Research Essay Of Business And Marketing Planning (Essay Sample)

RESEARCH ESSAY OF BUSINESS AND MARKETING PLANNING
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It is important for any business to concentrate its resources on opportunities that will bring success to the organization. This can be achieved through increased sales and enhancing the competitive advantage. Marketing planning incorporates fundamental and long lasting processes which concentrate on state of the organization at the beginning and the development, monitoring and segregation of strategies. The strategies selected should be those that will effectively enable the organization reach its goals and objectives without increasing marginal costs (Duncan, 2000). Organizations today are facing immense economic and social difficulties. The fall in economic value has caused a reduced growth potential. Most citizens have now realized that innovation incorporates a wide area of the organization like; training, marketing and structural design of the departments.
The managers of an organization are usually tasked with formulating a market strategy. This means that they have to frequently carry out a market planning process. A market planning process usually includes; analysis of the present internal and external environment. The internal environment includes the organization and its operations. This includes strategies such as; the mission, business strategies and objectives. The organization itself is mostly considered as the different departments that exist within the organization. These departments are the major inward forces that need to be addressed during the marketing planning process, since each has a marked effect on daily operations and overall success (Mintzberg, 2005). For example, the effort placed by the operations department will determine the attractiveness of the product. The marketing department determines if customers will be knowledge able on the product. It is much easier for managers to control the internal environment because it is within their scope of operation.
The external environment includes; the economical aspect: mainly both international and local markets. The political aspect: government control and intervention. The social aspects: this aspect is important because it mostly covers human relations and customer needs. The technological aspect: any organization that wants a competitive advantage should have the latest technological developments. The ecological aspects looks at the physical environment and the raw materials required for the product. Lastly is the competitive aspect: how does new entrances into the market affect the profit of the organization, do buyers have a say on how the product should appear, and how many effective suppliers does the organization have (Kotler, 2006).
It is important to evaluate the existing markets, through emerging trends and customer preferences, this is the second step. This ensures that the organization formulates the correct product for the intended market. The third step is to decide on the customers to be targeted and what strategies will be used to reach these customers. It is important for the marketing planning process to avail the plans to be followed in the whole process. Ideally, it is essential to avail strategies, programs and assistance that will be required. Monitoring and evaluation should be included, this is important because it will enable the organization trace its progress and performance and make adjustments wherever necessary. The last step of marketing planning is to put the plan into practice, controlling and evaluating it frequently.
The market environment is unpredictable; this is why constant evaluation is essential after implementation. This liability to rapid change is the main reason for the unending problems and new opportunities that come up in the market. This constant change has forced organizations to change the way they carry out their daily operations. An effective marketing plan usually has a provision for unpredictability of the market. During the marketing planning process, the managers can use two types of approaches, namely; the planned approach or the emergent approach to strategy. The planned approach strategy usually is involved with making long-term plans without taking into consideration the changes that occur every day in the market. This plan entails directing the operations of the business with the customer’s general interests. This is a more comprehensive approach and takes a thorough evaluation of trends in the market. It means first of all selecting the market to operate in, then assessing the amount of finances that will be required. It also entails choosing the assets that will be used to support the plan and distributing resources to the different departments. The most important element is to build friendship and partnerships with other such organizations involved in the business (Kotler, 2006).
The emergent approach to strategy on the other hand, looks at how the market is changing over time due to the new opportunities and technologies that are constantly emerging. It enhances the ability of the organization to become responsive to the changing environment to be able to maintain competitive advantage. The emergent approach to strategy organization focuses on ability to change according to changes in the market, rather than focusing on sustenance of a competitive advantage. In this sense we can state the difference between emergent and planned approaches, the former aims at managing changes in the market through evolving by learning effectively. Therefore it leads to a sense of direction and unchanging over time. Planned approach on the other hand aims at maintaining control of the market, support the organizations performance in the long run and have competitive advantage.
Two such companies that have adopted emergent and planned strategy are Apple Inc and Dell Inc. Dell Inc was the largest PC software producer in the early 90s; the change in market demand decreased the demand for PCs and so slowed down the PC markets. These factors decreased Dell’s profit margin forcing it to close up some of its stores in a number of countries. Dell wanted a product that would be manufactured cheaply but bring a competitive advantage to the company by emerging the best from the other products of its rivals. They would then sell the product to the ever growing market of PC users (Baker M, 2012). Dell Inc wanted to maintain their competitive advantage in PC production using the planned approach which led to lowered earnings and profit margins. Apple Incorporation is one of the most successful and visionary company in the world The Company continues to release new products in the world. The company takes keen interest on design, which is a strategic component in attracting customers (Duncan, 2000). The company ensures that it allocates resources in the development of new designs.
Scenario thinking can be used to formulate readily adaptable long-term plans. This strategy incorporates both planned approach and emergent approach to business planning. It takes into account the uncertainties that exist in each scenario formulated by marketing managers. It is advantageous because, it allows managers to make long-term plans while taking into consideration factors such as; future changes in customer preferences, marginal change in future monetary value and governments regulations due to lifestyle changes (Lindgren, 2003). Thereby revealing to the planners the different and possible influences a number of scenarios will have on each other. Scenario planning usually gives room for people to communicate about their future expectations and change their own personal views through asking questions.
It is best for the whole organization because it gives a clear picture of a sequence of events and alternatives that can be used by the organization. It is less formal and can be used to plan for similar situations that occur in different events in the market. For example, change in customer preference is a situation that occurs in different market changes. Scenario planning requires mangers to formulate events and develop ways of thriving from them (Lindgren, 2003). This means that it has the same view as planned strategy whereby the organization develops means of reaching their long term goals and having a competitive advantage. It also has the same view as emergent approach in that the different strategies developed can be used to overcome emerging scenarios and maintain competitive advantage.
As stated in slide 2 of Scenario Planning Reconsidered, Scenario planning starts as planned approach and ends as emergent approach. Since scenario thinking means flexibility for the organization, the managers can formulate a number of ways of acting on possible uncertainties about the market environment in the future. As said earlier, scenario thinking entails planning while considering the consistent future changes in the market environment. Shell Company was one of the first organizations to use scenario thinking. This move came about after many oil companies lost billions of revenues because the emergence of environmental activists. After adopting this strategy, Shell became one of the largest companies both locally and internationally (Lindgren, 2003).
The Competing advantage on the other hand, instructs the organizations’ ability to shift its priorities and operations with the constantly changing market environment. Marketers have over the years been changing their strategies such as advertising to change with the emerging trends. For example, advertising on kids’ items has taken a turn from cartoon characters to more human adverts. This is line with the change of the children’s mindset which puts less emphasis on cartoon and more on acting like the grownups. Strategies that give a company a competitive advantage at a particular time, may not deliver the same competitive...