Lesson 2 Overview

This lesson is about the process of marketing strategy planning—deciding how to best serve the needs of the chosen customers. We will discuss how to approach the strategic planning process first and then concentrate on making decisions about marketing strategies. In other words, this lesson is all about deciding what your business is in, who your customers should be, and the best combination of features (price, promotion, product/brand attributes, distribution) for these customers. This is to say that the lesson determines product/service—marketing domain of the company.

Lesson Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

• explain the general logic of strategic planning,
• apply the hedgehog concept to deciding what your business is all about,
• describe what makes a good mission and vision statement, and write a good mission and vision statement, and
• identify and describe the major parts of a marketing plan.

Lesson Roadmap

By the end of this lesson, make sure you have completed the readings and activities found in the Lesson 2 Course Schedule.