Strategic Marketing Management Planning and Control - Assignment Example

Strategic Marketing Management planning and Control Table of Contents Introduction 3 Strategic Marketing Planning of Asian Star Corporation 3 Strategic Planning in companywide 3 Market oriented mission 4 Setting company goals and objectives 4 Design of business portfolio 5 Analysis of current business portfolio 5 Developing strategies for growth and downsizing 5 Planning marketing 6 Control Process 6 Conclusion 7 Reference 8 8 Introduction The Asian Star Corporation is one of the successful computer companies which are operating mainly in Asian markets. The company has four divisions: hardware, software, system development and Information Technology consulting. The CEO of Asian Star views the Asian market as one of the growing markets with huge opportunities to sell hardware and software. So he wants to raise the sale of its product in the Asian market. He also wants to pay attention to the businesses in system development and IT consulting at the same time to grab the opportunities in future. For this, the Asian Star Corporation has to make a strategic marketing plan at the corporate level. Strategic Marketing Planning of Asian Star Corporation Strategic Planning in companywide Strategic planning refers to the process of maintaining and developing a strategic fit between the capabilities and goals of an organization and its varying opportunities in market. The Asian Star Corporation should find the game plan for its growth and survival in the long run provided with its specific objectives, opportunities, resources and situation. This should be the focus for its strategic planning. The stages for rest of the planning in firm are set by the strategic planning. The annual plans, strategic and long range plans are usually prepared by the companies. The long range and annual plans deals with the current businesses of the company and the way to keep its continual operation whereas the strategic plan constitute adaptation of firm to take benefit of opportunities in its rapidly changing environment (Aaker, 2001). The Asian Star Corporation at its corporate level should start the process of its strategic planning by defining its overall mission and purpose. The mission should then be turned into detailed supporting objectives guiding the whole company. Next, it should be decided that what portfolio of products and businesses is best for the company. Each product and business in turn should develop detailed marketing and other departmental plans to support the companywide plan (Drummond, Ensor and Ashford, 2001, pp.4-5). Market oriented mission A mission statement is a statement of purpose of organization stating what it wants to accomplish in the larger environment. So the Asian Star Corporation should develop its formal mission statement stating details like what is its current business and what should be its future business, who is its customer and what does consumers value. A clear and well defined mission statement can give better financial and organizational performance to Asian Star Corporation. Setting company goals and objectives The Asian Star Corporation should convert its mission into supporting objectives for each management level. Its mission should lead to a hierarchy of objectives including marketing and business objectives. Specific objectives should be provided to each manager and the responsibility to achieve them. Marketing programs and strategies should be prepared to support such objectives (Acquaah, no date). If Asian Star Corporation wants to raise the sale of hardware and software in the Asian market, it should make an effective research on the Asian market on the requirement of appropriate hardware and software by its customers and should devise plans accordingly to meet their demands. Design of business portfolio Business portfolio refers to the collection of businesses and products for making up of company. Guided by the mission statement and objectives of company, the management of Asian Star Corporation should then plan its business portfolio. The best business portfolio will be the one that will fit best the strengths and weaknesses of the company to opportunities in environment. Planning of business portfolio involves two steps. Firstly, the company should analyze its current business portfolio and should accordingly decide regarding which business requires less, more or no investment. Secondly, the portfolio of future should be shaped through development of strategies for growth and downsizing. Analysis of current business portfolio Analysis of business portfolio is the major activity in strategic planning where the businesses and products are evaluated by the management that makes up the company. Asian Star Corporation should put strong resources into its profitable businesses and should drop down its weaker businesses. The key businesses of the company should be identified by the management to form strategic business unit. Then it should assess the attractiveness of its various strategic business units and should decide on how much support is required by each business unit (Gilligan and Wilson, 2012, p.99). While designing a business portfolio, it is better to support and add businesses and products that closely fit with the core competencies and philosophy of the firm. Developing strategies for growth and downsizing Besides evaluation of current businesses, Asian Star Corporation in its designing of business portfolio should involve finding products and businesses to be considered by the company in future. Growth is required to compete more effectively, to attract top talent and to satisfy the stakeholders. Besides developing strategies to grow business portfolio, Asian Star Corporation should also develop strategies to downsize them. If the changing market environment makes certain products of Asian Star Corporation or its market less profitable then it should such product or market. Planning marketing The strategic plan of Asian Star Corporation will establish what kind of businesses will be operated by the company. Then, more detailed planning should take place within each business unit. All the major functional department in each unit like finance, marketing, accounting, operations, purchasing, human resources, information systems and others should work together to accomplish strategic objectives. However, marketing will play a key role in the strategic planning of the company as it will help to carry out the objectives of unit profitably. Further, customer value is also a key ingredient in the formula of marketer for success. The superior value for customers cannot be produced by the marketers alone. It can only be a partner in keeping, attracting and growing customers. So in addition to customer relationship management, partner relationship management should be practiced by the marketers of Asian Star Corporation to work closely with partners in the departments of other company to form an effective value chain to serve the customer. However, they should partner effectively with other companies in the marketing system to develop a superior value delivery network. Control Process Asian Star Corporation needs to apply the control process which is an integral part of marketing management. It is a process of minimizing the variations of marketing performance from planned levels of activity. Marketing control includes three essential processes such as examining trends in performance and evaluating results with expectations, evaluating which levels of variation from targeted performance can be accepted and which call for intervention, and the last process is to correct the deviation if necessary (Foxall, 1981, p.255). The company will implement control process in order to revise strategic goals and modify plans. The top managers could frame new strategies and performance criteria in order to further improve the performance if required and achieve growth in all the four divisions. Conclusion Asian Star Corporation, by applying strategic marketing management, planning and control process, can become one of the growing businesses in the Asian market and can also grab the opportunities to enjoy the competitive position over its rivals. Through strategic management practice, the company can formulate and implement the strategies for successful business operations. And by applying successful planning and control process it can make strategic decisions and can minimize the variations of marketing performance from planned levels of activity. All these are important components for achieving success and growth in business operation. Reference Aaker, D.A., 2001. Strategic Market Management. 6th edn. New York: John Willey & Sons. Acquaah, M., Assessing Strengths and Weakness: Internal Analysis. [ppt]. Available at: www.uncg.edu/bae/people/acquaah/491/lecture5.ppt. [Accessed 28 March 2013]. Drummond, G. Ensor, J. and Ashford, R., 2012. Strategic Marketing: Planning and Control. 2nd edn. London: Routledge. Foxall, G.R., 1981. Strategic Marketing Management. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. Gilligan, C. and Wilson, R.M.S., 2012. Strategic Marketing Planning. London: Routledge. Read More