Developmental stages of marketing planning

Planning, such as it is today is the result of a long process involving several stages. According to Kotler, the stages through which passes the development of the plan are as follows:
- Phase without a plan
- Stage budgeting
- Phase of the annual planning
- Phase of long-term planning

- Strategic planning phase

First The first phase is the phase when there is no planning. The company does not prepare plan because it believes that there is no need of it, but also because there is not enough time for management planning. This phase occurs when the company was just established, management is primarily preoccupied with securing the necessary funding, procurement of necessary materials and equipment etc.

Second The second stage is the stage of budgeting. At this stage, the company develops a system of annual budgeting sales, costs and cash-flow. In fact, the management provides sales, costs and cash flows for the next time period for each department separately, but did not draw up a plan in the true sense of the word. In this follow all the deviations from the budget, in order to give appropriate explanation and to take appropriate actions.

The third phase is the phase of the annual planning. This phase occurs as a result of failure to budgeting, such as the emergence of significant deviations from the budget or lack of responsibility of all employees to participate in the realization of the budget, because the company accepts formalized planning approach. Otherwise, there are three possible approaches to the annual planning that can occur in this stage of development planning:- Planning from the top towards the bottom- Planning the bottom towards the top- Planning by setting objectives towards the bottom, and plans according to the above.

The fourth phase is the phase of long-term planning. This phase occurs when the management sees that despite the development of annual plans is very important to develop long term plans. In fact, long-term planning should precede the annual planning that is based on the prepared long term, at the end of each year to prepare an annual plan for next year.

The fifth phase is the phase of strategic planning. With the emergence of long-term plans emerged and the ability for strategic thinking. Namely, when there are only short term plans emerged out strategic thinking. Namely, when there are only short-term plans are mixed strategic issues and operational tactics, while long-term plans call ability to think and plan strategically. Through a strategic planning allows employees to be more motivated to work more effectively through the existence of a common vision for the future.