Making the product portfolio a basis for action

Abstract

Recent years have seen many interesting developments in the field of strategic marketing. However, academics have often failed to point out how their strategic models and concepts can be turned into what the manager really seeks, an actionable marketing plan. Many managers, produce strategic ideas but are unable to link them to actionable plans, and consequently fall back on to the traditional approach of starting the planning process with a budget. The strategy thus becomes driven by the budget, rather than vice versa. This article seeks to establish a clearer link between strategy and the action plan, which would enable managers to see the budget as the end point, rather than the starting point of the planning process. A crucial stage in this process is the link between the initial resource allocation decision and the selection of customer targets, and the author suggests the term ‘strategic focus’ for this stage.