The starting point for designing a commercial system is the requirements of the customers. The organization must define and identify its customers, their geographic location, their service expectations and other variables. To ensure the growth, development and profitability of organizations, it is necessary to develop a marketing plan, but it should not be prepared by external personnel as it can become a low-use instrument that quickly becomes outdated.
In current marketing, not only are products exchanged for money but also information on acceptance or rejection in terms of value for money, customer needs, etc. and sellers will announce the benefits of what is offered, guarantees and other advantages, all this constitutes the feedback of the commercial communication.
Structure of the Marketing Plan for the Young Club of Santiago de Cuba
The structure of the Marketing Plan that is proposed for the Young Clubs of Santiago de Cuba was designed by applying the focus on processes to the design of marketing plans that combines all its phases, feeding back each other with an explicit focus on the client. It was elaborated from the bibliographic review of other structures elaborated in Cuba and in the world and taking into account the characteristics of the organization under study.
Organizational strategy: analytical phase, strategic phase, operational phase.
Organizational Strategy
According to the model established to develop the marketing plan, in this first stage the strategy of the organization is part of.
The definition of the mission that will help managers to define their needs for knowledge of the environment must be specified.
The mission is the raison d'être of the organization, it is the very general expression of what the organization wants to be. The reason for its existence.
Any well-defined mission should have answered the following questions:
That makes?
As it does?
What does he do it with?
Why does he do it?
If the organizational strategy is not elaborated, at least the mission must be defined.
ANALYTICAL PHASE
The analytical phase includes the external analysis, the internal and the general diagnosis.
External analysis
It is important to start with this analysis, as some experts say that organizations tend to dominate their internal situation to a greater extent than their relationship with the environment.
Therefore, organizations as an economic entity that constantly interacts with the environment that surrounds it must be aware of its characteristics, since their knowledge will depend on the attitude they adopt in the face of each change that occurs, since each factor in the environment impacts on organizations in a different way and it will perceive it in a different way, according to its characteristics and degree of impact, presenting itself as an opportunity or threat.
The external analysis has two moments:
- Macroenvironment Analysis Microenvironment Analysis.
Macroenvironment Analysis
For the analysis of the Macroenvironment, it is proposed to recognize the environment in which the organization operates, as well as the factors that affect it and favor its management. That is why from a commercial point of view the environment is defined for the organization as: The forces or factors that influence the organization without it having the ability to significantly influence them.
For the organization, there are four basic forces that are part of the environment, which directly and indirectly influence its marketing management:
- Economic Forces Socio-Cultural Forces Technological Forces Political-Legal Forces
Taking into account each of these forces, its analysis is recommended based on their participation and influence in the marketing decisions of the organization, the results they should have, as well as the perspective of taking advantage of the influences of each of them on performance. of its management.
Microenvironment Analysis
The Microenvironment is determined by environmental forces on which organizations can act and in which different factors intervene directly in their activities.
The elements that must be taken into account in this analysis are:
- Market analysis Competitor analysis Supplier analysis Market analysis
The author proposes to treat the market analysis from two interrelated phases: the market diagnosis and the customer analysis.
Market Diagnosis
To carry out this diagnosis, it is recommended to consider the following elements: the characteristics of the market (structure and typology) and the evolution of the market and its forecasts.
- Market characteristics (structure and typology): Refers to a quantification of customers, as well as their characteristics, which must be taken into account by the organization for the establishment of its business plan. Market evolution and its forecasts.
The objective of the diagnosis on the evolution of the market is to know the situation of variables such as: the degree of concentration of demand, its temporality, as well as the market growth rate.
This analysis allows for greater market dominance and supports business decisions by enabling:
- Knowing if the market is heading towards greater concentration, or if on the contrary it is heading towards greater dispersion and, therefore, allows to know if it is necessary to modify the distribution policy Knowing if the market has covered all its growth possibilities or If there are reserves. This analysis of the evolution will allow us to determine the real size and potential of the markets.
Customer analysis
The analysis of the clients provides important information for the preparation of the Marketing Plan, as well as for the general operation of the organization. The diagnostic study allows: the knowledge of the expectations and degree of satisfaction of the clients, elaborate a profile of the clients and make an analysis of the seasonality of the demand.
Knowledge of the expectations and degree of customer satisfaction
Its objective is to know the motivation of the client in the purchase of a product and / or service, to determine with greater accuracy the degree of satisfaction of their needs. It is considered that it is necessary to detect unmet needs, since they constitute opportunities for the design of new products or offers.
To determine customer satisfaction, two instruments were applied, the first offers an evaluation carried out by the experts based on the procedure set out below and the second the application of the adapted survey applied in the present work.
Internal analisis
It is recommended to carry out the internal diagnosis that allows evaluating the capacities and resources that the organization has, to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the environment. They propose to assess the following elements:
- Analysis of the results of the Marketing Plan of the previous period (if any). Economic financial analysis. Analysis of the Product Portfolio. Satisfaction and work motivation of internal clients. Analysis of the Marketing plan of the previous period (if any).
