Effective marketing planning requires full research of the marketing Essay

Effective marketing planning requires full research of the marketing environment. Discuss what needs to be considered when under - Essay Example An effective marketing plan requires a research on the drivers of demand in the business environment. This may entail secondary research or primary research, or both in order to investigate consumer behavior and motivation. Some of the aspects contained in an effective marketing plan are demographic and social changes that may affect sales of the company’s product, for instance a change in the lifestyles and the age structure. New technologies that may open up some markets while at the same time closing some. Economic trends that have an impact on the consumer purchase decision, as well as political environment that alters public spending due to aspects like taxation. By conducting a marketing audit, a firm is able to explore its internal capabilities (Alison, 2011, p 23). Effective marketing planning also calls for an examination of the external environment to a firm, which entails focusing on the existing marketing strategies; the company’s marketing mix, and market s egmentation and segmentation, as well. Scanning and interpreting all these areas of market changes calls for knowledge and experience, and might be the source of competitive advantage. Much of the marketing planning also varies on anticipating the response of competitors. The reason is that interpreting and responding to market changes ahead of t6he competitors may result in high gains of both sales and profits. Marketing audit Marketing audit is a fundamental element of the marketing planning process, which ensures that a firm is profitable. Marketing audit considers both internal and internal influential factors. Most tools for conducting a marketing audit include the SWOT, PESTEL and the porter’s five forces (Bensoussan & Fleisher, 2008, p 23). PESTEL analysis PESTEL analysis is an examination of forces outside the business, but has an impact on firms sales and marketing. These are the political, economic, social, technological and legal aspects. The political element deal s with the impacts of government policy. Government legislation also incorporates legal elements that include taxation policies and laws that govern business operations. Government regulation has the effects on privatization and deregulation policy, which have an overall effect of opening up markets to competition. Companies should not be something for companies to fear, as regulations like lowering pollution may act to spur competitive firms to innovate and lower costs to counter increasing costs of regulation. Economic factors like disposable incomes, unemployment, prevailing interest rates, recession and booms have an impact of a company’s sales. Marketers have to scan and monitor the general economic environment before making any marketing move, as this may have impacts on sales and eventual profitability in a certain time. Social-cultural factors refer to consumers’ patterns of behavior, lifestyles and preferences that affect purchase and buying behaviors (Debra, 2005, p 23). Marketers need to be ware of changes in consumer behavior as a result of change in preferences. Trending social elements affects the demand of a company’s products. Additionally, it is vital to examine the technological changes that happen in the industry, especially changes in information technology, research and development and rate of technology change. The reason is that technology changes affect