STRATEGIC
OBJECTIVE
david hornby
An
important phase of marketing's strategic planning is composed of two
stages. These two may be recalled with two pronouns in the key
questions each answers: What? and How?
The questions are:
- What are I trying to achieve? That refers to the strategic
objectives
- How
do I intend to do that? This
relates to the stratagems to be employed in carrying out the plans.
In
this article we deal with setting strategic
objectives. After that is marketing
stratagems and the options from which
a marketing planner can choose an appropriate way of achieving the
defined objectives.
OBJECTIVES
Objectives
must precede the determination of stratagems. Brilliant marketing ideas may occur to a real estate
marketing
manager at any time however, their serious consideration, needs to
be deferred until strategic objectives are established. This is
required to guide the search for optimal ways to achieve an ideal
position in the right markets.
The
distinction between what a firm wants to do (its ends) and how
it will do that (its means) may be
unclear. Indeed, even scholarly writers on strategy sometimes have
confused them, but both are essential and must be distinguished. I
will clarify the ideas with hypothetical example.
EXAMPLE
The
Z Company is a rather small real estate agency with a strong local
residential rent roll. To market a new industrial complex nearby, it
has to invest in a specialist personnel and capital, borrowing for
the purpose. Now, the marketing manager is determining strategy. The
situation is that, despite rising sales and rents of industrial
units in the area, the expected cash flow is inadequate to pay off
the burdensome debt and interest. The new sales and rents achieved
only 50% of the target figures.
After
studying the other marketing schemes in equivalent industrial
estates, the manager has decided that they offer no solution. Rather,
the goal would be to raise sales and rents to $800,000 in
commissions, selling and renting at 80% of the target figures. Because
of high fixed costs, this would create a satisfactory cash
flow. With that established, they direct the marketing manager to
find ways of accelerating sales and rents to $800,000 in commissions.
Marketing then turns to finding the best way to increase sales and
rents to that level.
ENDS
AND MEANS
In
this example, observe the decisions on both ends and means of
reaching those ends. Each end (objective) is paired with a means of
obtaining it. It would have been futile to establish an end unless
there is a means
of reaching it. On the next decision level, that means
becomes the end, and the decision maker must seek a means
for reaching that end. Therefore, a chain of ends-means
decisions proceeds from the initial and general objective toward the
actions
that will ultimately accomplish the initial aims. Although I have
referred to a single means or action, typically, more than one action
is needed to reach a given end.
The
first objective is initiated at the firm or corporate level. Marketing
strategy enters that chain on the third level, at which the
prior objectives guide or constrain marketers' decisions. Those
prior decisions will be covered later. Remember that marketing is
only one of several functional departments in a real estate firm, and
therefore a full chart of the ends and means related to corporate
objectives would contain other chains of decisions for those
functions. Top management has the responsibility of setting all
functions' initial goals and of coordinating and approving their
implementation down the decision chains.
These
chains begin with strategic planning decisions. Later the decisions
become focused on more specific questions. One of these is financial
determination of the proposed strategy's costs and needed fund
allocations. If that proves to be excessive, the planning may be
recycled to reconsider objectives so that an affordable compromise on
costs may be found. As was shown in Diagram 1, the allocation
decisions mark the completion of strategic planning. Beyond that
stage, many actions must be decided in detail and later executed, but
all of that is beyond the scope of strategic planning.
The
concept of ends and means
is a simple one. It has been presented with the subject of strategic
objectives because it is a distinction fundamental to understanding
why objectives are so necessary and why they should be considered
integrally with their stratagems.
TIMING
- WHEN?
We
have been dealing with the questions of what
and how, regarding ends and means.
There also is a third question that relates to them: when.
When
is the desired end to be accomplished?
Answers to this are relevant to determining whether some proposed
means are feasible, whether they would produce timely solutions, and
what they would cost. The question of when
also entails a possible conflict
between period planning and periodic planning.
The
example of Z Real Estate Company concerned only a plan for one year,
a periodic plan. If a stratagem being considered would require more than
one year,
then both the coming year (periodic) and the longer period (program)
plans would have to be decided. Corporations in practice are
controlled by the current year's budgets, but their annual plans need
to accommodate the long-range strategies of the programs to which the
firm is committed. When facing both horizons, which objectives
should prevail, pressing short-range or strategic long-range ones? This
issue needs to be resolved in setting corporate objectives.
