MKTG, Canadian Edition

Lamb, Hair, McDaniel, Kapoor, Klaise, Appleby

Part 1 The World of Marketing

Introduction to Marketing Planning Activities

To help you complete your plan, use the Marketing Planning Worksheet for Part 1.
In the world of marketing, many different types of goods and services are offered to
many different markets. Throughout this exercise you will construct a marketing plan for
your chosen company. Writing a marketing plan will give you a full depth of
understanding for your company, its customers, and its marketing mix elements. The
company you choose should be one that interests you, such as the manufacturer of your
favourite product, a local business where you would like to work, or even a business you
would like to start yourself to satisfy an unmet need or want.
Dont forget to consider the Internet portion of marketing. Most firms have two options
for implementing Internet marketing: starting an Internet business that is wholly operated
in the e-marketing world or creating an Internet component of a marketing plan for a
traditional, existing business. Both Internet opportunities require careful strategic
marketing planning in order for the venture to succeed.
For electronic sources of information, search on the Internet Public Library at
http://www.ipl.org/.
For some general help on business plans and marketing plans, visit
http://www.bplans.com/ or http://www.businessplans.org/. Another very useful site is
http://www.emarketer.com/. You should also refer to Exhibit 2.1 (page 16) for the
elements of a marketing plan.
The first part of strategic planning deals with the world of marketing and involves stating
your business mission with a marketing orientation, setting objectives, finding a
differential advantage, and performing an assessment of strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats. Use the following exercises to guide you through the first part
of your strategic marketing plan:
Describe your chosen company. How long has it been in business, or when will it
start business? Who are the key players? Is the company small or large? Does it
offer a good or service? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this company?
What are the orientation and organizational culture? List all the ways that your
company follows the marketing concept. Can your company satisfy the needs and
wants of customers and still be profitable, legal, and socially responsible?
What should be the business mission of your company? Write the mission statement,
keeping in mind the benefits offered to customers rather than the product or service sold.

Copyright 2010 by Nelson Education Ltd.

If you are starting the on-line arm of a traditional store, should you make any changes to
the companys overall mission statement?
Set marketing objectives for your chosen company. Make sure the objectives fit the
criteria for good objectives. List at least three specific, measurable objectives for your
company. Be sure these objectives relate to the mission statement and include a time
frame.
Scan the marketing environment. Identify opportunities and threats to your chosen
company in areas such as technology, the economy, the political and legal environment,
and competition. Is your competition foreign, domestic, or both? Also, identify
opportunities and threats based on possible market targets, including social factors,
demographic factors, and multicultural issues.
Assume your company is or will be marketing globally. How should your company enter
the global marketplace? How will international issues affect your firm?
Does your chosen business have a differential or competitive advantage? If it does not,
there is no point in marketing the product. Can you create a sustainable advantage with
skills, resources, or elements of the marketing mix? Begin your SWOT analysis with an
analysis of the primary strength by asking, What is the key differential or competitive
advantage of my firm? If you have an Internet offering, consider what advantages are
gained by operating in the Internet space. What are other keys to the potential success of
your company? What other strengths can your firm capitalize on?
Continue the SWOT analysis by taking an honest look at the weaknesses of your firm.
What are the disadvantages to operating in the Internet space? How can you overcome
them? You might want to enlist the help of a friend to act as a consultant who can give an
unbiased opinion. Are there any ethical problems in the organization?
Identify any ethical issues that could affect your chosen firm. What steps should be taken
to handle these issues? How should your company integrate corporate social
responsibility into the plan? Describe how your company will handle privacy concerns.
In addition to suggestions for philanthropic responsibilities, write up a brief code of
ethics for your firm. To see other codes of ethics, go to
http://ethics.iit.edu/codes/coe.html.
The last part of the SWOT analysis seeks to identify opportunities and threats in the
external marketing environment by performing environmental scanning.
To learn more about demographic, ethnic, and social trends that could affect your firm,
investigate data from the 2001 and 2006 censuses from Statistics Canada at
http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/home/index.cfm and
http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/rt-td/index-eng.cfm.
To learn more about economic factors that could influence the strategies of your firm,
visit http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/.
Be sure to look for computer and Internet usage statistics and think about whether they
are a positive indicator for the target market you have selected. The resources at
http://www.clickz.com/stats and http://www.acnielsen.ca/products/index.shtml can help.
Determine which emerging technologies will have an impact on your company. Are these
technological developments opportunities or threats?

Copyright 2010 by Nelson Education Ltd.

Understand how political and legal factors may influence your marketing decisions at
http://canadaonline.about.com/. You may also wish to investigate the Web sites of federal
government agencies that regulate your firm and industry. The Better Business Bureau is
at http://www.bbb.org/canada/. Canada Revenue Agency is at http://www.craarc.gc.ca/menu-eng.html. From here you can download all kinds of required and helpful
forms.
Identify your key competitors. A simple yellow pages
(http://www.yellowpages.ca/index.html) listing of firms in the same business category
can start your search. For online competitors, try http://www.bizrate.com/.
Competition often comes from companies that are working on the same exact market as
yours. After you search for your direct competition, look for and think about what other
companies are positioned to execute a similar business strategy for your target market.
Determine if there are any players who might be able to develop technology more quickly
or reach your target customers more effectively than you.
If you choose an Internet presence, your product or service will be visible to a global
community. Therefore, it is important to assess the international marketplace as well. A
listing of international chambers of commerce is at http://www.worldchambers.com/ and
the CIA World Factbook is at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-worldfactbook/index.html..
Is there a key factor or assumption that you are using when performing your SWOT
analysis? What would happen if this key factor or assumption did not exist?

Copyright 2010 by Nelson Education Ltd.