Key elements of marketing planning that contribute to the success of the planning process

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Marketing Planning Assignment 1

What are the key elements of marketing planning that contribute to the success of the planning process?

"Marketing is the delivery of customer satisfaction at a profit. The goal of marketing is to attract new customers by promising superior value, and to keep current customers by delivering satisfaction."(P.Kotler, Principles of marketing, 2nd ed, 1999, pg xvi.)

It's for this reason marketing planning is considered important by many theorists. As suggested by MacDonald Marketing planning, and its principle focus, is all about identifying and developing a competitive advantage in the market. Marketing planning is simply a series of events leading toward the setting of marketing objectives and plans to reach the objectives set (Macdonald 1984). It's at this stage that things such as the company's mission and vision will be identified. Strategies employed to achieve these will be a key element towards the planning process.

Mintzberg puts forward a valid point when he points out 'When companies understand the difference between planning and strategic thinking they can get back to what the strategy-making process should be: capturing what the manager learns from all sources (both the soft insights from his or her personal experiences and the experience of others throughout the organization and the hard data from market research and the like) and then synthesizing that learning into a vision of the direction that the business should pursue' (Mintzberg Harvard Business review page 107).

It's with this statement that it's made clear that one key element is not only relying on planners for strategies. The company should be a little more versatile and let those involved in carrying the strategies also play a part in or contribute toward a plan/ strategy to achieve the desired outcome.

As outlined by Macdonald many texts describe marketing planning to...