The only way to ensure a marketing plan that brings the results you want is to build it around the needs of your customers. Hal Goetsch - marketer of diverse products and services in the consumer, business-to-business, retail and not-for-profit sectors - sends his message loud and clear through this first-rate guide to the marketing planning process.In Developing, Implementing, and Managing An Effective Marketing Plan, Goetsch begins by describing the business imperative of the 1990s - understand the fast-changing demands of customers in the volatile and increasingly fragmented marketplace. To keep ahead of change and win the battle for customers, businesses must be marketing-driven - they must look at their products and services from the customer's viewpoint and place marketing as the priority in all business activities.This book will help you build a customer-oriented marketing plan that will serve as a catalyst in achieving your business objectives. Hal Goetsch leads you through the four key steps, critical to effective marketing: examine - perform a thorough analysis of the business environment and your marketing power within it; plan - set clear and focused business objectives and the marketing strategies that will steer you to success; implement - think beyond the planning process and put the plan to work in the marketplace; control - make sure your plan is flexible. Monitor its effectiveness and adapt it to respond to changes in the business environment.Thorough, thoughtful, and instructive, this book will lead marketers, managers, business owners, and entrepreneurs along the path to growth and keep them on course. Read Less