Executive Summary CH2

The value chain is a tool for identifying key activities that create customer value and costs in a specific business.

The value delivery process includes choosing (or identifying), providing (or delivering), and communicating superior value.

Market-oriented strategic planning is the managerial process of developing and maintaining a viable fit between the organization’s objectives, skills, and resources and its changing market opportunities.

Strategic planning occurs at multiple levels: corporate, division, business unit, and product. Corporate strategy includes defining the mission, establishing strategic business units (SBUs), assigning resources, and assessing growth opportunities.

This is the framework within which divisions and SBUs prepare their strategic plans.

The marketing plan summarizes what the firm knows about the marketplace and how it will reach its marketing objectives, operating at both the strategic and tactical levels.

Marketing implementation turns marketing plans into action assignments to achieve the plan’s objectives. Firms use marketing metrics, marketing-mix modeling, and marketing dashboards to monitor and assess marketing productivity.

By applying marketing control, management can assess the effects of marketing activities and make improvements.