Strategic planning is a continuous process that begins with the analysis of the situations faced by the organisation. Below are the steps involved in the strategic planning process –

I. Analysis – if we were to go on a long distance motorbike ride, we will check our capabilities as well as the place we are planning to travel. Similarly, analysis for Marketing planning involves analysing the organisations capabilities, economic conditions, competitors and customers to list out the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. (SWOT analysis)

II. Organisations mission and objectives – it refers to clearly laying out the purpose, responsibilities towards the market, product, organisations performance expectations and its stake holders. It also cover guidelines on its business strategy – human resources, research and development. Organisational mission refers to a long term commitment to a type of business as well as the place on the market. The mission statement gives direction to all the employees in an organisation towards a specified goal. Some mission statements of organisations-

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The organisations in the 1970’s, 1980’s realised that the planning done basis the past experiences was not enough. Before this period, organisations used to do the planning basis the past data and experience to predict the sales, costs, etc.

With the advent of technology and entry of new players in the market, it has become very difficult to predict the preferences of buyers which keep changing rapidly. There has to be strategic adjustments made to the planning in order to survive the competition and changing consumer preferences. Strategic Planning focuses on the market environment the organisation operates in. The focus is not only on the current situation but also on the changes in future that will affect the strategic functions.
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According to Marketing Guru, Prof. Philip Kotler, SWOT analysis is for the overall evaluation of company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

I. Strength – A strength enables an organisation to take advantage of the market opportunity to give it advantage over competition.

It is internal to the firm and is based on the skills of the staff, specialised resources, etc. It is not common in the industry, and therefore empowers the firm to perform better than its market competitors. It is related to an opportunity in the market. If a firm has specialist staff but the skills are not relevant to the opportunity in the market, those specialists cannot be utilised to the firms’ advantage.

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Importance and Need of Strategic Marketing Planning

1) Provides direction and creates commitment – it provides the road map for smooth functioning of organisations activities. The decisions are made systematically focussing on organisations objectives and market objectives (via proper Internal and external analysis). It directs the energies of the entire organisation towards well specified goals.

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This was developed by Harvard Business School’s Michael E. Porter in 1979. It is a method which answers questions about the competition.

The five forces model looks at five factors –

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