Strategic marketing planning is a process which will help an organization to focus its limited resources in the most profitable ways to improve sales and reach a sustainable competitive edge. A company can create a better understanding of the target market by carefully defining it with a series of questions. The purpose of this process is to provide the direction and focus needed for the company to build a solid foundation on which it can develop future products and services. It also helps in identifying opportunities for the company to expand existing products and services, or look for new avenues for growth and development. There are two key concepts which are usually taken for granted when we talk about strategic marketing planning; namely the marketing function plus advertising. However, these two concepts go hand in hand to give us the necessary information we need to make strategic decisions in terms of what marketing activities to focus on and how we can do them best.
Marketing functions include; strategizing about the company vision and the products and services which will fuel its growth and development, and creating and designing a corporate strategy. Once these have been determined, it becomes easier to understand where the company should be heading in the future and how it plans to get there. This also helps in aligning future product and service developments with the company’s corporate strategy, goals and objectives. The creation of marketing plans gives the company an opportunity to conduct stakeholder communications, participate in the social and economic communities, and set the company goals and objectives. While all these are crucial to the success of the company, making strategic marketing management decisions are often done at a low priority.
One of the biggest issues which is raised when it comes to implementing strategic marketing management decisions is money. The amount of money involved is dependent on how big the company is, and how much it intends to invest in its operations. Usually, large companies hire outside consultants to help them make strategic decisions on a monthly basis, while a lot smaller organizations either cannot afford to spend that much money, or they lack the expertise, and contacts, to conduct such a survey. Even when a firm gets hold of a good and reliable survey, conducting it yourself is not a simple task, and involves a lot of time, effort and expense. It is true that making strategic marketing management decisions is time consuming and costly, but the benefits that it offers to the company in the long run are definitely worth it.