Advanced Marketing

Marketing includes planning, organizing, directing, and controlling the decision-making of a company regarding product lines, pricing, promotion, and servicing (Marketing, 2004). Comprehensive planning is important in marketing, thus a marketing plan is an important output of the marketing process.A marketing plan is a written document that details the actions necessary to achieve a specified marketing objective (Marketing plan, 2006). A marketing plan determines the company’s target market, competition, products, budget, location, pricing, and promotional strategy.Strategic marketing plan and tactical marketing plan are the two outputs of a company’s over-all marketing plan. Marketing plan, strategic marketing plan, and tactical marketing plan are all part of the planning process and are prepared by organizations to outline the means in which objectives can be achieved.The strategic marketing plan usually has a time span of 3 to 5 years. The strategic marketing plan in cludes the strategic objectives of the company. The strategic objectives are those that create the environment in which the product or service will be sold (What is a marketing plan, 2006). At the strategic marketing plan level, management is scanning the environment, looking for developing markets as their target markets (Nowell, 2000).The tactical plan follows the strategic plan and focuses on implementing the first part of the strategic marketing plan. The tactical marketing plan is the execution of the company’s marketing plan such as generating leads, placing media, creating marketing tools, and implementing follow-up system (Gamble, 2005).Tactical marketing objectives of the company are tangible, measurable task that have to be accomplished to further the strategic objectives (What is a marketing plan, 2006). The tactical marketing plan as compared to strategic marketing plan presume the target market and other marketing strategy as a given and do not look at the extern al environment (Nowell, 2000).ReferencesGamble, M. (2005). Strategic marketing and tactical marketing know the differences and profit. Retreived December 2, 2006 from: http://www.MYMOnDemand.com/vpc1_mgnmMarketing (2004). Encarta Reference Library. Microsoft CorporationMarketing Plan (2006) Wikipedia. Retrieved December 1, 2006 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_planNowell, D. (2000). Effective marketing plans. Retrieved December 2, 2006 from: http://www.sheridanc.on.ca/~nowell/markplan/intro.htmWhat is a marketing plan? (2006). Retrieved December 1, 2006 from: http://marketplan.us/what%20is%20a%20marketing%20plan%20doc.htm