He/ She Who Fails to Plan, Plans to Fail - Assignment Example

He/ she who fails to plan, plans to fail Introduction This essay will analyze the topic “He/ she who fails to plan, plans to fail”, and so the central issue of this paper is the importance of marketing planning. In an organization, the marketing department can only ‘reach’ its product or its service, directly to the minds and even the ‘hands’ of the customers. The product or the services offered by the organization had to be made enticing for the customers to buy it or use it. To entice the customers, a proper plan had to be imbued into its marketing processes. Unless, the marketing plan or processes is properly planned, there will be inadequacies leading to the failure of the product, services and eventually the organization. So, this paper will first analyze the importance of marketing planning, particularly during product launches. Then, the paper will analyze the value of the marketing plan by discussing how an ineffective marketing plan will give an upper hand to the competitors. The next theme that will be analyzed in this paper is how an unsound marketing plan will prevent the organization from guiding and optimizing the employees’ performance. So, my argument is, if the organization or its marketing department fails to formulate an effective marketing plan, it will fail, as it may face shortfalls in many aspects of its functioning. Background & definitions A marketing plan forms an integral part of any organizations’ functioning with the organization’s marketing department only playing the major role in the formulation and the actualization of the marketing plan. Organizations function using the marketing plan as a roadmap. “One of the fundamental procedures involved in any successful business operation is creating and implementing a marketing plan...they are employing marketing plans as one method for moving forward” (Kassel, 1999). So, marketing plan or planning can be defined as the formulation or writing of an extensive list of actions, an organization needs to undertake to actualize or achieve certain targets in relation to the products manufactured or services offered. That is, organizations may formulate a marketing plan to launch a new product or to entice the customers to a particular service offered by it. So, the basic concept behind marketing planning is, it is the ‘blueprint’ for the organizations. Blueprints are mainly prepared while constructing buildings, so that the constructors can “plan” what they want to construct. So, the key thing is “plan” or “planning”. That is, to do anything successfully, there should be a plan behind it. Likewise, if an organization wants to do any customer centric initiatives from product launches to new schemes, there should be a well formulated marketing plan behind it. So, marketing plans are formulated or written mainly ‘predecessing’ any new initiative. But, in some organizations, the marketing plans are written as part of annual process. Those annual marketing plan covers or takes care of all the marketing initiatives for the entire year ahead. There are also few organizations, which may formulate marketing plans for close to three or more years ahead. The habit of formulating long term marketing plans without incorporation of any new inputs will be visible in monopolies. In those organizations, there will not be enough planning, leading to more failures than successes. So, in most of the organizations, there will be a marketing plan for every initiatives specifically customer centric initiatives, incorporating worthwhile ideas from any source and importantly ideas that are suitable to the changing times. 2b. Analysis & informed judgement With every organization wanting to expand their reach and make an imprint in various markets, there will be enough opportunities for it, to initiate that expansion drive. So, when the organization has enough opportunities, it can set targets and formulate various strategies to achieve those targets or end products. But, the organization cannot launch a product or reach its targets in a jiffy; it is a long-drawn out process, where every thing has to fell in place. For every thing to fell in place or for every part of the process to end favourably, a plan has to be in place to start that process. But, if there is no plan or a vague plan, the process will be a failure. So, if one fails to plan or does not have marketing plan, he/she will only have a very unclear idea about its competitors or the competitive marketplace. Importantly, they would not be able to implement and support the organization’s day to day operations in relation to the employees’ work. In todays competitive marketplace, an organization can succeed only if they have a marketing plan in their hand to beat the competition. “The overall purpose of marketing planning, and its principal focus, is the identification and creation of competitive advantage” (McDonald, 1992). That is, a plan that helps in maintaining a consistent approach while offering products or services, can only outsell the competition and help the organization emerge successful. So, having a foolproof marketing plan incorporating a thorough analysis of the competitive marketplace and the competitors before the start of an initiative is a critical aspect. If this critical aspect is not taken care, then the performance of the organization will become “critically ill”. An effective marketing plan starts with a thorough knowledge of the competitors and understanding of the organization’s position in relation to the competition. That is, firstly the competitors’ shell life, their market share, potential, staying power, in total their strengths and weaknesses should be analyzed as part of the formulation of the marketing plan. “A brief discussion of competitors overall strengths and weaknesses should be a part of the competition section of the plan” (Gooderl, 2006). But, if this analysis is not planned out or done as part of the marketing plan, the resultant marketing plan will be an ineffective one and will lead to failures. In most of the today’s market place, there is intense competition, with many companies vying for their share in the market. To beat this tough situation and emerge successful, organization as part of the marketing plan has to analyse and incorporate different aspects of the competitors. Also, analyzing competitors product range or offerings may spur the organization to come up with more innovative improvements to their product and services. But, if there is no plan, there will be a greater shortfall in innovations, with the organization not failing to match the competitors’ offerings. An unsound marketing plan will inhibit the organization from having a strong brand image when compared to the competitors, thus obstructing it, from defining who they are and how they are different and better, when compared to the competitors. Importantly, only if the organization and its marketing department make plans based on the competitor’s analysis, the organization can create a niche vis-à-vis the competition in the marketplace, positioning itself to beat the competitors. Otherwise, they will be overwhelmed by the competitors. Organisation’s problems stemmed from its failure to produce marketing plans (Simkin, 2002) The essence of any marketing plan is that, it moves from generalities and concentrates on the specifics. That is, the marketing plan should concentrate on the organizations’ or employees’ day-to-day operations, to achieve its overall objectives. So, an optimal marketing plan will only guide the organization in each of their day-to-day activities. "Having a marketing plan in place is making the day-to-day operation of the business easier and more effective" (Bates,). This will only help the employees to know what are the steps they need to undertake and what they have to achieve in relation to the marketing efforts. For example, if the organization has decided to maintain high quality as their main USP in its marketing plan and campaign, then the employees will need to take extra effort and care to provide quality products. One of the important things that have to be taken care while planning is, it has to be made into an interactive process with a prominent role for the employees. That is, the draft output of the plan has to be checked at each stage with the employees’ inputs, to see what impact it has on the earlier stages and also to give the chance to amend it accordingly. This part of the planning will enable the organization to achieve their targets irrespective of the setbacks. But, if the marketing department has no effective marketing plan, they cannot guide the employees on the next course of action. Importantly they cannot check whether they achieved or achieving, what they have initially set. The marketing plan can also help the organization and thereby the workers, to know what are the resources and the capabilities they need to have, to achieve their intended targets. So, if the organization fails to have a good marketing plan devoid of the details about the necessities, the organization and the employees will be left in the lurch without having the necessary resources and capabilities. The bottom line is, unless the organization has an effectual marketing plan, it will find it difficult to guide the employees and optimize their work, leading to a lot of failures. Conclusion Through this paper, the importance of a marketing planning is clearly understood. Marketing planning is an important process every organization should undertake, especially before any customer centric initiatives. The marketing plan will only help the organization to beat the tough competition and emerge victories. This paper has elucidated the importance of marketing planning and how an organization will not be able to judge its competition and the market place, if it fails to plan. The other important theme is, organization will also be not able to steer and enhance the effectiveness of the employees, if it fails to plan. So, marketing planning is a crucial component of any organizations’ success. Reference: Bates, M. (2007), Health Fitness Management, Human Kinetics Publishers. Kassel, A. (1999), “How to Write a Marketing Plan”, Marketing Library Services, Vol. 13, No. 5. Longenecker, J. G., Moore, C.W., Palich, L. E.and Petty, J. W. (2006), Small Business Management: An Entrepreneurial Emphasis. Thomson South-Western Publishers McDonald, M.H.B. (1992), “Ten barriers to marketing planning”, The journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Vol. 7, Iss. 1, pp. 5-18. Simkin, L. (2002), “Barriers impeding effective implementation of marketing plans - a training agenda”, The Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Vol. 17, Iss. 1, pp. 8-22 Read More