If You?re So Brilliant? HOW COME YOUR MARKETING PLANS AREN?T WORKING? - The Essential Guide to Marketing Planning
This has got to be one of the best titles ever for a practical marketing planning guide ? and it?s from the legendary Professor Malcolm McDonald, so how can it fail? Thankfully, it doesn?t. This is a high-speed, systematic guide to producing effective marketing plans from planning to process to outputs, and it really delivers. Using key principles, examples and exercises rather than theory, ?If You?re So Brilliant?? breaks the process into digestible topics and offers important reminders for those who already understand strategic marketing and some useful ?how to? approaches for those ready to move from basic marketing practice.
The downside is that this is definitely a guide aimed primarily at the corporate sector and some arts marketers may find this off-putting or less immediately applicable to their own situation. The introduction is particularly daunting, with the self-evaluation of organisational performance inviting readers to consider whether ?Our operations, R&D, IT, HRR, finance, marketing and selling strategies are developed for the profitability of the company as a whole rather than for the gratification of any personal ambitions? (question 6b of 10). However, once through the introduction and prepared to accept the strictly business climate (with associated implications of large-scale) this is a useful ? if somewhat dry ? guide that becomes more useful as it focuses from the general to the specific. You don?t exactly have to be a marketing anorak to appreciate it but it?s definitely not for beginners. Recommended for those serious about effective strategic planning.
Review by Shirley Kirk, Director, South West Arts Marketing
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