Assignment on Marketing Planning

Assignment on Marketing Planning

Introduction

The marketing planning on the basis of which the discussion in this paper will be carried out is GlaxoSmithKline. This company is a global leader in the pharmaceutical industry. The company is based out of the UK and has its headquarter in Brentford, London. The company was formed in the year 2000 through a merger of SmithKline Beecham and Glaxo Wellcome. As of the year 2015 the company is 6th largest pharmaceutical company globally. The revenue which was earned b the company was £21.3 billion in the year 2013. The products which are sold by the company primarily include drugs and vaccines.

The top-selling products which the company manufactures as well as markets are:

• Lovaza,
• Lamictal,
• Flovent,
• Avodart,
• Augmentin, and
• Advair.

In the same year the consumer products of GSK earned £5.2 billion. These primarily included products like Aquafresh and Sensodyne toothpaste, health drink Horlicks, Abreva for cold sores, Breathe Right nasal strips, Nicoderm and Nicorette nicotine replacements, and Night Nurse, a cold remedy.

Task 1

1.1 Using appropriate theories, review changing perspective in marketing planning. Evaluate GSK’s ability for planning its future marketing activity.

Over the period of last few decades, due to the changing dynamics of the industries as well as the various shifts in the consumer behavior, the perspective for marketing planning which is used by the marketers as well as the global business entities have gone through paradigm shift. Before a discussion is carried on the same it is important to look into the definition of marketing planning. This is a step by step process with the help of which the companies develop an outline of the range of marketing efforts which will be undertake by the companyover a period of time. An efficiently developed marketing planning can provide the companies with a comprehensive blueprint that needs to be followed for effectively implementing marketing (Shimizu, 2014).

The erstwhile marketing planning had the end objective of selling products or services of the company to its consumers. These were meant for driving revenue as well as profitability for companies. In view of the fact that the demand changed for the consumers, in addition to the advent of various new tools for marketing, this perspective also changed through the initiatives taken by the modern day business organizations,Currently the companies emphasize development as well as maintenance of the loyal and long term consumersthrough providing them excellent service and brand experience.Due to the loss of relevance of the traditional marketing mediums,the marketing planning is also changing (Kotler, 2012).

The marketing mix has also changed from 4Ps to 7Ps. Following diagram shows the same:

However as far as GSK is concerned, it is very well poised to plan its future marketing activities. GSK is present in almost all the developing as well as developed economies and in view of the fact that the company is one of the market leaders in the segment it operates, it has a lot o expertise for identifying the changing market dynamics and alter the marketing objectives basis the same. The company has also been able to changeits marketing planning perspective over the last few years with relation to the content and the channel of the marketing. The company has also been using a lot of social media as well as indirect messageto cater to the changing market nature (Laermer, 2007).

1.2 Examine techniques for organisational auditing and for analysing external factors that affect marketing planning. Use one of these techniques to carry out organisational auditing and analysis of external factors that affect marketing planning in GSK

There are various techniques and tools which can be used for organizational auditing and for analyzing external factors. The same is also used for the purpose of marketing planning for the companies and the same is also applicable for GSK. As far as the organizational auditing is concerned, tools can be for auditing theinternal environment as well as externalenvironment of the companies. Internal assessment helps the company to understand the challenges and scope of improvements which the company can bring in the factors which are under control by the company. The most prominent tool that helps carrying this out is the SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis details strength, weakness, opportunities and strength of the business entity through systematically revealing variousrelevant information of the advantages and disadvantages which the company has. For analyzing and identifying the external factors some of the tools which can be used include the PESTEL analysis and Porter’s 5 forces model. Especially the tool given by Porter has been one of the most efficient for the environmental analysis. The factors which are looked into through this are:

• Threat of new entrants
• Threat of substitute products or services
• Bargaining power of customers (buyers)
• Bargaining power of suppliers
• Intensity of competitive rivalry

These analyses help the company in identifying the current market dynamics as well as the future estimated trends for the industry as a whole. In view of the fact that marketing planning can be linked to these factors for identifying the highlights and scopes for the same, these tools provide clear direction to the company regarding the way the marketing efforts are needed to be made by GSK (Shaw, 2012).

Following is the Porter’s 5 forces analysis for GSK:

• Threat of new entrants: In view of the fact that the research and development required for this industry is a very strong barrier for the new companies, it can be said that this threat is low for the pharmaceutical industry.
• Threat of substitute products or services: For the reason that there are multiple companies with similar medicines and product offerings, this threat is high for the industry segment.
• Bargaining power of customers: In view of the fact that the industry and the companies exhibit monopolistic competition in this segment, this is fairly low.
• Bargaining power of suppliers: This is also on the lower sideas a result of the similar factors.
• Intensity of competitive rivalry: This is high in the pharmaceutical industry as a result of the presence of various companies developing same or similar medicines and products.

