APPENDIX

Planning Forms

A set of standard forms can be helpful in presenting strategy recommendations and supporting analyses. The forms can encourage the useful consistency of the presentation over time and across businesses within an organization. They can also provide a checklist of areas to consider in strategy development and make communication easier. The following sample forms are intended to provide a point of departure in designing forms for a specific context. The external analysis in the example is drawn from the pet food industry. The forms are for illustration purposes only.

Planning forms need to be adapted to the context involved: the industry, the firm, and the planning context. They may well be different and shorter or longer given a particular context. Forms for use with other product types—an industrial product, for example—could be modified to include information such as current and potential applications or key existing or potential customers.

THE PET FOOD INDUSTRY

Section 1. Customer Analysis

A. Segments

image

B. Customer Motivations

Segment Motivations
Dog—dry Nutrition, convenience, teeth cleaning, often better value than canned pet food in grocery and mass channels
Dog—canned For finicky dogs, taste and nutrition, variety
Cat—dry Nutrition, convenience, complement to meal, teeth cleaning
Cat—canned Taste, convenient sizes, easy to serve, for ...

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