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A realistic assessment of company resources is an important part
of the internal analysis portion of a marketing plan’s situation
analysis. There are four basic categories of company resources: financial,
production, managerial, and human resources. Looking at a business
you are familiar with (perhaps one that you have worked at or one
belonging to a parent), list at least three items under each of the
four resource categories. Then rank each of your items in terms of
how strong a resource they are for that company, with 1 being the
strongest in each category.
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Using the same company that you referenced in question 1, do a customer
analysis by answering the seven marketing questions that the text
indicates marketers should ask about their customers, then assess
the ease or difficulty of answering these questions:
i. Who are our actual and potential customers?
ii. Why do they buy our product?
iii. Why do noncustomers not buy our product?
iv. Where do our customers buy our product?
v. How do they buy it?
vi. When do they buy it?
vii. What do they do with our product?
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Continuing with the same company you focused on in questions 1 and
2, list its inter-product and product-substitute competitors. Then
define your company’s competitive advantage(s) relative to these
specific competitors.
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Having done some of the key components of a situation analysis in
questions 1–3, explain why situation analysis is the first of
the four main steps in the strategic marketing planning process.
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The text lists six conditions that firms are currently facing as
they develop their marketing plans. Which of these conditions has
the company that you focused on in questions 1–3 had to deal
with? How have they dealt with them?
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According to the text, contingency theory argues that managerial
decisions are not right or wrong per se. Rather, they are decisions
that are made in the context of the circumstances existent at a particular
point in time. Given this, how frequently would you recommend that
marketing plans be written and revised: every six months, every year,
every two years, or less frequently than every two years? Explain
your recommendation.
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As indicated in Figure 5.8, the final step in the strategic marketing
planning process is “Implementation and Control.” This
step loops back to both the “Input from Corporate Strategies”
and the “Situation Analysis.” Explain how monitoring and
gathering feedback on how well the marketing plan is accomplishing
its objectives is relevant to situation analysis.
