Laying the groundwork through strategic planning

“strategic planning is the managerial process of developing and maintaining a viable fit between the organization’s objectives and resources, and its changing market opportunities. The aim of strategic planning is to shape and reshape the company’s businesses and products so that they combine to produce satisfactory profits and growth” Ref: Philip Kotler

The above quote taken directly from the book is jam packed with concepts & ideas that we as marketers need to fully understand if we are to be good at marketing.

If marketing is a way of doing business, then strategic planning is right at the start of how a business works. We learnt in the previous chapter that businesses can be explained using a simple marketing system, i.e. connecting the organisation to its market by communicating the products/services offered, in return for cash/profit.

Strategic planning takes this model and says that for a business to achieve its objectives, there must be a viable fit between the objectives, the resources and the market that the organisation competes within.

In the UK, we have seen a number of large retailers fail recently because they have not maintained a viable fit between what they are looking to achieve, the resources they have and the changing market environment. HMV and Blockbuster are two case studies that history will probably show were too fixed in their ways of doing business and ignored the changing market environment they were trying to compete within.

Kotler mentions early in the chapter that strategic planning came into being in the early 1970’s post a “succession of shock waves” that rocked the markets in the US. Surely, we must ask ourselves the question; do we need a new way to manage businesses in 2013 post the global recession that we have lived through in recent years and are still probably in ?

From the work I do in helping businesses grow, I have followed Kotler’s approach to strategic planning with minor changes, depending upon the organisation I am working with.

The strategic planning process I most often use is as follows;

• Business Mission- why is the business in business ?

• What is the business objectives – in terms of value measure ?

• What is the market the organisation wishes to compete within ?

• Where are the market opportunities ? 

• What is the product & brand strategy ? 

• Who is the target audience ? 

• What is the marketing implementation plan ? 

• KPIs & CSFs and feedback/review

The above process is very similar to The Business Strategic Planning Process as seen on page 49 of Kotler’s book. It uses a different language that may be due to time span and culture.

The important point is that planning a successful business today follows the same key stages as strategic planning suggested back in the 1970’s.