PRIOR
CONSTRAINTS AND DIRECTIVES
Marketers
have only limited latitude in deciding marketing's objectives and
stratagems. They are tightly constrained by a number of elements:
- the internal
environment of the firm-its strengths and weaknesses
- the external
situations in the several environments
- the firm's
policies
- the corporate
objectives.
POLICIES
Policies
are standing decisions that guide and
direct the firm's actions on a semi permanent basis. They are
changed infrequently and thus govern planning over a number of
periods. Through adherence to policies, there will be consistent
action toward realizing a firm's mission. Here is an example of a
policy's effects on marketing:
EXAMPLE
Matlock
Real Estate has expanded on the company’s goodwill. It is has now
franchised its operations to a number of existing real estate firms.
However, the goodwill has been within the state. One of the directors
could foresee the possibility of extending the franchise scheme
interstate, on a national basis as there was a perceived market gap
at the national level. He urged Matlock to seize these opportunities
and spread nationally.
For
a marketer, that clearly was a logical objective, but the rest of the
board declined the opportunity. The reasons were largely safety and
conservatism.
That
director had such faith in his vision that he left Matlock to work
(with his wife from a small suburban office) on the development of a
national franchise system with economies of scale and national
exposure. They enjoyed great success and the business is
flourishing. However, this does not mean that the Matlock board was
wrong in holding to their cardinal policies and is now slowly
expanding interstate,
CORPORATE
OBJECTIVES
The
top executive of a firm should lead and guide its strategic planning
through the setting of corporate
objectives. The situation
analysis served to constrain what may
be planned, but corporate objectives have great effect in:
- Holding the
whole organization in check
- Obtaining
positive coordination of planners in underlying units, in order that
desired overall results will be realized.
In
any departmentalized organization, there are two dimensions of
objectives to be decided at the top:
- The total
objectives of the firm
- Those that will
direct underlying units in their planning.
Large
multiproduct (eg property management, property maintenance,
valuation, sales and leasing) real estate firms will have several
planning levels,
The
departments are the strategic business
units (SBUs) and product/
market units (PMUs), as well as
functional areas. Objectives need to be assigned throughout these
subunits, but we will consider just the relationship between two
levels. Top executives should issue, to the next level of management,
two types of directives:
- Performance
goals
- More
qualitative strategic goals.
PERFORMANCE
GOALS
Performance
goals are stated in precise,
quantitative terms. The four measures most frequently used for
corporate performance are:
•
Net profit or income
•
Revenue growth
•
Cash flow
•
Return on assets or
equities.
All
of these are quantitative, expressed in numbers obtainable from the
internal accounting system. They may serve as strategic targets and
also as yardsticks for gauging strategies' success. However, only
one can be the PRINCIPAL corporate performance target.
SHARE
OF THE MARKET
The
objectives assigned to marketing should be congruent with its role in
the firm. As Anderson has declared, that role is to achieve an
optimal marketing position. The
suitable statistical objective to judge marketing's performance is
share of market. That,
of course, is the firm's volume of sales and rents as a proportion of
total sales and rents in the particular real estate market. For
example, for Matlock above, it could be the share of the market for
that particular industrial estate.
A
strategist is also concerned with predicted sales and rents over the
period being planned. Matlock may hold a 17% market share currently,
and management would target whatever it believes to be an attainable
share for the planning period.
A
bald market share figure gives scant indication of the marketing
position that should be sought. Marketers might be able to attain
such a goal, yet use a strategy that is detrimental to the future of
the business. Mere pursuit of market share has often proved to be an
error, setting an end with no concept of the means. The objectives
assigned to marketing should include an explicit description of the
desired strategic position, which is essential to conceiving ideal
ways of reaching it.
Three
questions must be answered by top management about its objectives for
marketing:
- In what markets
is the firm going to contend?
- How does the
corporation define the business of the planning unit?
- How much money
is anticipated for each planning unit?
The
markets' definition obviously is needed to figure market share, but
it also has significance in finding stratagems. It is not always simple to answer. Take Matlock’s foray
into
industrial lands, the marketing manager will have to analyse specific
markets for other estates. Matlock may choose a general spectrum of
industrial clients as its target, since it is otherwise nondescript
industrial land. “High Tech” or industrial garden estates offer
special benefits and facilities (including site goodwill) but at
higher prices and rents. Market choice often is the riskiest
planning decision, for the best investment over a long period it will
be necessary to build a lasting market position.
