Marketing Skills: Marketing Planning (1 day)

Course Overview

Marketing planning allows an organisation to bring together all the elements of marketing thus providing clear direction in relation to the key marketing value drivers. These include customer and competitor insight leading to clear competitive advantage, identification of the best markets and products to develop, building brand equity and driving customer retention implemented through an integrated marketing mix with clear metrics and internal communication. Developing an insightful marketing plan ensures marketers contribute at the strategic level in the organisation.

This course is designed to help you write better marketing plans. It provides a clear framework and allows you to apply the principles presented to a case situation. This reinforces your learning in a fun and interactive environment, making application easier back at work.

Audience

This course is especially useful for marketing managers having to prepare a marketing plan for the first time. You may be reviewing the effectiveness of your current plans. Senior Managers will also find this workshop invaluable when needing to evaluate the plans submitted to them by specialists.

Skills Gained

Benefits for your organisation:

Through the application of a case study, your managers will be able to write more effective marketing plans, manage the process of putting plans together and ensure their implementation back at work. This will lead to more satisfied customers and better bottom line performance.

Benefits for you as an individual:

This course will provide you with a clear step-by-step process to produce a sound marketing plan. Through application of the principles presented to a case study, you will practice conducting a marketing audit, generating alternative growth strategies and selecting a brand position based on clear competitive advantage. You will leave more confident in your abilities to operate at a strategic level in your organisation.

You will learn how to:

• Apply a logical, easy to understand, step-by-step process to produce a sound marketing plan
• Conduct a marketing audit and make SWOT analysis effective
• Write marketing objectives and determine the strategic thrust of your organisation
• Segment your market and develop a brand positioning statement
• Develop marketing plans with greater confidence
• Obtain maximum support from colleagues in preparing and implementing marketing plans
• Contribute more to the marketing effectiveness of your organisation

Course Outline

• Defining marketing and the marketing planning process
• Marketing audit including macro, micro and internal analysis summarised into a SWOT and key issues analysis
• Setting objectives and generating alternative growth strategies including market penetration, market development, new product development and diversification
• Market segmentation and brand positioning
• The outline marketing mix
• Implementation and control including the process of planning, allocating, monitoring, organising and internal marketing issues
• Action planning and review

Pre and post learning support:

Delegates are asked to develop a SWOT analysis on a case study prior to the course. This case is then used on the day for delegates to apply the principles presented together with many examples of best practice. A real marketing plan is also provided to help consolidate your learning and provide an example to refer to when writing your own marketing plans back at work. Key reading, texts and web sites are also suggested for those who want to follow-up after the course.

To take away from the course:

• A marketing planning framework
• A marketing audit and SWOT analysis framework
• Growth strategy matrix
• Brand positioning statement
• An outline model answer to the case study
• A real marketing plan
• Follow-up learning resources

Marketing Skills: Marketing Planning (1 day) / 0751