Marketing+Objectives

Objectives set out what the business is trying to achieve. Objectives can be set at two levels: (1) Corporate level These are objectives that concern the business or organisation as a whole Examples of “corporate objectives might include:  • We aim for a return on investment of at least 15%  • We aim to achieve an operating profit of over £10 million on sales of at least £100 million  • We aim to increase earnings per share by at least 10% every year for the foreseeable future (2) Functional level: e.g. specific objectives for marketing activities Examples of functional marketing objectives” might include:  • We aim to build customer database of at least 250,000 households within the next 12 months  • We aim to achieve a market share of 10%  • We aim to achieve 75% customer awareness of our brand in our target markets Objectives need to be revised regularly and given a specific time scale. It is important that they are specific and measurable so that the company knows that it has met the objective. Objectives need to be achievable and realistic and also it must be remembered that they are no guarantee of success. It is important that objectives are communicated clearly to all the staff of a company and that the staff believe the objectives are realistic - if the staff do not believe in the objectives, they will not even try to achieve them. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Unfortunately, not all objectives are achieved due to constraints which include internal constraints such as finance and external constraints that are beyond the company's control such as competition, fashion and the state of the economy. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Most firms see growth as their main objective - to increase market share so that one day they may be the market leader. But, other popular objectives include increasing product differentiation, continuity and innovation. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Objectives in proactive marketing include developing a new product, entering a new market, increasing sales and establishing greater market share. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">An objective in reactive marketing is simply to manage and react to the effects of change and competition.