Steps of the Marketing plan as suggested by MacDonald (2000). Explain what each steps means to a company.

Steps of the Marketing plan as suggested by MacDonald (2000), explain what each steps means to a company.

        In the increasingly competitive markets and complex environment in which companies operate, marketing has turned to become an asset of many companies today. Marketing plays a vital role for companies big or small, to survive this globalization era. It is important for a company to have a good marketing strategy in order to achieve their goals and aims. This is the reason why marketing planning should be done as the plan states the marketing goals that the company wants to achieve within a certain time and the methods by which it intends to achieve those goals, as said by Mason, R. E. et al (1980). Moreover, as stated by Kotler et al (1999), the marketing plan is one of the most important outputs of the marketing process. Marketing planning as defined by McDonald (2000) is simply a logical sequence and a series of activities leading to the setting of marketing objectives and the formulation of plans for achieving them. Through the use of a marketing plan, a company can be sure that all its bases like new markets, products, new methods as well as competition, are covered. However, as said by McDonald (2000), although marketing planning would appear to be a simple, step by step process, in reality, it is a multifaceted, complex, cross-functional activity that touches every aspect of organizational life. Furthermore, according to Evans & Berman (1990), a marketing plan should be well integrated in which all of its various parts are unified, consistent, and coordinated.

The following are the major steps of the marketing plan as suggested by McDonald (2000). These are steps that have to be gone through in order to arrive at a marketing plan.

Step 1:...