What are the key issues that should be addressed in strategic and marketing planning?

The following questions lie at the heart of any marketing and strategic planning process:

• Where are we now?
• How did we get there?
• Where are we heading?
• Where would we like to be?
• How do we get there?
• Are we on course?

Why is marketing planning essential?

Businesses operate in hostile and increasingly complex environment. The ability of a business to achieve profitable sales is impacted by dozens of environmental factors, many of which are inter-connected. It makes sense to try to bring some order to this chaos by understanding the commercial environment and bringing some strategic sense to the process of marketing products and services.

A marketing plan is useful to many people in a business. It can help to:

• Identify sources of competitive advantage
• Gain commitment to a strategy
• Get resources needed to invest in and build the business
• Inform stakeholders in the business
• Set objectives and strategies
• Measure performance