Making marketing work. (for small and midsize businesses)(Managers Handbook: Planning)

Marketing may be second nature to big companies, but midsize and smaller firms tend to have an unclear picture of marketing. The title "marketing director" is often conferred on the person designated to answer requests for sales literature. Or it is added as an after-thought to the sales manager's title.

Marketing as a well-defined function permeating every phase of a business is generally nonexistent. There is usually no comprehensive plan or program -- no road map to guide, direct, and measure marketing progress. Midsize and small companies often have no consistent, purposeful commitment to communicating with customers and prospects.

If marketing is, indeed, what persuades customers and prospects to do business with a company, then marketing must become the focal point of energy and activity.

While the idea of marketing is usually appreciated and its benefits generally acknowledged, developing and implementing a consistent marketing plan can interfere with the exigencies of doing business each day.

To accomplish its goal, a marketing plan must be clear and simply stated, so that it will capture imagination and support. In other words, it must make sense.

Here is a three-part …