The role of situation analysis in marketing plan
Facing to more complex business environment, systematically marketing plans are
important to organizations in terms of maintaining a high level of operating efficiency and
achieving goals fully. According to Sally and John (1996:3), marketing plans are the
written document or blueprint for implementing and controlling an organizations
marketing activities related to a particular marketing strategy (Sally, D., Lyndon S., &
John, B., 1996: 3). A successful marketing plan is able to improve organizations profits
and growth, uses in objective setting and monitors results (Subash Jain, Michael D.
Clemes, Gregory Brush, 2008: 5)
In order to gain a successfully marketing plan, it is important to marketing decision makers
to understand the current situation comprehensively and trends affecting the future of the
organization. There are two major reasons to explain why situation analysis plays a vital
role in developing marketing plan.
Firstly, dynamic marketing environment will lead to uncertainty, threats and opportunities
for marketers. Marketing managers who success to know changes in environment through
situation analysis can lead their companies to capitalize on opportunities and cope with
threats created by changes.
Then, systematically analyzing situational environments is a crucial way for organizations
to identify their customers and understand their needs. As Peter(1998: 23) said, The
successes of any marketing plan hinges on how well it can identify customer needs and
organize its resources to satisfy them profitably (J. Paul Peter, James H. Donnelly, JR,
1998)
Here is an example about Brumbys to adapt to the marketing environment. Since
Australians are looking to alter their lifestyles and are conscious about what they eat,
Brumbys has now launched a low-carbohydrate white bread and emphasizes that its bread
is preservative free to respond to these changes (S. Rundle-Thide, D.Waller, G. Elliott, A.
Paladino, 2007: 64)
Brumbys not only seize the opportunity but also satisfy complex customers demand.
Comparing to its competitors, it has more chances to build its customers loyalty in order to
develop its sustainable competitive advantages.
Hence, situation analysis is a key and basic function to marketing plan, which provide
comprehensive and accurate information to the plan. In addition, through a detailed
situation analysis, managers can find some key performance issues which are unnoticed in
day-to-day operations. According to those issues, managers can make plan to address those
weaknesses for organizations surviving and long-term achievement of their goals.
Factors in situation analysis
Basing on marketing environment factors, situation analysis consists of reviewing of
organization internal environment and external environment.
