Marketing Planning: Strategies, Objectives, and Market Analysis
Marketing Planning: A Comprehensive Approach
Concept: Marketing planning is a derivative of marketing. It’s an administrative and systematic process to coordinate objectives, strategies, and phases of a campaign, including advertising, public relations, and promotion, to achieve maximum return on investment.
Planning: It doesn’t work alone; it requires collaboration from media and creative teams. The dynamic nature of the market demands constant updates. Planning is a guide for actions to be implemented.
A Plan Should Be: Clear in its goals, flexible in adjustments, and specific in its logic.
Marketing Mix
Communication Mix: Product, price, advertising, promotion, public relations, personal selling.
Planning Model
- Technical Summary
- Company History
- External Environment: Macro and micro factors (political, economic, legal, climatic, etc.)
- Internal Environment: Company structure, products/services, sales analysis, distribution, pricing, communication
- Market: Size, trends, direct competitor comparison
- Diagnosis: Strengths, weaknesses, problems, opportunities, threats, and conclusions
- Definition of the communication problem
- Definition of the target audience and area of action
- Brand positioning
Planning Model (Continued)
- Marketing: Objectives and strategies
- Communication: Objectives and strategies
- Creative: Objective, strategy, campaign advertising pieces
- Media: Objectives, strategies, support, and tactics, including optional programming
- Campaign Chronogram, including production and media
- Financial and production summary (R$ and %)
- Cash flow
- Results demonstration
- Evaluation systems
- Comments on legislation
Market Situation Analysis
Size: Currency, physical volume, people.
Growth Rate: % (+), (-), (=)
Factors: Competition, technological advances, legal restrictions, political and economic situations, other variables.
Products/Services vs. Competition
- Features, advantages, and disadvantages
- Unit price, coverage, strategy
- Distribution channel, point of sale
- Advertising: Quality and quantity
- Sales: Historical series, distribution by area, seasonality, market share, trends
Target Audience/Location Demographics
Economic, cultural, psychological, ethnic, religious, attitudinal, buying habits, behavioral, lifestyle.
Positioning
Definition of the brand image and profile of products/services, and how they should be perceived by the consumer. The brand image should be built in the consumer’s mind.
Basic Promise
What benefit should be promised to the consumer?
Example: Yogurt X Flavors and Feeds
Background (Why)
The argument that justifies the promise.
Basic: Contains vitamins A, B1, C, and is made with complementary fruit attributes.
Image and Personality: Pure, healthy, nutritional, natural, tasty, modern, reliable.
Base: Target market/niche market. How the consumer should perceive the products/services.
Determination of Objectives
- Identify the problem and/or opportunity that advertising should solve. What facts generate the need for communication?
- Purpose of communication: Launch a new product, reinforce brand image, replace products/services, communicate a technological advantage.
Basic Goals of Advertising
Top of Mind: The brand that is remembered first by the target market.
Share of Mind: The brand’s position in the general recall of the target audience, not necessarily in order of recall.
Brand Awareness: The perception of the brand’s image/concept by the target audience.
Strategies and Tactics
Strategy: The approach to achieve the target in the long term, with a broad scope.
Tactic: Short-term detail within the strategy, specific.
Communication Strategy
Should align with communication objectives and support marketing. How to play in the market to attract consumers and overcome competition. It’s the logical and rational thought to combine various communication disciplines, media, and non-media materials, considering the infrastructure and customer base.
Explain the intended communication objectives, addressing the following:
- Where: Production regions, launch, and support, month by month.
- What: Communication disciplines to be done in each period.
- How: Campaign and recommended media.
- How much: Complete budget and breakdown by periods.
Communication Strategy
Communicate Disciplines: Advertising, promotion, public relations, direct marketing, merchandising materials, etc. Each has a purpose and particularities. They need to be selected based on the goals, market situation of the product/service, and available budget. They can be used throughout the year in planned periods.
Advertising Budget Allocation
Total Production Budget: Media + Production + Talent
Packaged Goods (TV-based): 80-90% of the budget applied to media, 20-10% to production.
Retail (Short Duration): 65-70% of the budget applied to media, 35-30% to production.