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Chapter 7
Strategic Planning
CHAPTER CONTENT
CHAPTER KEY POINTS
1. What are the differences between objectives, strategies, and tactics in strategic
planning, and how are the four levels of planning connected?
2. What are the key strategic decisions, and why are they central to brand
communication planning?
3. What is account planning and how it is used in advertising?
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Marketing and brand communication strategies are chosen from a wide array of possible
alternatives. Given this, the task of all engaged in strategic market planning, including
brand communicators, is to identify the best strategies to accomplish the brand objectives.
In this chapter, strategic planning is presented as a series of cascading objectives, flowing
from the corporate business plan to the marketing plan to the brand communication/IMC
plan to finally, brand communication/IMC tactics. Making key strategic decisions that
guide marcom plans is explored through the prism of the Facets Model introduced in
Chapter 4. Also,factors to be considered when making strategic decisions regarding target
audience selection, brand identity, and brand positioning, and consumer insights are
discussed. The chapter closes with an overview of the account planner’s job and explains
this person’s critical role in determining consumer insights that lead to message and
media strategies.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
WHAT IS STRATEGIC PLANNING?
For marketing communication, strategic planning is the process of identifying a
problem that can be solved with marketing communication, then determining
objectives (what you want to accomplish), deciding on strategies (how to
accomplish the objectives), and implementing the tactics (which make the plan
come to life). This process occurs within a specified timeframe.
Strategic thinking is just as creative as coming up with a Big Idea for a brand
communication idea. Pat Fallon and Fred Senn, cofounders of the legendary
agency Fallon Worldwide, have identified seven principles that link creative
thinking and strategic planning to business results. They are: 1) always start from
scratch, 2) demand a ruthlessly simple definition of business problems, 3)
discover a proprietary emotion, 4) focus on the size of the idea, not the size of the
budget, 5) seek out strategic risks, 6) collaborate or perish, and 7) listen hard to
your customers and then listen some more.
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Principle: Coming up with a big problem-solving idea in strategic planning is
just as creative as coming up with a Big Idea for a brand communication
campaign.
Strategic planning occurs in a complex business environment which includes four
levels of plans: the business plan, the marketing plan, the brand communication
plan, and plans for specific areas of marketing communication, such as
advertising or public relations.
The Business Plan
Strategic planning is a process that starts with the business plan. From there it
moves on to the various functional areas of the company, including marketing,
where a marketing plan is developed that outlines objectives, strategies, and
tactics for all areas of the marketing mix.A business plan is a snapshot of the
company and the environment is which it operates.
A business plan directs the operations of the entire
company, or in larger organizations, a specific division
called a strategic business unit (SBU),which is a line of
products under a single brand name. It is also a document
given to investors. Figure 7.1 depicts a framework for a
business plan.
Mission Statement and Business Philosophy
A business plan begins with a description of the business
itself- the history of the company, its products, the scope
of its offerings, its corporate strengths, and its
organizational structure and management team. A vision
statement may also be used to describe where the
business is headed. A more general direction of the
company is expressed in a mission statement.
A company’s business philosophy is the fundamental principles that guide the
operations of the business. For most companies, the philosophy is simply to make
a profit. A societal marketing philosophy describes the operations of companies
whose corporate mission reflects their desire to do good. If a commitment reflects
a company’s core business strategy as described in its mission statement, it is
called mission marketing.
Principle: Embedding social responsibility principles in the corporate mission,
business plans, and operations imbues the brand image with integrity.
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Research
In business plans, it is particularly important to look both inside and outside the
organization to identify strengths and weaknesses, both corporate and brand.
Being able to foresee market changes, business opportunities, and technological
breakthroughs determines a company’s long term success. The Principled
Practice feature in this chapter about antismoking campaigns provides insight into
the role research plays in tracking consumer trends.
Goals and Objectives
Business goals, which are long-term and general, provide direction to business
plans. Often these plans are stated in 5-to 10 year time frames and outline the
financial side of the business.
The objectives for planning at this level tend to focus on
maximizing profit and return-on-investment (ROI). ROI
is a measurement that shows whether, in general, the
costs of conducting the business—the investment—are
more than matched by the revenue produced in return.
The revenue above and beyond the costs is where profit
lies.
Strategies, Tactics, and Controls
Strategies are plans that will achieve the organization’s goals and objectives.
Tactics are specific activities that make the strategies come to life. Every
company operates with budgets, audits, time sheets, and quality control
procedures. These management tools keep programs on strategy and track the
effectiveness of strategic decisions and implementation programs. This
information feeds back into the planning process and is used to adjust future
plans.
The Marketing Plan
A marketing plan is developed for a brand or product line and evaluated
annually, although sections dealing with long-terms goals might operate for a
number of years. To a large extent, a marketing plan mirrors the corporate
business plan, although strategies are focused on a specific brand rather than the
larger organization.
