Marketing planning and the marketing plan: A theoretical and practical analysis of their meaning.

Abstract

Marketing planning is commonly defined as the set of methods by which marketing resources are applied in order to achieve marketing objectives. It is therefore a series of sequential activities that lead to the definition of marketing objectives and the formulation of the plans necessary to achieve them, i.e., the input for the final marketing plan. This work will analyze these phases and the different sections of the marketing plan, deepening those that have been mostly used by the writer during his work experience, i.e., market segmentation, competitive analysis, market positioning and promotion. My work experience, carried out at South Australian Leaders (Adelaide), consisted in the preparation of marketing plan-like part, as it did not consist in the analysis of the general offer of the company but rather in its marketing materials , namely website and brochures, which were to be improved both in terms of content and design with regard to the main competitors. All those concepts related to customer segmentation, competitive analysis, analysis of the corporate USP, positioning and promotion strategy were therefore thoroughly investigated. During the examination of the aforementioned experience, the main tasks that I had to perform will also be analyzed, e.g., interviews with the main stakeholders of the company and an important personal research, links with the courses studied at the university will be created and the main skills that this experience has allowed me to develop and improve will be discussed. With regard to the latter, given the extreme freedom and great responsibility the company gave me since day one, I feel that this experience has allowed me mainly to improve my skills related to time management and multi-tasking. However, given the nature of the activities I conducted and the context of the latter, I feel I have also further improved my communication and inter-cultural skills. In addition, but not less important, I feel I have also grown from a personal point of view, having acquired greater awareness in my potentials, as well as from a professional point of view, having acquired important notions and concepts related to the business world, in particular marketing.