Task 2: Using appropriate theories, assess the main barriers to marketing planning and examine how GSK may overcome these barriers

Marketing planning can be defined as the step by step process with the help of which the companies develop an outline of the range of marketing efforts which will be undertake by the company over a period of time. An efficiently developed marketing planning can provide the companies with a comprehensive blueprint that needs to be followed for effectively implementing marketing (Shimizu, 2014). In this section few barriers to marketing planning will be looked into and an examination of the way GSK can overcome these barriers will be discussed.

Following is the marketing planning process:

McDonald (1999) has given a list of barriers to the marketing mix. Out of them the most relevant for GSK are as following:

Confusion between tactics and strategy: The marketing strategy has evolved during the last few decades immensely. Theerstwhile strategy for marketing was focused on selling products or services of the company to its consumers. These were meant for driving revenue as well as profitability for companies. In view of the fact that the demand changed for the consumers, in addition to the advent of various new tools for marketing, this strategy has changed through the initiatives taken by the modern day business organizations, Currently the companies emphasize development as well as maintenance of the loyal and long term consumers through providing them excellent service and brand experience. Hence it is important that the company identifies the tactics and strategies which are needed to be used by it. Tactic is usually a short term ploy which has the objective of boosting the performance of the company. However it is short lived and loses its effectiveness within few weeks or months. Otherwise marketing strategies are the ones which help the companies in developing long term brand or relationship with the consumers. GSK being a global leader in the industry needs to aim all of its marketing activities towards the long term relationship and loyal consumer development. Especially in view of the fact that the most of the medicine sales is B2B, the company needs to focus on the enterprise partners. Also the company needs to be cognizant of the fact that the B2B purchase has multiple step purchase decision making by the companies and the importance of sales team is immense for this type of marketing sales operation.

Confusion between process and output: In view of the fact that the company under discussion specializes in the research and development like any other global leaders in the pharmaceutical companies, the emphasis on the various internal as well as external processes are of utmost important for GSK. This also leads a level of confusion which the company may develop in terms planning of marketing objectives. There are significant scopes for the company to lose the track of the thin line between the process and the final outputs. This leads to weakening of the product propositions of the company which in turn creates challenges for the marketing planning. Hence it is important for GSK to ensure that it creates and maintains a strong product mix which enables the company to stay relevant for the consumers of the company in the longer run.

Lack of knowledge: As part of the multinational strategy of GSK, the company is present in almost all the developed and developing nations and for this reason a significant portion of the marketing bandwidth for the company goes for managing the international marketing activities for the company. Also the lack of knowledge regarding the new markets and consumers create confusion in the marketing planning process. Also in view of the fact that the international marketing activities are aimed at multiple cultures and heterogeneous market which is done for the relatively unstable business and marketing environments, the scope of confusion in the marketing planning is immense which diminishes the effectiveness of the marketing planning processes. Also in view of the fact that the different markets can be complex and are always managed through multiple regulations by the different governments, the marketing planning should also be taking care of the same. For this it is important for GSK to create a template which considers all the points of various markets and a dedicated team for researching new markets. Taking up effective as well as efficient market research processes are also of utmost importance for the company to overcome this specific barrier.

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Task 3

3.1 Based on your analysis in Task 1, write a marketing plan for the launch of a new product for GSK

The new product that will be looked into for the developing of the marketing plan is a patch for removal of dark circles under eyes of the consumers. Various marketing planning stages are needed to be followed for efficientlydeveloping the marketing plan. Following are the stages for the same:

• Marketing Audit of the organization
• Market survey
• Development of marketing objectives and strategy
• Planning marketingmix
• Resource allocation and budgeting
• Implementation of the plan
• Evaluation of the efforts

Marketing Audit of the organization: For marketing audit of GSK it is important to carry out internal as well as external analysis of the company and its competitive positioning within the market. As has been already mentioned, Porter’s 5 forces model is an effective tool for carrying out the same. This helps the company for identification of the current market dynamics as well as the future estimated trends for the industry as a whole. In view of the fact that marketing planning can be linked to these factors for identifying the highlights and scopes for the same, the analysis will provide clear direction to the company regarding the way the marketing efforts are needed to be made by GSK (Shaw, 2012).

Following is the Porter’s 5 forces analysis for GSK:

• Threat of new entrants: In view of the fact that the research and development required for this industry is a very strong barrier for the new companies, it can be said that this threat is low for the pharmaceutical industry.
• Threat of substitute products or services:For the reason that there are multiple companies with similar medicines and product offerings, this threat is high for the industry segment.
• Bargaining power of customers: In view of the fact that the industry and the companies exhibit monopolistic competition in this segment, this is fairly low.
• Bargaining power of suppliers: This is also on the lower side as a result of the similar factors.
• Intensity of competitive rivalry: This is high in the pharmaceutical industry as a result of the presence of various companies developing same or similar medicines and products.