EXAMPLES
Some
strategic implications of defined markets are demonstrated in the
marketing of commercial property leading to different long range
strategies.
JBL
rose to prominence by selling and marketing “JBL
office/warehouses”. These were very efficient buildings of a
standard and popular design with a mezzanine office overlooking the
warehouse area. The buildings were not large thus appealing to a wide
client market. The marketing of such properties to industrial clients
who required such buildings lead to a market edge and an emphasis of
building, marketing and selling all within the same firm.
JBL
wholly owned buildings proved to be very competitive against strata
industrial units.
Low
Rent Warehouses mass produced office/warehouses in light industrial
areas. These were cheaply built with concrete blocks and galvanised
steel on outlying cheap industrial land. Low rent Warehouses proved
to be a strong competitor against both JBL and Z companies. The
demand came from small firms without capital reserves who preferred
not to own real estate as that capital cost is better spent on the
production process, plant and equipment
The
surge of interest in strata warehouses in the late 1980s illustrates
a specialist demand during that period. Z Company was a pioneer and
successful marketer of strata industrial space concentrated on small
warehouse/servicing firms who liked the safety of owning one’s own
premises plus the benefits of possible capital gains. It did not
compete head on with the larger competitors who were selling whole
buildings and leasing, but picked a newer and growing segment in the
industrial warehouse market.
With
this market definition, Z Company could choose an innovative channel
as an exclusive advantage, “own your own warehouse at minimal cost
and enjoy capital gains”. It was an excellent strategy in a market
that has grown to over $1 billion in sales and rents in the
particular industrial area and the company still holds around 50%
market share of the warehouse business in that light industrial area.
BUSINESS
SCOPE
There
must be a clear statement of the firm's overall business scope and
the scope of each planning unit's business. Each unit should deal
with a homogeneous product line and with identified competitors, so
that uniquely suitable strategies may be created for it. A business
or industry's scope may be defined in these dimensions:
- The nature of
the products
- The use or
function the products serve
- The technology.
Physical
similarity in real estate markets (for example, the light industrial
examples above) may not indicate that two firms are in the same
business. Low Rent Warehouses, Z Company and JBL are aiming at
different sub markets. They are strategically different from each
other.
TECHNOLOGY
Certain
technological and management capabilities may be essential to a
strategy. Marketing strata warehouses requires different expertise
than the marketing of full ownership warehouses. The strata firms
will also enjoy a property management spin off that helps the sales
side of the business.
Firms
with strata expertise can take advantage of this expertise whereas
firms without such this expertise will have to put together a
specialist team. Z Company defined its business sharply to take
advantage of its special capabilities. This is known as exploiting
the firms’ comparative advantage.
BUSINESS
DEFINITION
The
business definition should state:
- The competitive
role top management desires
- The competitors
against whom plans should focus
- Desired changes
in the product portfolio.
EXPENDITURE
- THE MONEY PARAMETER
A
third question that should be addressed is the magnitude of funds
available for the planning unit to use. Money, is the fuel that
implements plans. Top executives should indicate the financial
parameters so that planners will stay within realistic bounds. For
long-range projects, statements of the payback period over which the
investment is expected to be recouped are needed.
Marketing
managers should, and normally do, participate with advice on these
questions. Marketers are promoters, inherently, and I would expect
them to be vocal about marketing's concerns and decision inputs
including their share of funds.
OBJECTIVES
A
strategic planning system must be goal-driven. Marketing's
objectives must be articulated with those set on the next higher
level, to be the means by which that level's objective is realized. I
have treated that stage of
planning;
now I consider the marketer's situation.
MARKETER’S
POSITION
Some
constraints have been imposed, including policies, deadlines, the
planning and payoff periods, the resources that may be utilized, and
the performance objectives. More descriptive guidelines on the
position they hope marketing will achieve may have been issued. Within
that many-sided framework, marketers search their databases
and experience hoping for clues on the ideal positions to seek and
the creative marketing mix to design.
CONSUMER
OR COMPETITOR?
The
well informed strategist has information on all the environments I
have discussed and are relevant to the planning unit. In their
interpretation of the situation, marketers may emphasize one or more
environments they believe are the critical ones under existing
conditions. They view the situation with a bias, and whether they
have the "right" one will affect the objectives they set. The bias or
emphasis is most likely to be on either the market
(consumer) situation or on the competitive situation.
