Process of Marketing Planning

Dr. Philip Kotler has described six steps of the Process of Marketing Planning as under

Diagnosis

The marketing diagnosis is designed to give an honest assessment of the current marketing activities of the firm and advices on creating touch point marketing across various channels and give the right advice for future activities. Thus, the effective marketing planning is possible only when the marketing manager properly analyzes the situations, circumstances and problems of the particular firm and formulates the market plans according to it.

Prognosis

Prognosis means assessment or prediction of the future course of the development, outcome or progress of a condition or phenomenon, based on a careful diagnosis of the case. In terms of the modern marketing, in prognosis the business enterprise estimates where it is likely to go, if present market trend continues, what sales and profits of can an enterprise make in the longer period. Thus, prognosis is the research in respect of marketing environment. If this study reveals that the future of the enterprise is bright, present policies of the enterprise may be continued. But if it is revealed that the future of the enterprise is dark and doubtful, then planning needs modification so that objectives may be achieved.

Objectives

If prognosis indicates that the company has no future, then present policies and programmes of the company must be changed accordingly to achieve best results. Hence, every major and derivative plan should contribute positively towards the accomplishment of the business enterprise objectives. The main marketing objective of any enterprise is to maximize profits by providing maximum satisfaction to the consumers.

Strategy

It may be regarded as the principles by which the pre-determined objectives of the company can achieve. In it, company hopes to secure an advantage over competitors, satisfy maximum number of customers and make maximum exploitation of company’s resources. While formulating plans, the marketing manager should take into account the plans of competitors. The plans should be chosen in light of what a competitor will do in the same situation. Hence, the best possible strategy must be selected after careful evaluation of merits and demerits of all the strategies available.

Tactics

Tactics are the methods to carry out the business strategies in pursuit of the overall goals of the enterprise. In the words of Philip Kotler, “the objectives of a company indicate where he wants to go, the strategies indicate the intended route, and the tactics indicate the particular vehicle it will use”. Although tactical decisions are not primary, they are nevertheless very important.

Control

The last process of marketing planning is to control. The process of control checks whether the strategies and the tactics of the enterprise are being properly implemented or not and whether the activities of the enterprise are going in the right direction of achieving its predetermined objectives or not. The results of actual performance are collected and compared with the set-standards. If there are favorable variances, the efforts are made to maintain this situation but if the variances are unfavorable, the reasons for situation are analyzed and the necessary corrective measures are adopted. Therefore, the controlling activity involves the measurement and correction of the performance of the employees in order to make sure that enterprise attained pre-determined objectives.