Marketing planning - surely it is simple and straight forward? But the reality is that it can be complex due the volume or level of change an organisation or its customers experience. Therefore, having a compelling and forward thinking vision is very important to the success of a company. Moreover, having the strategic dexterity to recognise when to revisit the company vision or mission is also pertinent

Welcome to the first Marketing Leadership and Planning blog. This is the first weekly blog for this course and what a real pleasure to discuss and openly debate this interesting and dynamic topic. As lead tutor for Marketing Leadership and Planning course, I will highlight the latest trends within this topic. Linking key concepts to real live examples so the theory can be applied and more importantly debated in terms of effectiveness. Ever wondered what all the fuse is about when it comes to looking after customers? Some would argue that it is relatively straight forward, in terms of providing what customers want. Sounds simple, but in today’s complex markets obtaining the balance between what customers want and what they are willing pay is like finding the Holy Grail. But immensely rewarding when Noah’s ark is located and maintained. This is the main reason why marketing is so important, as it looks to create and maintain relationships with customers which are fully aligned to the business objectives, leading to long term growth and profits. At a broader level marketing offers significant benefits to society. These benefits include: 1. Creating products that satisfy needs, including products that enhance society’s quality of life 2. Building a competitive environment that helps lower product prices 3. Developing product distribution systems that offer access to products to a large number of customers and many geographic regions 4. Assessing demand for products that require organizations to expand their labour force 5. Presenting techniques that have the ability to convey messages that change societal behaviour in a positive way (e.g., anti-smoking advertising) For the marketing benefits to be fully aligned it is important that organisations develop a strong vision of what the future looks like and link the marketing and business objectives to build long term value. This is not without its challenges, today customer are fragmented in terms of their needs and with the advent of the economic recession has forced organisations to reflect on where they are going and what is really important to its customers in the context of the fragile economic outlook. These challenges will mean that creating long term value via robust marketing plans will help organisations to sustain a competitive advantage. Next week I will explore a framework for developing a marketing strategy with some live examples to bring the theory to life.