Figure 7.2 illustrates the strategic decisions found in a marketing plan. We can
summarize these decisions in terms of the following steps:
Step 1: A situation analysis assesses the external and internal environments that
affect marketing programs—the company’s history, products, and brands, as well
as the competitive environment, consumer trends, and other marketplace trends
that affect the product category.A set of “what’s going on” questions structure this
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market analysis. Answers to these questions help define the key marketing
problemthrough a SWOT analysis, which stands for strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats.These questions include:
• What is happening with the brand and the category?
• How is it happening?
• Where is it happening?
• When is it happening?
• To whom is it happening?
Step 2: Set objectives, which at the marketing level tend to be focused on sales
levels and share of market, measurements referring to the percentage of the
category purchases that are made by the brand’s customers. Other objectives deal
with specific areas of the marketing mix. J. Scott Armstrong, in his book
Persuasive Advertising, believes that objectives should be designed to have a
good return on the brand communication investment.
Step 3:Assess consumer needs and wants relative to the product, segment the
market into groups that are likely to respond, and target specific audiences and
uncover insights about their thoughts and behaviors.
Step 4: Develop the brand strategy, differentiating and positioning the product
relative to the competition.
Step 5:Develop the marketing mix strategy, selecting product design and
performance criteria, pricing, distribution, and marketing communication.
Step6: Implementation of tactical programs that execute the strategic decisions.
For marketing communication managers, the most important part of the marketing
plan is the discussion of the brand strategy, which gives direction to the strategy for
all brand communication programs. In addition, the marketing mix strategy, which
includes decisions about the target market, brand position, product design and
performance, pricing, and distribution, as well as marketing communication, are all
important in planning brand campaigns.
The Brand Communication/IMC Plan
Brand communication planning operates with the same concern for objectives,
strategies, and tactics that we’ve outlined for business and marketing plans. It outlines
all of the communication activities needed to deliver on the business and marketing
objectives, in terms of communication objectives, strategies, tactics, timing, costs,
and evaluation.
Briefly, a marcom planner’s goals can be stated as:
Who are you trying to reach and what insight do you have about how they
think, feel, and act? How should they respond to your brand message?
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What do you say to them? What directions from the consumer research
are useful to the creative team?
How and where will you reach them? What directions from the consumer
research are useful to the media team?
Principle: A brand communication plan seeks to match the right audience to the right
message and present the message in the right medium to reach that audience. The
SPAR story in this chapter’s A Matter of Practice feature lets you see inside the mind
of a planner as he works through a series of strategic decisions.
The various levels of planning set up a cascade of goals and objectives. As illustrated
in Figure 7.4, the business and marketing plans provide direction to the brand
communication (IMC) plan as well as to specific plans for specialist areas, such as
advertising and other areas of marketing communication.
Plans for Marketing Communication Functions
Advertising, public relations, sales promotion, and other marcom areas all operate
with their own plans. Most often, these are campaign plans and outline a series of
activities to be undertaken during a specificed period of time. They begin with the
same strategic decisions found in a marketing or brand communication (IMC) plan.
The tactics section of these plans identifies specific activities that will be undertaken,
such as a series of ads in key media scheduled at critical times. Three key elements
-target audience insight leading to a Big Idea, message strategy, and media strategy –
are at the heart of communication planning and make up the key sections in these
functional area plans.
KEY STRATEIC DECISIONS
Key strategic decisions that guide marcom plans include the analysis and statement of
communication objectives, the target audience, brand position, and consumer insights.
The Communication Objectives
After planners have examined the external and internal environments and defined the
critical areas that need to be addressed, they can develop specific communication
objectives to be accomplished during a specified time period. The six categories of
the Facets Model of Advertising Effects can also be used to identify the most
common consumer-focused objectives. They are: perception, emotion, cognition,
persuasion, association, and behavior. See the textbook for examples of ads or
campaigns that reflect each of these six facets.
The Target Audience
1. Marketing communication strategy is based on accurately targeting an audience that
will be responsive to a particular type of message, one that will deliver objectives.
The decision about the target audience is made possible because of a deep knowledge
of consumers. This research-based knowledge identifies what makes specific
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groupsof consumers different from people in other groups. These characteristics also
identify how consumers are similar to others in ways that characterize a specific type
of viewpoint or lifestyle.
Diversity and Empathy
2. There is more to targeting than just identifying and profiling a possible audience.
Multicultural communication demands an appreciation of diversity, and the empathy
that results from such appreciation. To deal with this problem, agencies are adding
multicultural specialists as well as creating or buying firms that specialize in
multicultural marketing.
3. Professor Peggy Kreshel defines diversity as “the acknowledgement and inclusion of
a wide variety of people with differing characteristics, attributes, beliefs, values, and
experiences.” In advertising, diversity tends to be discussed primarily in terms of
representations of gender, race, and ethnicity in the advertising content, although
diversity goes beyond the images used in ads, but Kreshel points out that diversity
goes far beyond the images used in ads.
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