MARKETING PLAN EXERCISE

Your final strategic marketing plan exercise is to identify the ways in which your company will leverage the capabilities of database technology for implementation, evaluation, and control. A strategic plan is effective only when it is acted upon, so implementation guidelines should list specific action plans and a recommended time frame. Evaluation is needed to see if actual marketing activities are resulting in expected objectives. If not, control measures will need to take place.

Use the following exercises to guide you through the additional technology aspects of a strategic marketing plan and then complete the Part 7 Marketing Plan Worksheet on your companion Web site at www.cengage.com/ marketing/lamb :

1. Specify how you will tailor your marketing strategies to reach and serve your most profitable customers and prospects.

2. Investigate the expansion of your marketing efforts to include a database marketing program. How will you collect data? How will you use it? What effect will the creation of the database have on your diverse marketing methods (mailings, catalogs, e-mailings, coupon distribution, product sample distribution, and so on)? How will this data be used? Write your online privacy policy.

3. Project management tools are the best way to set up your implementation, evaluation, and control program. Visit www.allpm.com to learn about project planning, alternative software tools, and free project information. For a free timeline utility tool, visit www.smartdraw.com. Decide whether the marketing or operations department will manage the implementation and control of the plan.

4. Make sure performance standards are set for each area of the marketing plan. Comparing performance against objectives is why objectives must be stated in numerical terms. What will your objectives be in terms of traffic (hits), sales, page views, visits per customer, and length of average visit (in minutes)? Which measurement is most important? Why?