Bus-M450 ch.2

Five basic questions for a well-devised mission statement

1. Who are we? 2. Who are our customers? 3. What is our operating philosophy? 4. What are our core competencies or competitive advantages? 5. What are our responsibilities with respect to being a good steward of our human, financial, environmental resources?

Five purposes of a good marketing plan

1. explains both present and future situations of the organization (situation & SWOT analysis) 2. specifies the expected outcomes (goals & objectives) so that the org. can anticipate situation at the end of planning period. 3. describes specific actions that are to take place so that responsibility for each action can be assigned and implemented. 4. identifies resources that will be needed to carry out planned actions 5. permits the monitoring of each action and its results so that controls may be implemented. Feedback from monitoring & control provides info to start the planning cycle again next frame time.

Balanced Strategic Planning: basic tenet

Basic Tenet- is that firms can achieve better performance if they align their strategic efforts by approaching strategy from 4 complementary perspectives.

Characteristics of competitive advantage

Defined, when a firm possesses capabilities that allow it to serve customers' needs better than competition.

Balanced Strategic Planning: four complementary perspectives

Financial perspective: trad. view of strategy and performance. customer perspective: looks at customer satisfaction metrics as a key indicator of firm performance. Internal process Perspective: focuses on the way the business is running by looking at both mission-critical and routine processes that drive day-to day activity. Learning and growth perspective: focuses on people and includes vital issues like corporate culture, employee training, communication, and knowledge management.

Mission statement: definition and examples

Seeks to answer the question: "What business are we in?" It is a clear, concise statement that explains the organization's reason for existence. concretely express what each company does in its business operations. What the firm stands for and its basic operating philosophy.

Vision statement: definition and examples

Seeks to answer the question: "What do we want to become?" tends to be more nebulous and are often future-oriented. An overall end goal for each company. Typically outline where the organization is headed and where it wants to go.

goals defined

are broad, simple statements of what will be accomplished through the marketing strategy

Marketing Goals and Objectives (p. 40 - 41)

are formal statements of the desired and expected outcomes resulting from the marketing plan.

marketing objectives defined

are more specific are are essential to planning. stated in quantitative terms to permit reasonably precise measurement.

Customer-Focused Planning: market-oriented firms

are those that successfully generate, disseminate and respond to market information. every level focuses on serving customers needs.

Corporate strategy

defined. the central plan for utilizing and integrating resources in the areas of production, finance, R&D, HR, and marketing to carry out the organizations mission and achieve desired goals and objectives.

Mission Width

if a mission statement is too broad: it will be meaningless to those who read and build upon it. overly broad mission statements can led companies to establish plans and strategies where their strengths are limited. Overly narrow mission statements: constrain the vision of the organization

Functional Goals and Objectives (p. 35

marketing and and other business functions must support the org's mission and goals. -translating these to objectives with specific quantitative measurements. All functional objectives should be expressed in clear, simple terms. Objectives should be written so that their accomplishment can be measured accurately. all functional objectives should also be reconsidered for each planning period.

Evaluation and Control (p. 36 - 37 and 43)

organizations design the evaluation and control phase of strategic planning to keep planned activities on target with goals and objectives. the critical issue in this area is coordination among functional areas. open lines of communication is key. evaluation and control phase of the planning process is an ending and beginning.

Organizational Aspects of the Marketing Plan

page 45. who writes? marketing manager, brand mgr, product mgr. some cases, committees. or hire consultants. responsible for planning? marketing VP or marketing director. authority to approve? typically vested by upper-level executives. final approval? lies with president, chairperson, CEO.

Balanced Strategic Planning: reason for shifting to balanced strategic planning

reason for shifting to balanced strategy planning- borne out of necessity. realization that trad. planning and measurement approaches weren't capturing value created by org's intangible assets. (CRM,HR,innovation, info)

Mission Stability

refers to the frequency of modifications in an organizations mission statement. of all components of the strategic plan, the mission should change the least frequently.-will remain constant. goals, objectives, and marketing plan elements will change overtime when its no longer in sync with the firms capabilities.

Customer-Focused Planning: the marketing concept and shift of focus

today marketing organizations go farther than marketing concept (focused on customer satisfaction & achievement of firm's objectives) to focus on long-term, value-added relationships with customers, employees, suppliers, partners. the shift of focus shifted--- from customer transactions to customer relationships from customers to all stakeholders and from competition to collaboration.