Definition Of Marketing:-

1. Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying consumer requirements profitably.
   Source:- Chartered Institute of Marketing.
2. The ability to get the right products, at the right price, in the right quantities, in the right place and at the right time.
3. A market exists when sellers and buyers come into contact.

Customer Requirements can be real or imaginary.

The majority of consumer needs are met by existing products or services.
Marketing has to find new things to sell, so they research the market place to find new products that the consumer needs (Real). A small company can find products the big companies can't make (Niche marketing). The big companies research and develop new technologies to steal a march on their rivals.
Marketing also involves the creation of completely new customer needs. (Imaginary).
Go back a few years and there was no such thing as the "Teen market". The word "Pre-teens" and the "Grey market" did not exist. They have been invented by Marketeers.

Marketing Strategy

"Strategy defines the boundaries of the business and identifies competitiveness"
"Achievement of corporate goals through meeting and exceeding customer needs better than the competitor".
"Developing a strategy involves establishing clear aims and objectives around which the framework for a policy is created".
"Every organisation needs to have clear goals, and the major route to achieve organisational goals will depend on the strategy".
Strategy comes from the military term for an overall plan to achieve an objective. It is a framework setting out what events have to happen in a certain place at a certain time. This allows goals to be set within this overall framework which can then be broken down into smaller tasks. The results of theses tasks can be focused on their immediate goal and the overall objective. In this way there is a common purpose to all the work that can be seen by everybody. Working in this way allows rational decisions to be made all the way along the planning route and alterations to be made when necessary.
You can produce flow charts to manage the planning sequence. Business use Gnatt Charts and Critical Path Analysis.

Another way to look at a strategy is to think of it as a road map. You know where you want to go and you work out how to get there. If you come upon problems, you find a different route to reach your end point. This idea is too simple and rigid. Marketing Planning has to be very flexible and has to use any interesting happenings along the way. So if you see a sign for a Bird Sanctuary, you must go and have a look. It might be of interest. The wrong route reinforces the correct route.
The concept of a road map is also wrong as it means that you know the exact outcome of your journey and the direct route if no problems occur. In Marketing, you do not know what you are going to end up with. Sometimes taking the wrong route leads you into new areas of discovery, a new route to the end objective. May be a new final Objective.
This makes Marketing a highly creative and stimulating subject.

There is a philosophy that says:-
"The whole is greater than the summation of the parts".
If you have a pile of things, they can be put together in any order to produce any object. 3 objects can be put together to form 9 completely different results. This random method is actually used to come up with new ideas. On their own, these 9 new ideas have no purpose. You need to have an overall idea of what you want, so that you can make decisions about which of these 9 products best suits your needs.

Strategic decisions are likely to be concerned with

• Scope of the organisation's activities. (company's product mix).
• Environment. (external influences).
• Resource capability. (Internal factors).
• Resource implications. (costs, staff, training).
• Operative decisions. (effects on company's operating methods).
• Expectations. (influence of shareholders, management).
• Direction. (long term objectives, mission statement).
• Uncertainty. (risk factors).

The Marketing Plan

Planning.
Mission Statement.	Company Policy.
Marketing Audits.	Internal -   Resources, Structure, Objectives. External - The Market, Competition, SLEPT.
SWOT Analysis.	Absolute and relative values.
Strategic Options.
Marketing Objectives.	Increase sales volume - New products, Market penetration, Improving profitability.  - Costs, Pricing, Ralionalisation.
Strategic Thrust.	New/Existing Markets & Products mix.
Strategic Objectives.	Build (Boston matrix), Hold, Harvest, Divest.
Core Strategy.	Target Markets. Competitor Targets, Competitive advantage, Resource capability.
Marketing Mix.	Balance of Product, Price, Promotion and Place.  (The 4 P's)
The Marketing Mix is the last of the planning stages at which point you have to finalise your choice to get the right Product, at the right Price, in the right Quantities, in the right Place, at the right Time using effective Promotion.
Implementation.	Structure to implement plan. Constraints found from Audits & SWOT.
Monitoring.	Evaluating results and on-going planning modifications. (Product life cycle).

The flow chart above sets out the major goals with some of their component tasks.
For detailed information read the Source Books.

Source:- "Principles and practice of Marketing" by David Jobber. McGraw-Hill 1995 ISBN 0 07 707935 3

"Marketing Everybody's Business" by D Neeham & R Dransfield. Heinemann 1995 ISBN 0 435 450255