model, originally developed in the 1990s to help with marketing planning by PR Smith Situation – where are we now? Objectives – where do we want to be? Strategy – how do we get there? Summary Tactics – how exactly do we get there? Action – who does what and when? Control – are we getting there? did we get there?

Marketing Planning Model model/

What is the 8 th P?

SOSTAC Endorsers

What goes into the plan? SOSTAC Format Contents Introduction Current Situation - why is the plan needed? Objectives – what are you trying to achieve through the plan? Strategy - what is the strategy you are pursuing  Target market options – why have you chosen a particular market? What evidence backs up the targeting of this particular market? Assessment of market opportunities would be sensible to include here.  Brand positioning – why have you positioned the brand in this range? Will your pricing strategy support the brand position?

What goes into the plan? Tactics (Applying the marketing mix) –Distribution Plan – how will your customers buy from you? Why? –Promotions strategy – where and how will you promote the brand? Any joint ventures? Why? –Marketing Materials – what materials do you need to create? Web page? Brochures? Action – a timeline for events Evaluation –Retention Strategy – how will you keep the customers? How will you extend the product life cycle? –How will you measure the success of the plan? (Control) Conclusion

Marketing Communications

Evaluation of performance Organisations can measure the effectiveness of their marketing plans in a variety of ways. Which method(s) would be useful for your marketing plan? Sales analysis Repeat customer activity Customer Lifetime values (CLV) Response rates to advertising campaigns Cost/benefit analysis Profitability analysis

Alton Towers Strategy & Marketing Activity; apply SOSTAC to a recent Alton Towers marketing campaign (20 Minutes): Situation – where were they? Objectives – where did they want to be? Strategy – what strategy did they use? Tactics – how exactly did they get there? Action – who did what and when? Control – did they get there? End

Assignment Outcomes Learning Outcomes Analyse the marketing environment and prioritise market opportunities Understand the integrated and holistic nature of delivering customer satisfaction through a range of marketing activities Propose and evaluate innovative marketing models and strategies to contemporary marketing situations. Construct robust arguments for a proposed marketing approach Be aware of techniques to overcome obstacles to successful implementation of marketing plans Construct and write succinct and practicable marketing plans Recognise and respond to the need to be customer focussed Effective deployment of marketing activities in the context of the assignment brief.

Resources

Just for fun…

Summary We combined weeks 7 & 8 (brands) as we started 1 week later than originally planned You now have all the input required for both the assignment and the exam Next session; we will go through a mock exam individually then discuss our answers as a group. This will determine which areas we need to focus on in a revision session the following week