An analysis should be made of the results obtained from previously developed marketing plans. In the organizations where the application of the marketing plan proposal will be carried out, this type of plan has not been previously carried out.
Economic financial analysis
The financial economic analysis of the organizations must be carried out taking into account the information of the balance sheet, highlighting the indicators:
- Income Liquidity Accounts Receivable Bank Flow Payment Cycle Inventory Turnover
Product portfolio analysis
The analysis of the product portfolio with which the organization works is important for the creation of a good strategy that is drawn taking into account the current situation of the products that the organization has and its future progress, deciding which sets of products will best fit to the advantages and disadvantages of the organization in relation to the opportunities of its environment; That is why the current portfolio must be analyzed and decided which product families should receive more or less attention and resources, in addition to developing growth strategies to add new products or businesses to the portfolio.
The goal of portfolio analysis is
- Analyze the current portfolio and decide which family of products or products should receive more or less investment. Develop growth strategies to add new products and businesses to the portfolio. Decide which family of products or products should not be retained.
STRATEGIC PHASE
Marketing Objectives
The following general marketing goals are recommended. This recommendation does not exclude the possibility of taking into account an objective that responds to a specific situation.
- Market Growth Objectives, which based on the results of the diagnosis can be classified into:
- Goals of penetration in new markets. Goals of growth in their markets.
- Objectives aimed at maintaining competitive position Objectives aimed at improving overall competitive position Objectives aimed at improving competitive position in some indicators
- Product development objectives Objectives for the selection of distribution channels Objectives of promotional communication
- Stability objectives Investment objectives Exploitation objectives
Design of Strategies
The strategies proposed below are the result of the analysis of the different matrices applied in the internal and external analysis.
Market share strategy:
Growth Strategy: Seeks to increase market share; growth can be obtained by acting on the current market and on new markets, it can be achieved in the same way with current products or with new products.
Defense Strategy: It seeks to maintain the positions achieved in the market, they can be classified as:
- Exit strategies: Its purpose is to abandon the market or withdraw some products or services. Reconversion Strategy: It seeks the transformation of the organization to operate with a new portfolio of products in the same market.
Competitive strategies:
Strategy to improve the competitive position in general or in some specific indicator:
- Strategy with the competition: When the organization considers moving together with its competitors in terms of price, product development, investments, distribution, and others. Strategy of movement ahead of the competition: The organization considers staying ahead of the competition Competition Movement strategy outside the competition: When the organization develops its strategies independently of the competition.
OPERATIONAL PHASE
Action plan
If you want to be consistent with the selected strategies, you will have to develop an action plan to achieve the proposed objectives within the specified time frame. This necessarily implies having the human, technical and financial resources capable of carrying out the marketing plan.
The different tactics used in the aforementioned plan will be included within the marketing MIX, since different specific strategies will be proposed by combining the marketing variables in an appropriate way. They can be supported in different combinations, hence at this stage we limit ourselves to listing some of the actions that could be implemented, which of course will be based on everything analyzed in the previous stages.
- About the product: eliminations, modifications and launch of new products, creation of new brands, extension of the range, improvement of quality, new packaging and sizes, added values to the product, creation of new products. About the price: Consistent application of liquidations to those products that are classified as slow movement and merchandise that have lost some commercial attribute. On distribution channels: setting conditions for wholesalers, opening of new channels, stock policy, improvements in delivery time, subcontracting of transport. About business organization: definition of functions, duties and responsibilities of the different commercial levels, increase or adjustment of staff, modification of sales areas and routes, fulfillment and processing of orders On comprehensive communication: update of the WEB page, media plan and supports, determination of budgets, promotional campaigns, Direct Marketing Policy.
It is very important to point out that the actions must be consistent with both the Marketing strategy that it must support and the commercial resources available to the organization in the established period of time. In the same way, the human resources and material resources necessary to carry them out must be determined, indicating the degree of responsibility of each person who participates in their performance, as well as the specific tasks that each of them must carry out, coordinating all them and integrating them in a common action.
Control
Control is the last requirement of a marketing plan, management control allows knowing the degree of fulfillment of the objectives as defined strategies and actions are applied. Through the control, possible failures and deviations are detected in order to apply solutions and corrective measures with the maximum immediacy.
The control mechanisms allow knowing the partial realizations of the objective in relatively short periods of time, so the ability to react is almost immediate.
Information needed to assess possible deviations:
- Revenues Communication campaigns Satisfaction of internal and external customers Level of demand for services performed
Therefore, in view of the different periodic controls that are carried out, it will be necessary to carry out modifications on the original plan, of greater or lesser importance. This will give an immediate response and reaction capacity, which will allow us to be more competitive.
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