Marketing Planning Roles

Who, within an organization, is responsible for creating its marketing plans? From
our discussion above, you might think the responsibility lies with the organization’s
chief marketing officer (CMO). The reality is that a team of marketing specialists is
likely to be involved. Sometimes multiple teams are involved. Many companies
create marketing plans at the divisional level. For example, Rockwell International
has so many different business areas that each does its own strategic planning. The
division responsible for military avionics, for instance, creates its own marketing
plans and strategies separately from the division that serves the
telecommunications industry. Each division has its own CMO.
Some of the team members specialize in certain areas. For example, the copier
company Xerox has a team that specializes in competitive analysis. The team
includes an engineer who can take competitors’ products apart to see how they
were manufactured, as well as a systems analyst who tests them for their performance. Also on the team is a marketing analyst who examines the
competition’s financial and marketing performance.
Some marketing-analyst positions are entry-level positions. You might be able to
land one of these jobs straight out of college. Other positions are more senior and
require experience, usually in sales or another area of marketing. Marketing
analysts, who are constantly updating marketing information, are likely to be
permanent members of the CMO’s staff.
In some consumer-goods companies with many brands (such as P&G and SC
Johnson), product—or brand—managers serve on their firm’s marketing planning
teams on an as-needed basis. These individuals are not permanent members of the
team but participate only to the extent that their brands are involved. Many other
members of the firm will also participate on marketing planning teams as needed.
For example, a marketing researcher is likely to be part of such a team when it
needs data for the planning process.