THE MARKETING PLANNING APPRAISAL PROCESS
The marketing planning appraisal process consists of the following major elements :
1. External appraisal : External appraisal includes all the factors outside the organisation which provide opportunities or pose threats to the organisation. The external appraisal involves scanning of external environment.
2. Internal appraisal :Internal appraisal can be understood in terms of the organisational resources behaviour, strengths, weaknesses, synergistic effects, and distinctive competencies.
3. SWOT analysis: SWOT are best appreciated in the context of marketing analysis and strategy formulation.
The components of SWOT analysis are as follows with a few examples :
Strengths
- Resources
- Relative competitive advantages
-Image
- Infrastructure
- Market leadership
Weakness
- Deficiencies in resources, skills and capabilities
- Financial resources
- Sources of outfit
- Inadequate measures viewed against changes in producVmarket scope
Opportunities
- Favourable situation
- Identification of a new market segment
- Changes in competitive or regulatory circumstances
- Technological changes
Threatres
- Unfavorable situation
- Entry of new competitors
- Slow market growth
- Major technological changes
- Appearances of substitute product
4. Gap analysis: It helps in understanding the gap between the current situation and the desired situation. Broadly there are three types of gap analysis: (i) Profit gap, (ii) Sales gap, and (iii) Risk gap.
5. Forecasting : Forecasting is based on certain assumptions about the future courses of events. Forecasting is used in all management areas and depends upon certain assumptions made. The assumptions and methods employed in forecasting depend upon the nature of the planning needed
