Strategic Planning
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Differentiate between objectives, strategies, and tactics in strategic planning
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Identify the six basic decisions in an advertising plan
Explain how account planning works
Outline the key features in an IMC plan
The process of determining objectives, deciding on strategies, and implementing the tactics
 Objectives －What you want to accomplish
 Strategies －How to accomplish the objectives
 Tactics －Make the plan come to life
A Three-Tiered Process
The business plan
May cover a specific division of the company or a strategic business unit with a common set
of problems
The marketing plan
Parallels the business strategic plan and contains many of the same components
The advertising or IMC plan
Operates with the same concern for objectives, strategies, and tactics as business and marketing
plans
Basic Strategic Planning Decisions
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Annual advertising or IMC plan－Outlines all the advertising or marketing communication
activities
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Campaign plan－More tightly focused on solving a particular marketing communication
problem
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Typical Plan Outline
(I)
Situation analysis
(II) Key strategic decisions
(III) Media strategy
(IV) Message strategy
(V) Other tools
(VI) Evaluation of effectiveness
Situation analysis
－Researching and reviewing the current state of the business that is relevant to the brand and
gathering all relevant information
－After the research is compiled, analysis begins
→ SWOT analysis
 Strengths 優勢
 Weaknesses 劣勢
 Opportunities 機會
 Threats 威脅
Key problems and opportunities
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Objectives and strategies
－Planners develop specific objectives to be accomplished during a specific time period
－The main categories of effects can be used to identify the most common advertising and IMC
strategies
→ What to expect from a campaign
→ Measurable objectives
 Specific effect that can be
 A baseline
measured
 A time frame
 The goal
 Percentage change
Segmenting and targeting
－Market segment: a group of consumers having similar characteristics
－The segments the planner selects becomes the target audience
→ getting deeper insight into consumers is the responsibility of the account planning function
Positioning Strategy
－Determining what place a product should occupy in a given market
－To establish a location in the consumer’s mind based on what the product offers and how
that compares with the competition
→ Product features
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Feature analysis
→ Competitive advantage
→ Differentiation
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Importance/performance
Branding
→ Locating the brand position
Budgeting
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Perceptual mapping
Determines how many targets and multiple campaign plans a company or brand can
support and the length of time the campaign can run
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→ Historical method
→ Competitive budgets
→ Objective-task method
→ All you can afford
→ Percentage-of-sales method
Account Planning: What is it?
Account planning－The research-and-analysis process used to gain knowledge and understanding
of the consumer
Account Planning Elements
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Media strategy
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Consumer insight
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Message strategy
Account planner－A person in an agency who uses account planning to research a brand and its
customer relationships in order to devise advertising message strategies that are effective
in addressing consumer needs and wants
Account Planner Tasks
 Understand brand
 Understand audience relationship
 Articulate strategies
 Prepare creative briefs
 Evaluate effectiveness
The Research Foundation
Used in three phases of the advertising planning process
 Strategy generation
 Campaign evaluation
 Creative development
Consumer Insight
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Intersects with the interests of the customer and the brand features
Insight mining
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Realistic response objective?
Causes of no response?
Barriers to desired response?
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Motivation to respond?
Role of each element in the
communication mix
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The Communication Brief
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Explains the consumer insight and summarizes the basic strategy decisions
Six major parts
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Marketing objective
Product
Target audience
The promise and support
Brand personality
Strategy statement
Planning for IMC
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Follows same basic outline as an ad plan
Objective is to make the most effective use of all marketing communication functions
Effective plans lead to profitable long-term brand relationships
Differences in IMC strategic decisions
 Stakeholders
 Contact points
 IMC objectives
Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy
Objectives
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Components of IMC
Deciding the IMC mix
Setting the IMC budget
IMC
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While the marketing mix refers to promotions, today we refer to IMC
It is broader than promotions and includes advertising, promotions, publicity, personal
selling and direct marketing
IMC refers to a co-coordinated communications program that is customer-focused and
internally consistent
Customer focus
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 talking in “Consumer speak”
 Using communication channels that your target segment refers to
 Consistency refers to all aspects of your IMC strategy (channel, message) being consistent
with one another
IMC Strategy
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IMC strategy involves deciding the mix and level of different IMC elements
The different IMC elements are
 Advertising
 Direct marketing
 Sales promotion …. theme/event
 Personal selling
Marketing
 Publicity/PR
 The type of IMC strategy selected usually depends on
 type of product market
 channel objectives
 buyer readiness stage
 PLC
 focus
 cost
Type of product market
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Consumer goods vs. business goods
 Consumer marketers spend on sales promotion, advertising, personal selling and public
relations in that order
 Business marketers spend on personal selling, sales promotion, advertising and public
relations in that order
Product complexity…high risk products tend to require personal selling
Push vs. Pull strategy
 Push …the overall objective is to increase reseller support and market
coverage.
 Brands that may be undifferentiated in the marketplace or in categories where consumer
brand preferences are difficult to generate and sustain.
 Where the distributor plays an important role by providing information or some
expertise.
 Push vs. Pull strategy…
 Pull through communications are used to target final consumers and to create
consumer demand (pull). The objective is to move goods and services forward
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in the distribution channel by pre-selling final consumers.
 Brands that are strongly differentiated or in categories where final consumer preference
can be generated and sustained.
 Push through communications
 Trade promotions and allowances
 Sales force
 Publicity
 Pull through communications
 Advertising
 Consumer sales promotions
 Direct marketing
 Publicity
Buyer readiness stage
 Pre purchase
 Advertising, sales promotion
 Purchase
 Personal selling, sales promotion
 Post purchase
 Personal selling, advertising
IMC objectives
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Any IMC campaign can have different objectives. Some common objectives are
 Generate awareness
 Persuasion
 Communicate differentiation
 Reminder
PLC
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The cost effectiveness of each IMC tool depends on the stage of the PLC
Introduction: advertising and publicity have the highest cost effectiveness, followed by
personal selling and sales promotion to induce trial
Maturity: Sales promotion is the most important followed by advertising
Decline: Sales promotion continues to be the most important with reduced advertising
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Level of Focus
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Specific communications involve targeting a very specific audience.
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Selective communications involve targeting a limited number of audiences.
Mass communications involve targeting large numbers of audiences.
Cost
Budgeting for IMC activities requires a good estimate of the cost of each element of the plan
Usually, mass communication is cheapest on a per receiver basis, while specific communication
is the most expensive
Determine your budget in different ways including…
 Percentage of sales approach
 Competitive parity approach
 The all-you-can-afford approach
 Objective and task approach
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Evaluations
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IMC objectives must be specific and measurable
Evaluating an IMC campaign is critical to future improvements
The campaign must always be evaluated in light of its objectives
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