Marketing Planning and Strategy

In this section of the Principles of Marketing Tutorials we take all that has been discussed to this point and see how marketers use this information to manage business decisions. In particular, we focus attention on the importance of marketing planning with special attention given to the role marketing strategy plays in the planning process.

For marketers planning is an essential task that must be continually undertaken. As we will see, shifting market conditions, including changing customer needs and competitive threats, almost always insure that what worked in the past will not work in the future, thus requiring revisions in how a product is marketed.

Marketing planning is also important since it is often a prerequisite for obtaining funding whether one is a marketer in a large corporation seeking additional money for his or her department or is part of a small startup company looking for initial funding.

To aid in our understanding of planning we introduce a key concept in marketing: the Product Life Cycle. We will see the Product Life Cycle offers valuable insight and guidance for marketing decisions. In this tutorial we also discuss different types of marketing strategy that can be followed to meet marketing objectives. Additionally, we look at how innovative products are adopted within a market and how this impacts marketing planning.