Establishing a strategic direction: a review

Corporate planning involves setting down overall corporate financial goals and using these as the basis for setting goals in the various functional areas of the business. In the case of marketing, strategies aimed at achieving stated goals and objectives are based on an analysis of marketing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and their impact on the organization. Employs cross impact analysis to assess the impact of environmental variables ‐ such as technology, economy, customers and competition ‐ on the strategic business units of an organization. It can be extended to look at the impact on future or potential businesses as well. The technique helps to identify various threats and opportunities which surround the organization. Employs gap analysis to identify the difference between aspirations and likely achievements with the current product‐market portfolio. Aids choice of marketing objectives and strategy by an analysis undertaken to identify strengths and weaknesses of the organization and opportunities and threats which exist in the environment.