Product Description

Marketing Plans That Work is a practical and insightful step-by-step guide to successfully preparing and executing a marketing plan. The book combines the very best of current practice with necessary theoretical and technical background. Marketing managers and business executives developing marketing and e-business strategies, especially those integrating new marketing technologies, will profit tremendously from Marketing Plans That Work.

Readers praised the first edition of this book its pragmatic marketing framework and best practices. Now this new edition builds on the first edition's success by including new examples, the latest techniques, and new chapters on marketing strategy and e-commerce. This edition adds technology to its focus in response to today's need to enhance sustainable competitive advantage.

* New edition of a bestseller
* Leading-edge strategies for competitive advantage in marketing and e-commerce
* Bridges new technologies and innovative marketing techniques

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #403294 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 264 pages

Review
"Addressing the practices of marketing with clarity and insight, this book is one of the best on the topic to come along for some time. The authors provide the novice with a clear overview of what marketing is all about and how vital marketing is to a company's welfare. While the book briefly covers the basics of marketing (e.g., marketing concept and marketing mix, it also deals with more advanced considerations that challenge businesses daily. As the title suggests, this volume takes the reader through the process of market planning. Each of the 14 chapters concentrates on the steps for developing a comprehensive marketing plan, beginning with a careful explanation of how the marketing process impacts business and proceeding to implementation of the plan itself. ...Recommended for lower-division undergraduate through practitioner collections." - Choice Review of the first edition: "Finally, a book devoted to assisting managers to understand and develop first rate marketing plans." - Philip Kotler, Distinguished Professor of International Marketing, J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management

Review
"Addressing the practices of marketing with clarity and insight, this book is one of the best on the topic to come along for some time. The authors provide the novice with a clear overview of what marketing is all about and how vital marketing is to a company's welfare. While the book briefly covers the basics of marketing (e.g., marketing concept and marketing mix, it also deals with more advanced considerations that challenge businesses daily. As the title suggests, this volume takes the reader through the process of market planning. Each of the 14 chapters concentrates on the steps for developing a comprehensive marketing plan, beginning with a careful explanation of how the marketing process impacts business and proceeding to implementation of the plan itself. ...Recommended for lower-division undergraduate through practitioner collections." - Choice

Review of the first edition:
"Finally, a book devoted to assisting managers to understand and develop first rate marketing plans." - Philip Kotler, Distinguished Professor of International Marketing, J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management

Choice
"Addressing the practices of marketing with clarity and insight, this book is one of the best..."

Customer Reviews

A Guide For Entry Level Marketers
The book is good and cursory. I recommend it as an introductory book. However, the information is outdated and does not reflect current marketing knowledge and understanding. The book does not discuss value based pricing, an integral part of any modern day pricing and marketing policy. It's branding concepts are weak. Most people would be better off with an introductory marketing textbook which explains fundamentals, or specialized expert books.

Indespensible reading for the market planning pragmatist
At last, a marketing planning book that really leads the reader through the marketing planning process. As Philip Kotler, the famous marketing guru at Northwestern says on the back cover, "finally a book devoted to assisting mangers to understand and develop first rate marketing plans."

The authors' McDonald and Keegan have written an extremely readable book outlining in detail a comprehensive, strategic approach and guide to market planning. In 236 pages including the index, the authors set forth for the reader how to prepare a marketing plan that will insure that unique value is created for the market and competitive advantage for the firm. I personally like the strategic approach that draws on the leading marketing and strategy thinkers including George Day and Michael Porter as well as the best work of the top consulting and strategic management firms like Boston Consulting Group and General Electric.

To put the book in a larger context, even though responsibilities and corporate environments have undergone radical changes with reengineering, TQM practices and cross-functional teams, to name a few of the most well-known and widespread influences, most organizations continue to overlook a critical component for success namely, comprehensive, strategic market planning and initiatives as an integral part of the overall corporate planning process. To understand and address this need, McDonald and Keegan offer insightful, pragmatic guidance on understanding marketing analysis tools and implementing and effectively structuring market strategies that strengthen a company's competitive position. This book provides a road-map and comprehensive plan to achieve marketing success grounded in firm analysis and assessment.

The authors' provide insightful analysis of well-known market planning, mapping and strategic assessment tools, supported by easily-understandable flow-charts, graphs and detailed bullets. Specific attention is paid to the strategic definition of product, the product life c! ycle, the diffusion of innovation and the concept of product portfolio both as it relates to market planning and to the corporate planning process. Highlighted is a discussion of the well-known Boston Consulting Group Matrix and the Directional Policy Matrix. The resulting competitive marketing strategies are differentiated and analyzed in an understandable and practical manner. An easily understood discussion of gap analysis leads logically to a discussion of new product development, market extension and diversification strategies. An insightful discussion of organizing the enterprise for effective market planning, corporate cultural issues and the implication of size, complexity and diversity of functional operations, addresses three of the more difficult contextual issues in the field of market planning.

All in all, a well-designed book, which one can read sequentially or focus solely on Chapter 12 which outlines a step-by-step marketing planning system-- a thorough and comprehensive approach that more corporate strategists and market planners should utilize for strategic and sustainable results.