LECTURE 1.

STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK
Marketing can be seen as one of the functional areas of a company contributing to the
realization of the objectives of the company

A starting point is the so-called PDCA-cycle

PLAN (THE SUBJECT OF THIS TEACHING UNIT)

DO (= EXECUTION)
CHECK (= EVALUATE)
ACT (= IMPROVE -> LEADING TO BETTER PLANNING)

PLANNING OF MARKETING (= P OF PDCA-CYCLE)

• Strategic level (> 1 year)

• Tactical level ( = 1 year)
• Operational level (< 1 year)
EXECUTION (D OF PDCA-CYCLE)

• Only execution shows (afterwards) if your planning was successful or not

• Successful -> output (results in money) > input (use of resources in money)
CHECK (C OF PDCA-CYCLE)

• Customer value, benefits > total costs

• Competitive advantage, if possible sustainable, also understand the difference
between distinction and differentiation (Sharp)
• Inter functional co-ordination, marketing working together with other
functional areas
ACT (A OF THE PDCA-CYCLE)

• Successful in marketing: find the right or best fit between the external and
internal environment
MARKETING NEEDS TO PLAN HER ACTIVITIES BECAUSE:

• It helps to direct/guide the execution of marketing (tells you what to do)

• It helps to learn from the execution, it helps to prevent avoidable mistakes a
next cycle
• It helps to lower your costs (being efficiënt) and to increase your results (being
effective)
WHAT IS MARKETING?

• A functional area with PDCA activities

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 • Activities support and stimulate sales but also realise sales, on the short and
long term
• To realise this, realise customer value and competitor advantage at the same
time: both should work in the same direction!
• To realise this, work together with the other functional areas (marketing relies
on the other functional areas for achieving results)
• Marketing planning, 4 components:
1. Strategic framework
▪ Mission statement → What business are we in (economic part)
and where do we believe in, what are our core values (social
part)
▪ Vision → Is future related: where do we wanna be in 5 (or more)
years time. Vision is therefor more dynamic than a mission
statement

MISSION AND VISION: FIRST STEP IN SETTING A DIRECTION (VISION), A SCOPE

(MISSION) FOR THE COMPANY

▪ Market definition, with the help of the model of Abell and

Hammond
• Customer groups (who, what segments?)
• Customer needs (what do they want?)
• Customer technologies (how can we fulfil those needs?)

THE COMBINATION OF THOSE THREE CRITERIA IS A MARKET:

▪ DOMAIN: THE WHOLE MARKET (IS A CHOICE)
▪ SCOPE: THAT PART WHERE YOU AS A COMPANY ARE ACTIVE (IS A
FACT)

Market definition helps to:

▪ Helps to identify your competitors
▪ Gives you potential growth direction (outside the scope, inside the domain)
Tips:
▪ Keep the level of detail of all three axes more or less the same
▪ Each market get a separate market domain/definition
▪ In a B-to-B setting, the needs are normally based on increase efficiency and/or
effectiviness (= increase in profit)
▪ Current and desired situation
• Current →What are the expected results unchanged
policy

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 • Desired situtation (what are the desired results changed
policy)
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▪ Gap (or mis-fit) = desired – current (normally, desired > current)
• Four kind of gaps
o Potential and big
o Potential and small
o Present and big
o Present and small

2. Current situation (what are the expected results unchanged policy)

3. Desired situtation (what are the desired results changed policy)
4. Decisions (strategic organization, strategic marketing, tactical marketing
and operational marketing, how to bridge the distance between current
and desired)

• Strategic framework narrows the external and internal analysis

• The outcome of the external and internal analysis however can lead to
adaptions in the strategic framework

• So, before the external and intyernal analysis, consider the strategic framework
as ‘final until proven wrong’

• After completing the whole external and internal analysis (and confrontation
analysis), the strategic framework can be made definitive
POTENTIAL EXAM QUESTIONS:
1. What is the relationship between customer value and competitive
advantage?
The relationship is that if a company generates high value to customers with its
products or services, this will become a competitive advantage over competitors
because customers will prefer our company to others at the time of purchase.
2. What is the difference between a mission statement and a vision of a
company?
The mission describes what the organization wants to do in the short term; your
(present) reason for being. On the other hand, the vision focuses on the long-term
goals of the organization, that is, the ideal expectation.
3. What are the SOERS criteria and how can you use those criteria?
The SOERS criteria are the requirements that must be followed for the formulation of a
mission and vision.

• Short and concrete

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 • Organization specific
• Entrepreneurial
• Realistic and Selective
4. Why is it relevant to start the planning process with the strategic framework?
If I don’t have a framework the hole is my market, so we need to limit the market to
get a competitive advantage and be better than the rest creating costumer value.
5. Why is the status of the strategic framework, in this stage of the process, not
100% final yet?
At this stage of this process , because the external analysis is not finished yet. The
limitation is not finished.