Importance of Marketing Planning
According to the eminent scholar Stanton, “Without planning, company’s operations have no meaning and no direction; there can be no procedure management’s pursuit goals.” Hence, planning is the most important and necessary in the modern marketing. The points below bring out the significance or importance of management:-
Minimize future uncertainties
To minimize the future uncertainties, an expert marketing manager makes future marketing strategies and programs on the basis of present trends and conditions of the firm. By effective market planning and future forecasting, he not only minimizes the future uncertainty but also successfully fulfill the objectives of the firm.
Clarification of Objectives
The clear-cut objective of the organization helps in keeping the efforts of the management in proper lines. These are very useful in formulating the managerial functions like organizing, directing and controlling. The proper marketing planning and decision-making helps in determining the objectives of the organization.
Better Co-ordination
The marketing planning helps in co-ordinating all the managerial activities of the firm. It not only helps in co-ordinating the work of its own department but also helps in co-ordinating the managerial activities of all the other departments to achieve the overall objectives and goals of the firm.
Helpful in Controlling Function
The marketing planning sets the performance standards and these are compared with the actual performance of various departments. If these variances are favorable, efforts are made to maintain them and if these variances are unfavorable, efforts are made to remove them.
Increases efficiency
The marketing planning helps in increasing the managerial efficiency of the firm. It is meant to ensure efficient allocation & utilization of resources. It also compares the results with the set standards to ensure efficiency of the organization. It directs all the managerial activities of the firm and controls these activities. It develops the feeling of sincerity and sense of responsibility among the managerial executives by defining the duties, rights and liabilities of all employees of the firm, which in turn increases the efficiency of the firm.
Consumer satisfaction
Under marketing planning, the needs and wants of the customer (or consumer) are studied properly and marketing activities are channelized to provide better customer-satisfaction, which in turn maximizes the profit of the firm. Therefore, by concentrating on customer satisfaction, marketing management increases market share and revenue of the business enterprise.
Economy in the operation of firm
Marketing planning helps in achieving the objectives of the firm economically. It checks and controls all unnecessary expenses of the firm.
Higher performance standards
The marketing planning helps in evolving higher performance standards. It facilitates easier and quicker decision-making, which helps in solving many problems quickly.