Most
real estate marketing has a bias on the market (consumer) situation.
Is this the correct approach? Should real estate marketers be more
concerned with what their competitors are doing?
In
the tradition of the marketing concept, a business should be guided
by consumer considerations. The best general policy is maximizing
consumer benefits (within practical limitations). I will speak of
this as a consumer orientation.
The
alternative usually is a competitive
orientation. With this approach, the
marketer is observing what rival firms or brands are doing,
anticipating their moves, and setting objectives for ways to surpass
them. Around the middle of the 1970s, a reaction against the
consumer orientation became manifest, and more recently the
competitive orientation has been expressed as a marketing
warfare view. There are good
arguments for putting a priority on coping with competitors' programs
and relative strengths or weaknesses, although it is hardly analogous
to real war.
EXAMPLE
OF THE COMPETITIVE ORIENTATION
Here
is an analysis that may help you get a grip on the controversy
between
these
two orientations. The speaker is the chief marketing officer of
Harris Real Estate, that had been very effective in marketing high
tech industrial land.
At
Harris, I don't believe in going after market share for market
share's sake or that heavy promotions and tremendous public relations
campaigns are the keys to success. I believe the key . . . is
recognizing major disruptions in the marketplace and organizing to
take advantages of those disruptions as they occur.
When
these . . . take place, the rules of the game are dramatically
changed and everyone is starting from ground zero. . . . Therefore
companies such as Harris which is 150 times smaller than a typical
large multinational firm has a chance, if it recognizes the
opportunities.........
Strategic
planning is Harris' major tool for survival against the large
multinationals and other large competitors, as well as the vehicle
for identifying the opportunities created by major disruptions.
[They] typically occur in the form of technical advances, laws,
regulations, or disasters.
Harris
Real Estate is currently doing well with that strategic emphasis,
having scored a 26% profit increase in the most recent quarter. The
statement indicates a competitive orientation. Obviously it was a
good choice for the situation of a small firm trying to compete with
large real estate firms. Much, however, may be said for the other
emphasis, consumer orientation. Consider this business situation:
In
the real estate industry, several of the large companies during the
1980s determined that they should divest themselves of their low
profit operations such as property management (which had been their
mainstay), and direct their resources instead to the newer special
areas with greater income potentials (such as specialist financing
including “sale and leaseback”).
One
of them is Ratlock Real Estate that is very committed to strategic
planning. Ratlock around 1980
established an objective of total conversion to specialties and quasi
real estate activities. It was implemented in a 6 year period and so
effectively, that it’s profits, per share, grew by around 60%.
Ratlock's
corporate objective depended substantially on its marketing, in turn,
being directed by new services and market objectives toward a
practicable and sustainable position. Its objectives differed from
those above for Harris Real Estate. Ratlock’s planning differed
from that of Harris as well, requiring a long period for development,
as is the tendency with consumer oriented objectives. Competitive
stratagems,
instead, tend to face strong pressures that demand short term
perspectives.
Which
of these emphases should the marketer use? There is no easy answer
and one is not inherently superior to the other. Sometimes the need
for gaining a sustainable long range position dictates that consumer
factors have priority. And sometimes a well entrenched firm is more
concerned with fending off competitors, taking a short range
orientation. Normally a firm should combine these orientations and
attempt a balanced outlook.
EVALUATING
THE SITUATION
To
accomplish their roles in the firm and determine the objectives that
prescribe their tasks, marketers must make a thorough study of the
current and prospective situation. That analysis, requires a process
with the following steps:
- Identify the
various markets the firm is serving and others that are attractive.
- Forecast
potential demand and market shares in each of those markets, and select
those to target in planning.
- Interpret the
needs and wants of buyers in those markets
- Evaluate the
competitive situation in those markets, in order to define the firm's
differential advantages and weaknesses in each of them.
- Define the
position the firm will need to obtain among buyers in order to achieve
the projected market share of their purchases.
When
that evaluation has been made, planners should be prepared to set
marketing objectives, whose performance is likely to win the desired
market positions. Given these specific marketing objectives,
planners turn to seeking stratagems that should achieve such results.
MARKET
TARGETING
Market
targeting consists of the decision processes conducted to find the
markets to serve, which are the two first steps above. It is often a
complex task because of difficulties in developing accurate profiles
of customers. The problem is worse in some rapidly changing
industries where markets are dynamic and firms are expanding quickly.
