Marketing strategic planning is a process in which the company, once the market survey has been made and the existing opportunities have been detected, establishes its position in the market, defines its action plans and controls their implementation, development and results, to be able to achieve the objectives it has planned.
This way, Marketing contains a group of elements known as MARKETING MIX, which are: PRODUCT/SERVICE, PRICE, DISTRIBUTION AND COMMUNICATION. These elements are also called the 4 P (product, price, place and promotion).
Establishing a marketing plan integrating all the Marketing Mix variables is, therefore, a basic pillar for a company to be competitive in the market, as it is aimed at satisfying the target customer’s needs and desires, by offering a product or service, which needs to be promoted to be known and remembered; besides, it has a price, expressed in monetary terms; and finally, finds the means to arrive at the customer (distribution).
Therefore, the marketing plan design must always be based on a previous market survey and should integrate at least the four basic policies answering the following questions:
Elements of the marketing mix:
- PRODUCT/SERVICE:Â which products or services are we going to offer? Which are their distinguishing features compared with the competitors? How are we going to present it? Which additional services complete it?
- PRICE: Which price strategies are we going to follow? Which methods are we going to use to fix them (cost, competition, market)?
- DISTRIBUTION (place): Which distribution system are we going to use? Which channels are we going to use?
- COMMUNICATION: How are we going to make our product or service known? Which actions are we going to perform? Which tools and media are we going to use?