TABLE OF CONTENTS By the end of this chapter you should:
have a clear understanding of the stages in marketing planning;
have a detailed insight into auditing in the widest sense;
have a clear idea of the issues that arise specifically when dealing with communications planning;
know why communications audits matter and know how to do them;
understand what communications objectives are and know how to go about setting them;
have a better understanding of some of the most popular methods for setting a budget.
It is worth starting here with an overview of the whole picture. Marketing communications planning and implementation will be most effectively carried out if it is tackled with a clear set of objectives, over a set timescale, using the right tools for the job and with cost-efficiency at its core. That means you need to understand how to organize promotion, the nature of the tools available and how to use the tools of planning in this field. This is the point we have now reached: you should have a better idea of how the business of promotion works, how the minds of consumers work,...
