Understanding Marketing Objectives

Planning within the marketing function should follow these stages:

1.       Corporate Objectives - these show the main priorities of the organisation, e.g. improve profitability by 10% over the next 2 years.

2.       Marketing objectives - the marketing department or relevant managers must ensure that the marketing objectives support the achivement of the corporate objectives, e.g. to increase the market share of brand x by 20% over the next 2 years.

3.       Marketing strategies - these strategies must assist the targets, e.g. to increase advertising expenditure on brand x by 15%.

4.       Marketing tactics - detailed market department decisions will aslo be affected, e.g. the advertisements must be designed to appeal to the market segments that the firm is targeting. 

Internal:

• Corporate Objectives
• Finance
• Human Resources
• Operational Issues
• Resources Available
• The Nature of the Project

External:

• Market Factors
• Competitors' Actions & Performance
• Technological Change
• Economic Factors
• Suppliers
• Political Factors
• Legal Factors