Chapter 2

Hello to all again!  Thank you for checking up on my blog! To begin with Chapter 2, I think that both strategic plans and marketing plans are crucial for every organization.  In order to succeed in any field, you must have a general idea of what you desire to accomplish.  Whenever organizations make a strategic plan, they are considering all options and routes that are possible for the organization to take in order to achieve its goal.  Strategic planning is very important because that is the step of planning in which the organization decides what the best strategies and tactics are in order for the organization to fulfill its mission.  Without strategic planning, it would be really difficult for organizations to figure out with type of plan would most benefit them in the means of being successful.  Strategic planning may be a large part of an organization, but having a market plan is just as important.  Without a market plan, organizations would not be able to plot out the proper characteristics that the organization must demonstrate in order to achieve their goals.   Within a market plan, the certain pricing, demonstration, production, and promotional strategies are carefully thought out and perfected in order to achieve the best results possible.  Because we are discussing the importance of strategic planning and marketing plans, I feel that it is necessary to touch base with the social media marketing techniques.  Not only is social media a large part of our society today, but it is also a large part of what consumers consider whenever they are going to purchase an item.  Social media is extremely popular because it is simply so easy to keep up with.  It is the easiest way of modern marketing to spread word about products within seconds.  Not only has social media spread like wildfire within the past few years, but it has also been able to increase the sales of numerous products. 

Whenever we think about social media, we usually think about how it is available for anyone to use.  However, in order to use social media to your marketing advantage, you must have a special sense of social media marketing maturity.  This basically means that you must have experience with being able to properly market the necessary materials in order to make good sales within your business.   If people do not have maturity in their social media marketing areas, what good does it do to even advertise via social media? This concept is very important because it can either make or break you. 

Another very important concept of this chapter is the SWOT analysis.  A company can help itself immensely by carefully using this analysis.  When considering a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it makes it much simpler to plan out the company’s path.  A company can either choose to be more successful because of these factors, or choose to decline.  Opportunities and strengths are the biggest advantages that a company has; this strategy teaches companies how to use these for their biggest advantages. 

Throughout this chapter, the benefits of strategies are elaborated on.  I think that this is a very important part of marketing, and if done right, these types of strategies can greatly benefit any organization interested.