Page 62 - Foundations of Marketing

Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating Marketing Strategies | Chapter 2 29

and individual business units then develop strategies to achieve these goals. The company
performs a detailed analysis of its strengths and weaknesses and identifies opportunities and
threats within the external marketing environment. Next, each functional area of the organi-
zation (marketing, production, finance, human resources, etc.) establishes its own objectives
and develops strategies to achieve them, which must support the organization’s overall goals
and mission and should be focused on market orientation. Because this is a marketing book,
we are most interested in marketing objectives and strategies. We will examine the strategic
planning process by taking a closer look at each component, beginning with organizational
mission statements and goals.

Establishing Organizational Mission
Statements and Goals

Once an organization has assessed its resources and opportunities, it can begin to establish
goals and strategies to leverage them. The goals of any organization should derive from
its mission statement , a long-term view, or vision, of what the organization wants to
become. For example, Starbucks’ mission, “to inspire and nurture the human spirit—one
cup and one neighborhood at a time,” speaks to a desire to be a gathering place in every
4
neighborhood.
Developing Corporate and Business-Unit

Strategies
In most organizations, strategic planning begins at the corporate level and proceeds downward
to the business-unit and marketing levels. However, organizations are increasingly developing
and conducting strategic planning that moves in both directions. When conducting strategic
planning, a firm is likely to seek out experts from many levels of the organization to take
advantage of in-house expertise and a variety of opinions. mission statement A long-
Figure 2.2 shows the relationships between the three planning levels: corporate, business term view, or vision, of what the
unit, and marketing. Corporate strategy is the broadest of the levels and should be developed organization wants to become

Bloomberg/Getty Images Android engages in strategic
marketing by identifying and
analyzing its target market and
then developing a marketing
mix to meet customers’ needs.

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