Market survey: In view of the fact that company will be launching the product in various markets it is important to survey all the important international markets of the company to understand the requirement of such product in those nations as well as the readiness of the market for accepting the product. This stage of the marketing planning attempts to carry out a survey through which it becomes possible for the company to understand the way the other rival companies in the same or similar market segment are offering their product or service offering. Also in view of the fact that the international marketing activities are aimed at multiple cultures and heterogeneous market which is done for the relatively unstable business and marketing environments, the scope of confusion in the marketing planning is immense which diminishes the effectiveness of the marketing planning processes. Also in view of the fact that the different markets can be complex and are always managed through multiple regulations by the different governments, the marketing planning should also be taking care of the same. For this it is important for GSK to create a template which considers all the points of various markets and a dedicated team for researching new markets. Taking up effective as well as efficient market research processes are also of utmost importance for the company to overcome this specific barrier.

Development of marketing objective and strategy: As part of the marketing objective and strategy GSK needs to decide the sales numbers and the profitability targets for this specific product for the company. Also the brand image building for GSK needs to be considered (Kotler, 2012) along with creatingas well as retaining a set of loyal customers

Planning marketing mix: For GSK it will be of utmost importance to finalize on the marketing mix for the product (Kotler, 2012). Else there can be challenges in terms planning of marketing objectives. GSK needs to ensure that it creates and maintains a strong product mix which enables the company to stay relevant for the consumers of the company in the longer run.

Following is the same:

• Product: Dark circles removing creams
• Pricing:Low to medium
• Placement: As an OTC drug through the chemist shops and supermarkets
• Promotion: A mix of ATL and social media channels including print advertisements on newspapers and health magazines. 

Budgeting:

Following is the marketing plan’s budget for the period of first 1 year:

Implementation of the plan:

• Apart from the ATL marketing which is mentioned before following are the methods which will be implemented for the marketing:
• Database marketing: Marketing aimed at precise demographic groups in view of the fact that the company knows the group of audience which may be suffering from the problem of dark circles.
• Content marketing: Content advertising on social media through blogs, advertorials, and other contents which are publishableon the web forproduct promotion(Kotler, 2011).

3.2. Explain why marketing planning is essential in the strategic planning process for GSK

Marketing planning is a step by step process with the help of which the companies develop an outline of the range of marketing efforts which will be undertake by the company over a period of time. An efficiently developed marketing planning can provide the companies with a comprehensive blueprint that needs to be followed for effectively implementing marketing (Shimizu, 2014). This is also fairly essential in the organizationalstrategic planning process for GSK in view of the fact that the same will helpGSK for the integrationof various businesscharacteristics. These include the pricing strategy of the newly launched products or the distribution of the product that will be undertaken by the company. This leads to cross functional knowledge for the companies that validate the business model from various point of view including finance, operations, etc. Marketing plan and the strategic plan for GSK should also be aligned to each other for the purpose of achieving the intendedoutcomes. This can be enhanced share in the market or increased profitability.

3.3 Using GSK, examine techniques for new product development. Justify recommendations for pricing policy, distribution and communication mix for the new product

In view of the fact that the company under discussion is in the pharmaceutical industry, the development of new age and cutting edge products as well as marketing the same is of immense importance. Hence the company needs to focus the new product developmentstrategies to cater to the ever shifting consumer demands. Following is the process that can be followed by GSK for NPD:

• Research and development for the products
• Generation of the various ideasas well as screening of the same
• Development and testing of the idea
• Business analysis, testing as well astesting in the market
• Implementation as well as commercialization of the product through deciding on the pricing

For the product the decided pricing is low to moderate as the same is aimed at younger base of consumers. Also the rival companies have similar product offering and hence it is important to undercut the competitiors in terms of the pricing. Distribution will be done through existing chemist stores and supermarkets as the OTC drug to reach out the maximum number of consumers. A mix of ATL and social media channels including print advertisements on newspapers and health managing communication mix through CRM driven marketing.

3.4 You are required to explain how factors affecting effective implementation of the marketing plan have been taken into account.

Due to the specific nature of the pharmaceutical industry there can be unforeseen changes in the regulatory guidelines governing the industry and these are needed to be considered in the marketing plan. Hence the product has been designed as the OTC product which ensures that the company can deal with any future challenges (Kotler, 2012).

Task 4

4.1 Using GSK, explain how ethical issues influence marketing planning and analyse examples of how GSK responds to ethical issues

In view of the fact that the companies in the pharmaceutical industry makes and markets products which help in saving people’s lives, the ethical product and marketing is very important which needs to be governed through a set of accepted rule and regulationsMarketing planning is influenced through ethical issues in view of the fact that the same needs to ensure that communications which are being made communicate the correct effectiveness of medicines and drugs. The products or services should not be represented through marketing in such a way that may not be fulfilled by the same.  GSK has very strong set ethical values which help it in responding to the ethical issues efficiently. The company has zero tolerance for unethical behavior within the company and in case of any unintended error it comes clean.

4.2 Analyse examples of consumer ethics and their effect on marketing planning in GSK

Consumer ethics can be defined as the consumerpractice in which theypurchase products which are deemed by them as ethical. Ethical consumerism is primarily focused on environment friendliness of the company or the used materials. Hence the same impacts GSK’s marketing activities significantly through making sure that the product marketing activities of the company are within the ethical standards.

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