Marketing Analysis, Marketing Planning

• Marketing Analysis
Managing the marketing function begins with a complete analysis of the company's situation. The company must analyze its markets and marketing environment to find attractive opportunities and avoid environmental threats. It must analyze company strengths and weakness as well as current and possible marketing actions to determine which opportunities it can best pursue. Marketing provides input to each of the other marketing management functions.
• Marketing Implementation:
The process that turns marketing strategies and plans into marketing actions in order to accomplish strategic marketing objectives.
• Marketing Control: The process of measuring and evaluating the results of marketing strategies and plans, and taking corrective action to ensure that objectives are achieved.
• Marketing control involves evaluating the results of marketing strategies and plans and taking corrective action to ensure that objectives are attained. Marketing control involves four steps. Management first sets specific marketing goals. It them measures its performance in the marketplace and evaluates the causes of any differences between expected and actual performance. Finally, management takes corrective action to close the gaps between goals and its performance. They may require changing the action programs or even changing the goals.
• Marketing Plan: Marketing planning involves deciding on marketing strategies that will help the company attain its overall strategic objectives. A detailed marketing plan is needed for each business, product, or brand.
The plan begins with an executive summary, which quickly overview major assessments, goals, and recommendations. The main section of the plan presents a detailed analysis of the current marketing situation as well as potential threats and opportunities. It next states major objectives for the brand and outline the specifics of a marketing strategy for achieving them.
A marketing strategy consists of specific strategies for target markets, positioning, the marketing mix, and marketing expenditure levels. In this section, the planner explains how each strategy responds to the threats opportunities, and critical issues spelled out earlier in the plan. Additional sections of the marketing plan lay out an action program for implementing the marketing strategy along with the details of a supporting marketing budget. The section outlines the controls that will be used to monitor progress and take corrective action.
• Market Positioning is arranging for a product to occupy a clear, distinctive, and desirable place relative to competing products in the minds of target consumers.
In positioning its product, the company first identifies possible competitive advantages upon which to build the position.