If your objectives are not written correctly then every plan that follows (business plans, media schedules and so forth) will be weak.
Writing objectives is no more difficult than writing a shopping list, really.
Within the marketing concept, the marketing strategy is the mobilisation of the company's marketing capacity and ability towards a customer-orientated goal. And the mobilisation of such resources includes advertising and promotion.
However, strategy, in the form of an action plan, is only a framework because;
There are, essentially, two kinds of objectives we see on a daily basis in business:
Corporate objectives: These are the broad considerations of where the company wants to go and what it wants to achieve in the medium or long term.
Strategic objectives: These are shorter-term goals, being more detailed, specific and measurable.
Advertising plans are, almost always, strategic and tactical. They are immediately-actionable forces that can be implemented to deal with a specific (short-term) problem on the marketing battlefield.
Planning cannot start without an objective because we need to focus on the direction in which we want to go. We need to ask ourselves "what results do we want?" and these results must be reasonable and, to the largest degree possible, measurable.
In order to measure results, we need to set standards. When standards are met, the objective will have been achieved, which is why the best plans include key words like:
For example: TO DO "To decrease my unit production costs and lower my selling price - and margin." SO THAT "Sales volumes will increase, thereby improving my bottom-line."
Objectives begin to be formalised roughly as follows.
None of this is rocket science obviously and, over the next few weeks, I'm going to be covering more about objectives, forecasting and strategies - or you could give me a call and we could take a look at your Objectives together. (It's what I do, of course).
But it's an extremely good idea to stand well back from your business and take a good look at what your customers see - it's not as easy as it sounds and sometimes it's a good idea to get a third-person perspective.
Read my blog (brewersdroop.co.za) or see what other amazing things we do at brewers.co.za
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