Structured companies have long internalized the need for marketing planning to guide activities through a systemic vision, which plans investments, rather than incurring costs on an occasional and "reactive" basis to market conditions. However, this theoretical vision often clashes with practice: the annual plans are experienced as a vexatious commitment, while perhaps one is still concentrated on the operational implementation of the projects for the current year. Sometimes they end up turning into a truly unbearable chore and result in an allocation of pre-defined budgets, according to conservative estimates, based on the simple replication of the previous year, the status quo, applying cuts induced by the crisis.
When this happens, we arrive at the "death of strategic planning", the exact opposite of the systemic vision which plans investments for growth and development shared by company management. Thus proposed, the budget allocations do not force a phase of accurate business intelligence, everyone's attention is directed elsewhere, therefore planning by assumption can flourish. It is necessary to set precise objectives, measurable through a few essential and clearly defined KPIs. The strategic plan will have to define the actions chosen to pursue these objectives, shared with all management, thanks to the definition of tactical guidelines which include the commitment of all the corporate functions involved. Thought in this way, a strategic plan will be able to survive changes of roles, staff turnover, precisely because it is able to express a shared strategic vision in the company.
Quoting Kotler: Marketing is the art of creating genuine customer value. Customer value in English, to reiterate a concept that could get lost in translation: in the structured meaning of the concept, the "customer value" for the company depends on the "value that the company transfers to the customer". If we understand and share this point of view, the marketing plan should finally overcome the limitation of the single year, which in itself already has the limitation of the operational vision, finally embracing a span of at least 3-5 years. Because only in such a period can one plan to implement greater perceived value for one's customers and consequently increase value for the company (in terms of repurchases, upselling, cross-selling, word of mouth, etc.).
If eventually someone were to find this approach a bit "visionary", perhaps it will be enough to try to project themselves a little into the future. For example, trying to think about the role that social networks will have in 3 years, the diffusion of tablets and smartphones, etc. Who thinks that the digital marketing plan is adequate for that perspective? It is impossible for any company to arrive prepared for the future, for the ever-changing scenario, if it does not constantly work to investigate the weak (and not so weak) signals of the market, planning actions that allow it to probe these areas, without wasting resources, but in any case testing new contexts, experimenting with new media, new partners and consultants to face new challenges, creating shared skills and knowledge in one's organization.
A wide-ranging plan can direct the company to face change, experimenting conscientiously, accumulating experience and testing the most appropriate tactics, optimizing the use of resources without cutting off the future development of the company itself. At this point, the entry of the "digits" of the bud
