Chapter 5
Marketing planning Phase One: the strategic context
In each chapter, we will stress the difference between the process of marketing planning and the output of this process – the strategic marketing plan. What should appear in the written output of the strategic marketing planning process was shown in Figure 4.3 in the previous chapter.
We have seen that the first phase of the marketing planning process involves determining (or re-examining) the mission statement and setting corporate objectives. In this chapter, we will look at both of these issues in some detail, using examples from the service industry to illustrate how some companies have set about these tasks. Particular attention will be given to the problematic issue of mission development. These two steps form the strategic context and provide the pivotal link between the corporate plan and the marketing plan, as outlined in Figure 4.2.
Step 1 Mission
A mission for services
Business strategy is a top management responsibility that involves both identifying the future direction of the organization as well as managing the creative interaction of the functional disciplines of operations, marketing, finance and human resource management. It is both a process and a way of thinking which leads to the development of a set of strategies that assist the business in achieving its corporate objectives.
Virtually all companies ...
