Implementation planning

After the firm's strategic objectives have been identified, the target market selected, and the desired positioning for the company, product or brand has been determined, marketing managers focus on how to best implement the chosen strategy. Traditionally, this has involved implementation planning across the "4Ps" of marketing: Product management, Pricing (at what price slot do you position your product, for e-g low, medium or high price), Place (the place/area where you are going to be selling your products, it could be local, regional, country wide or International) (i.e. sales and distribution channels), and People. Now a new P has been added making it a total of 5P's. The 5th P is Politics which affects marketing in a significant way.

Taken together, the company's implementation choices across the 4(5)Ps are often described as the marketing mix, meaning the mix of elements the business will employ to "go to market" and execute the marketing strategy. The overall goal for the marketing mix is to consistently deliver a compelling value proposition that reinforces the firm's chosen positioning, builds customer loyalty and brand equityamong target customers, and achieves the firm's marketing and financial objectives.

In many cases, marketing management will develop a marketing plan to specify how the company will execute the chosen strategy and achieve the business' objectives. The content of marketing plans varies from firm to firm, but commonly includes:

• An executive summary
• Situation analysis to summarize facts and insights gained from market research and marketing analysis
• The company's mission statement or long-term strategic vision
• A statement of the company's key objectives, often subdivided into marketing objectives and financial objectives
• The marketing strategy the business has chosen, specifying the target segments to be pursued and the competitive positioning to be achieved
• Implementation choices for each element of the marketing mix (the 4(5)Ps)

Marketing strategy

"The company has obtained an adequate understanding of the customer base and its own competitive position in the industry, marketing managers are able to make their own key strategic decisions and develop a Marketing strategy designed to maximize the revenues and profits of the firm. The selected strategy may aim for any of a variety of specific objectives, including optimizing short-term unit margins, revenue growth, market share, long-term profitability, or other goals.

To achieve the desired objectives, marketers typically identify one or more target customer segments which they intend to pursue. Customer segments are often selected as targets because they score highly on two dimensions: 1) The segment is attractive to serve because it is large, growing, makes frequent purchases, is not price sensitive (i.e. is willing to pay high prices), or other factors; and 2) The company has the resources and capabilities to compete for the segment's business, can meet their needs better than the competition, and can do so profitably.^[3] In fact, a commonly cited definition of marketing is simply "meeting needs profitably." 

Marketing Management

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Marketing Management

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