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65Chapter 5: Goals, Objectives, Strategies, and Budgets

ߜ Strategy: The plan for achieving each measurable objective.
ߜ Tactic: An action you will take to enact your strategy.

THE ACTIONS WE WILL TAKE Strategy

HOW WE WILL ACHIEVE IT Objectives

Figure 5-2: WHAT WE WANT Goals
The
WHY WE DO THIS
planning Vision, Mission and Core Values/Purpose
pyramid.

Setting goals and objectives

The line between goals and objectives is razor thin, and many marketers
spend undue time trying to differentiate between the two. The truth is that
you can run a perfectly successful company without drowning in goal-versus-
objective details. Yet sure enough, the minute you decide to skip the whole
drill, some banker or venture capitalist or major partner will ask you to
define how you’ve set them, and you’ll be left tongue-tied in the meeting. If
that happens, the following descriptions will bail you out:

ߜ Your goal is what you want to achieve during the upcoming marketing
period to move toward the vision you’ve set for your company.

A local newspaper may set an annual goal to increase readership by 5
percent in order to more fully achieve its vision to serve as the region’s
most trusted information vehicle. The goal defines what the newspaper
wants to achieve, but not how it will achieve it.

ߜ Your objectives define how your business will achieve its goal over the
upcoming year. Table 5-1 shows a kind of X-ray of the objectives a news-
paper might set to increase readership by 5 percent.