Event Overview

This practical course will provide a logical step by step approach which will:

• Outline the marketing planning process and its benefits and relevance to you
• Improve the overall quality of your Marketing Plans
• Help you set challenging yet achievable objectives
• Focus on market strategies which are implementable and effective
• Help organisations grow their businesses by reacting to market changes,
  threats and opportunities
• Introduce more creative thinking into your Marketing Planning Process
• Increase profitability and market share
• Establish action plans to "make things happen"

This course will take you through the Marketing Planning Process and help you in a structured, practical and action orientated way, to address the three basic questions involved in writing and implementing a marketing plan:
• Where do you want to be?
• Where are you now?
• How will you get there, including who does what?

Course Overview

It is often said that “Failing to plan is planning to fail” and the real benefits to be gained from good strategic marketing planning is market place success, competitive advantage and differentiation, setting and achieving challenging marketing objectives and growing business and profits.

This course is about marketing planning and the writing of a strategic marketing plan, which is specific, objective and will happen. It will emphasise the key information you need for creating an effective plan and prove that the quality of this information is a major determining factor in the subsequent quality and achievement of those plans.

This course will be highly interactive, participative and practical. The emphasis is on involvement and real solutions and during the five days you will cover and use key marketing planning tools and techniques and begin to evolve a first draft of your current marketing plan.

The course will be led by Richard Yallop and will concentrate on addressing issues and providing solutions. There will be a high degree of audience involvement – via individual and group work with reference to past successes and failures, the use of practical tools and techniques to work through the planning steps and developing solutions, objectives and strategies. Richard Yallop’s aim throughout the course will be to challenge delegates to think ambitiously and creatively in developing their own growth plans, which can be translated into real market place successes.

The course will be based on the proven Cranfield Marketing Planning 10 Steps and is aimed at senior company personnel responsible for strategic marketing planning, decision making and implementation, such as marketing directors and heads of marketing. If you have not achieved previous plans, failed to meet some of your key objectives, or if you did achieve them but feel you have missed opportunities, this course is for you. It is far less about imparting theory than getting you to apply it in profitable applications and solutions. The course is equally applicable to all markets and all sizes and ages of organisations, whether they be in B2B or B2C markets. Additionally, participants from government and “Not for Profit” organisations plus other non marketing specialists would benefit from attending.

Course Benefits

The major aim of this course is to challenge your current thinking, approaches and comfort zones and encourage you to set new challenging and creative objectives to really maximise your business potential – and to show you how to do this. It is anticipated that at the end of the course you will have worked on key sections of your own marketing plans and will have used approaches and techniques to help identify and quantify major issues and opportunities, leading to winning action plans.

Whilst you will focus primarily on your own markets there will be ample opportunity, in group sessions, to share knowledge and experience and apply this to your own strategic marketing situations and plans.

This course will not involve any breach of confidentiality as those attending will, at all times, control the information you discuss and use in any practical exercises throughout.

In this course you will be
• Taken through a detailed marketing planning process, which you can use in
  your organisation to identify your key plans and translate these into realisable
  objectives and appropriate strategies
• Presented with practical tools and techniques for analysis and planning
  – for example to include markets most attractive to you and key customer
  segments, competitive differentiation, customer satisfaction/loyalty and
  brand positioning
• Introduced to (or reacquainted with) the Directional Policy Matrix, a key tool in
  the marketing planning process and one which is essential in writing
  and developing your marketing plans
• Addressing in detail all the key strategic areas – products, place, availability
  and supply chains, promotional strategies and branding, sales planning and
  pricing for profit: how you use these will determine your future market place
  success
• Encouraged to think creatively and introduced to appropriate techniques to
  support your planning process, increase competitive differentiation, customer
  satisfaction and achievement of planning objectives
• Given key guidance regarding developing an action plan, assessing measures
  of success and addressing all the key issues which you have to over come to
  make things happen and achieve your major objectives
• In addition to the interactive sessions during the course, if you wish to speak t
  otally confidentially about any specific aspects of your own marketing activities
  and plans you will be offered the opportunity for brief one-to-one meetings over
  lunch and after the course closes each day.
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