(Regional) Marketing Plan
& Global Strategies
Things to Keep in Mind
• Set your competitive advantage & regional
strategy first
• Overall strategic framework drives country-level decisions
Business Strategy
Competitive Advantage
The unique position a firm develops through resource &
capability deployments that leads customers to choose the
firm’s products over competitors. Advantage can be based on:
• Cost Leadership (Low cost & price);
• Product Differentiation – offering superior economic value
by creating superior product/service features & quality
through innovation & product development capabilities;
• Marketing Differentiation – offering superior perceived
value by developing
– Unique image (brand-centric differentiation) achieved through
targeting, positioning & communication capabilities
– Close relationships with customers (customer-centric
differentiation) achieved through CRM capabilities & customization
Things to Keep in Mind
Regional Marketing Plan
• Set your competitive advantage & regional
strategy first
• Overall strategic framework drives country-level decisions
• Plan for the long-term
• Decisions 1-3 = focus on awareness, gaining distribution
• Decisions 3-5 = build market share
• Decisions 6+ = now aim to be profitable
Marketing Plan Due
• Recognize regional strategic issues
• Trade agreements
• Standardization vs. Customization
• Don’t forget the basics!
• 4Ps – Product, Price, Promotion, Place
• Competition
Marketing Plan
• A marketing plan is a written document that details the
necessary actions to achieve one or more marketing
objectives.
• A marketing plan is a business document written for the
purpose of describing the current market position of a
business and its marketing strategy for the period
covered by the marketing plan. Marketing plans usually
have a life of from one to five years.
• Purpose of a Marketing Plan: The purpose of creating a
marketing plan is to clearly show what steps will be
undertaken to achieve the firm’s marketing objectives.
Marketing Plan
Length & Organization
• The Marketing Plan should be 24-30 paragraphs of
text (see the Marketing Plan Grade Sheet). Singlespaced, that probably translates to around 10
pages. I expect there could be another 10-20
pages of exhibits, depending on formatting.
Please follow the order suggested in the CM
Marketing Plan and in the Marketing Plan Grade
Sheet.
Suggestions
• Following the Grade Sheet:
– Break the document up and allocate sections to
individuals or small teams
– For each section, envision and create 1 or more
exhibits
– Then write the section, making use of the exhibits
– Integrate each section into the final document,
numbering & organizing exhibits
– Then write the Executive Summary
Four Major Sections
and Possible Exhibits
Situation Analysis – Country Attractiveness & SWOT
exhibit for each target country incorporating current
customer & competitor information
Strategic Development – Regional Marketing Plan &
Positioning Map for each country incorporating current
competitor and BEI information
Marketing Objectives – Volume Forecast for each
country (Last year’s and next 2 years)
Marketing Mix -- Country x year action plan (Last year’s
and next 2 years): Product volume & Benefit Positioning,
price & Price Positioning, distribution channels &
Penetration, sales staff & Sales per Salesperson,
promotion levels & BEI, etc.
Competitive Advantage in Emerging Markets
See Global Giants reading
Regardless of being an established or emerging MNC, the cost
advantage is disappearing and the game is changing.
Established MNC's can destroy an emerging MNC's local cost
advantage & cause them to improve & adjust. A good
example of this is TATA. IBM and Accenture pay more for the
talent in India & cause Tata to adjust & raise its costs.
In China, Nokia expanded production facilities and neutralized
Ningbo Bird's cost advantage.
The point is that a "cost leader" strategy is not much of a
competitive advantage when it comes to the battle between
emerging and established MNC's.
Product Differentiation, Marketing Differentiation, Cost Leadership
Rearrange Value Chain, Emerging Segments, Converging Cost Structures
CM Local CM Global
& Regional Competitors
Competitor
s
Competitive Advantage
Distribution
Selective
Mid quality
Mid quality
product
product
Exclusive
High quality
product
X
X
X
X
Mid price
X
Marketing
Differentiation
X
X
Low price Cost Leadership
X
X
X
High price
X
X
Product
Differentiation
Heavy
Low price
Light
Advertising & Promotion
Wide
Low quality
product
Aquafresh
X
Aquafresh French
Aquafresh Argentina
Crest HK
Product Differentiation – Marketing Differentiation
Local Growth Team Model (GE) Emerging-Market Success
1.Shift power to where
growth is (Rearrange value chain)
2.Build new offerings from
ground up (Zero-based innovation)
3.Build LGTs from ground up
(Zero-based design)
4.Customize objectives,
targets & metrics
5.LGT reports to someone
high up
1.Participate in Mass
Market (for scale)
2.Localize 4 Ps
3.Manage costs
4.Build local team
5.Acquire selectively (to
broaden distribution & create
low-cost structure)
6.Stay the course
See How to Win Emerging Markets
Regional Marketing Plan