Strategic Marketing Planning: Goals, Threats, and Opportunities

Market Opportunity Analysis (MOA)

A marketing opportunity is an area of buyer need and interest that a company has a high probability of profitably satisfying.

There are three main sources of market opportunities:

1. Offering something that is in short supply. This requires little marketing talent, as the need is fairly obvious.
2. Supplying an existing product or service in a new or superior way.

Methods for Superior Product Supply

To supply an existing product or service in a new or superior way, companies can utilize several methods:

• The Problem Detection Method: Asks consumers for their suggestions.
• The Ideal Method: Has consumers imagine an ideal version of the product or service.
• The Consumption Chain Method: Asks consumers to chart their steps in acquiring, using, and disposing of a product. This last method often leads to a totally new product or service.

Environmental Threats

An environmental threat is a challenge posed by an unfavorable trend or development that, in the absence of defensive marketing action, would lead to lower sales or profit.

Internal Environment Analysis: Strengths and Weaknesses

It is one thing to find attractive opportunities, and another to be able to take advantage of them. Each business needs to evaluate its internal strengths and weaknesses.

3. Goal Formulation

Once the company has performed a SWOT analysis, it can proceed to goal formulation, developing specific goals for the planning period. Goals are objectives that are specific with respect to magnitude and time.

Most business units pursue a mix of objectives, including profitability, sales growth, market share improvement, risk containment, innovation, and reputation. The business unit sets these objectives and then manages by objectives (MBO).

Criteria for Management by Objectives (MBO)

For an MBO system to work, the unit’s objectives must meet four criteria:

1. They must be arranged hierarchically, from most to least important.
2. Objectives should be quantitative whenever possible.
3. Goals should be realistic.
4. Objectives must be consistent.

4. Strategic Formulation

Goals indicate what a business unit wants to achieve; strategy is a game plan for getting there. Every business must design a strategy for achieving its goals, consisting of a marketing strategy and a compatible technology strategy and sourcing strategy.

Porter’s Generic Strategies

Michael Porter has proposed three generic strategies that provide a good starting point for strategic thinking: overall cost leadership, differentiation, and focus.