The Marketing Planning Process - Module Overview

The marketing planning process module forms part of the CIM Professional Diploma in Marketing and is designed to provide a detailed understanding of marketing planning, including the synergistic planning process and its links with the delivery of marketing strategy. During the marketing planning process module you will also consider a thorough assessment of the dynamic and complex nature of the marketing environment and its impact on developing marketing plans to achieve strategic outcomes and competitive advantage in the market place.

After completing the marketing planning process module you will be able to:

1. Evaluate the role of the marketing planning process and the marketing plan implementation in a range of marketing contexts including that of the organisation's strategy, culture and broader marketing environment.

2. Evaluate the interconnectivity between corporate, business and marketing objectives and consider the impact of the external marketing environment and the organisation's resources on their development and achievement.

3. Conduct a marketing audit including a detailed analysis of the internal and external marketing environments.

4. Assess the findings of the audit and develop a marketing plan that is responsive to market and organisational changes and underpins the organisation's marketing strategy.

5. Utilise a range of positioning platforms including price, quality, service and brand perception to establish an organisation's marketing positioning strategy.

6. Recognise the significance of retaining existing customers through relationship marketing when developing strategies to achieve marketing objectives.

The following is a detailed breakdown of the managing marketing module. There are four main section:

Section one - Marketing planning to deliver marketing strategies (weighting 25%)

1.1 Critically evaluate the difference roles of marketing and its cross-functional interaction within organisations.

1.2 Critically evaluate the synergistic planning process including the different components of the marketing plan and its links with delivering the organisation's corporate, business and marketing strategies.

1.3 Critically evaluate the role of the marketing plan in relation to the organisation's philosophy and an organisation's strategic intent.

1.4 Evaluate the relationship between corporate, business and marketing objectives at an operational level and describe how they impact upon the activities associated with the marketing plan.

1.5 Assess the external and internal influences on the formulations of objectives and specify the key environmental drivers of organisational change.

1.6 Critically evaluate the wider impact of external and internal environmental forces on the setting of objectives at different levels and the process of planning marketing.

Section two - The Marketing audit and strategic outcomes (weighting 30%)

2.1 Critically evaluate the practicalites of undertaking a marketing audit including resource limitations and implications within the organisational context.

2.2 Assess the concept of the organisation as an open system faced with changing environmental conditions and internal capabilities.

2.3 Appraise the process of auditing the marketing environment and make recommendations for the utilisation of various approaches in a range of different organisational contexts and sectors.

2.4 Evaluate the external marketing environment through detailed analysis using a variety of marketing audit tools and techniques.

2.5 Assess the internal marketing environment of an organisation through an audit process using a range of evaluation processes and approaches.

2.6 Utilise the planning gap as a means to identifying and assessing key marketing planning requirements to fulfil the organisations marketing strategy.

2.7 Assess teh issues and constraints arising from the marketing audit and consider the consequences for the organisation in order to develop its marketing plan.

Section Three - Creating marketing strategies through segmentation, targeting and positioning (weighting 25%)

3.1 Critically evaluate the role of marketing strategies and demonstrate how they can be used to develop competitive advantage, market share and growth.

3.2 Assess the importance of market segmentation as a basis of selecting markets to achieve the organisation's business and marketing objectives via customer satifaction.

3.3 Critically evaluate the different segmentation approaches available to organisations in different organisational contexts and sectors and make recommendations for their use.

3.4 Assess the value of targeting markets as an approach to achieving customer satisfaction, competitive advantage and retention.

3.5 Critically evaluate a range of targeting coverage strategies for different organisational contexts and sectors.

3.6 Assess the attractiveness and value of selected market segments.

3.7 Examine the concept of marketing positioning strategy and how it can be used to convey the organisation's value proposition.

3.8 Critically evaluate positioning options and their implementation within the context of the organisation and its markets.

Section Four - Adapting marketing planning in different contexts (weighting 20%)

4.1 Assess the significance of the key dimensions of implementing marketing planning in practice.

4.2 Critically evaluate the barriers and constraints to implementing marketing planning, and consider how they may be addressed by organisations.

4.3 Propose and justify approaches to implementing the process of marketing planning in different contextual settings.