Examples
of these decisions occurred in the industrial/warehouse industry,
where JBL recognized strong potential in the specialist
office/warehouse land uses, which it targeted for very profitable
marketing. More recently its competitor, Z Company, spotted another
attractive segment in strata title warehouses and chose an objective
of gaining a strong position there. This was achieved by purchasing
a strata management company with corporate clients, which Z Company
has since strengthened and focused on industrial strata.
Low
Rent Warehouses have seen the success of Z Company and has recently
started to offer their warehouses under strata title as well.
However, not being the pioneer it has been unable to achieve a
position like Z Company. Meanwhile, LRW observed another new target
market in strata office accommodation in industrial areas. They have
formed an entry strategy in offering an innovative and flexible
financing scheme to their prospective clients.
SUCCESS
CAN LEAD TO OVERLOOKING OTHER PROFITABLE MARKETS
When
a market has enjoyed steady growth for a period of time, less
profitable market segments may have been overlooked by the firms
catering to that overall market. This was true of the “conversion
to strata” industry for old flat buildings. This segment of the
market had enjoyed a 20% annual growth in the late 1970s and early
1980s. It attracted mainly new companies as the established real
estate companies were more interested in holding onto the patronage
of steady, current customers than in attracting another client
segment; buyers of strata units in established and older suburbs.
EXAMPLE
The
traditional market became saturated in the late 1980s, which led to a
price war among most renting and sale lines of real estate.
Certainly, with competition so fierce, no one would expect a new firm
to enter the business.
But
that is just what Strata Conversions did. SC owned only one old
building in a inner city suburb that it converted to strata and sold
cheaply to new unit buyers. It did so well in its first year that it
bought three old warehouses and converted these into strata
apartments. The Chairman of SC stated: "In tough times you have
to go after one segment of the market." Concentration on a
single segment allowed pursuit of the optimal opportunity. In this
case, the segment SC went after was not being adequately served and
proved to be extremely profitable even in "tough times”. The
established real estate industry had become prosperous, and SC is
even more so.
MATCHING
PRODUCTS TO MARKET OPPORTUNITIES
The
ultimate test of the usefulness of attempts to isolate markets is
whether they help shape and refine the marketing strategy to make the
offering compatible with the market. It is sometimes difficult to
match products to market opportunities. One reason for this is that
real estate markets and external environments change and with that
change the needs and wants of real estate buyers.
Prestige
Real Estate in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney monitored the
environment in the late 1980s and early 1990s and decided to stick
with its premium-quality, premium-priced strata units in the prestige
Eastern suburbs. It estimated that the demand for “upmarket”
prestige units with expensive common property facilities would
dramatically increase in the future.
SETTING
THE OBJECTIVES
During
the selection of the target market, the potential for a profitable
and growing demand have been forecasted. That was the second step in
our list of five. The third and fourth were interpreting buyers'
wants and evaluating the competition. Now I consider these together
with the marketing objective.
Bear
in mind that some differential advantage over competitors, one that
is meaningful to buyers, is essential to gaining a strong market
position. Such an advantage is of immense value, but it must be
sought diligently after obtaining descriptions of buyers' needs and
motivations. That is a top objective early in strategic planning.
This
process may be found in the example of Strata Conversion’s
stratagem to gain leadership in the residential strata market. Whether
our scenario resembles the actual decision making at SC is
immaterial, for it is appropriate:
EXAMPLE
SC
had built small commercial premises and shopping centres that it then
onsold through a real estate agent. It could not gain leadership, as
in this competitive sector of the real estate market. If it could
define and satisfy some overlooked need of the industry, it could win
a strong hold there, too. But what problem was vexing people in
renting or buying flats in the inner city areas.
This
investigation met its objectives in observing that potential buyers
could not find the type of units they wanted in the inner locations.
This applied particularly to professional people with no or a small
family who wished to enjoy the benefits of inner city living but who
did not wish to rent. Research showed a certain stigma against
renters in these areas and the prospective client based liked the
idea of potential capital gains.
The
objective therefore, was to find a way to satisfy the needs of the
perceived market.
SC
assembled a number of experts in converting (physical environment),
obtaining council permission (legal and social environments),
converting to strata title (legal environment) and marketing them
(strategic marketing planning environment). They met their objective
by converting an old block of flats into better appointed and roomy
strata units. With this approach, the marketers would able to set
and meet their sales objectives in strata u its in the inner city
area.
Where
the situation and objectives call for innovation, the risk and
investment in its creation justify a thorough situation
analysis and idea
generation, in order to specify and to
develop the stratagem. New real estate products in a consumer
oriented approach are particular cases of this.
I
outline a seven-stage strategic program of development in Diagram 3.
You will notice that the objective of market targeting has preceded
the first of the seven stages.
This
table contains ten objectives. Each decision and its basis are
given. Some of the guiding objectives, such as those for profit and
investment, are not listed, nor are the subobjectives that flow from
these major ones. The table should give a sense of the decision
system that may be followed in a product's development. I might
visualize how the marketing managers in SC would have proceeded with
their new real estate product, in cooperation with the builders,
strata and legal expert.
Let
us consider a different strategic problem, one in which the
competitive orientation played a clearer role.
EXAMPLE
- COMPETITIVE ORIENTATION
New
Homes Company had been a large firm in the “speculative homes”
market in the outer suburbs. Consumer habits had shifted away from
new homes further out to older homes (art deco and federation) in the
middle suburbs. Location was important and also the desirability of
owning a “historical” home. At the same time the competition for
“spec” homes in the outer suburbs became keener with a number of
competitors undercutting NHC by using land provided by the government
in joint ventures arrangements and special low interest loans to
first home buyers.
NHC
unquestionably faced a competitive objective of finding a means of
strong entry into a new market. Research revealed the market target;
new home buyers in the middle suburbs. However, NHC were builders
and marketers of new homes, how could they use this comparative
advantage to enter the middle suburban market? The product already
had been determined also, by learning what qualities consumers liked
in middle suburban houses NHC decided to embody these qualities in a
new houses. Enter the “reproduction home”! The qualities were
classic design (mainly federation) but with modern facilities inside.
The end result was a home that appeared to be no different from other
federation cottages that had been modernised in the middle suburbs.
In
other words NHC objective was to find a segment of the home market
that the established builders/marketers had not yet found even
preempted. This was found, the middle suburban home buyer. These
consumers had the greatest appreciation of classical design and
modern facilities. This led to an objective for advertising; to find
the right copy platform on which to address that target market.
The
NHC example differs also in that it has a narrow scope, that of
guiding advertising creativity. Strategic problems in marketing do
not always have a broad objective that concerns a complete marketing
program. Often they have more narrow aims to achieve strategy in
pricing, distributor relations, or some other more specific
situation.
THE
STRATAGEMS
The
second half of the ends-means process remains to be discussed the
stratagems. One can become so absorbed in the optional stratagems
for marketers that the reason for their existence and the guidance
for them is forgotten. Objectives are
that reason and that guidance, as you should understand and remember.
We
have not presented an exact procedure or an equation in which
specified variables would be given certain weight and a precise
objective would emerge. There has been criticism of "cookie
cutter" formulas, and rightly so, because the variables,
analysis, and judgment of the appropriate objectives (and stratagems)
differ for each situation and firm.
CONCLUSION
A
logical decision sequence and a variety of cases to illustrate good
or not so good decisions have been offered in this module. It is
with such systems and with experience that marketers become skillful
in setting objectives. Let us close by repeating the main elements
in that sequence:
- Performance
objectives are given to marketing, to seek a strategic plan that will
reach them (some constraints may limit the search).
- Markets are
searched to identify unmet demands and unserved segments, and also to
forecast the potentials. Competition is studied to find threats and
relative weakness and strength. If a "strategic window" is open-for an
opportunity not exploited one may discover a stratagem (like Strata
Conversions) that gains a differential advantage to win and hold that
market. When the window is closed, other firms' entry (particularly the
established and large companies who lack flexibility) may be slow and
costly, unless they find a new differential.
- To capitalize
on a strategic window, the objective for a good differential may be
narrowly aimed at some function of marketing (for example, the right
advertising claim). On the contrary, it may have to be a broad aim
outside of marketing or of one's business. For example, the use of new
technology to find a differential for capturing the new market.
Be
realistic and do not visualize marketing objectives being taken up
formally
"by
the numbers" of the above sequence. Humans simply do not act
that way. Complex business objectives more or less evolve as a
planner's thoughts and observations dwell on some element in the
process or as new data are received. There are also messages between
involved persons, mostly casual. An orderly final determination of
objectives along an efficient path is what is advocated.