Key Planning Assumptions

After you have worked through an evaluation of the competitive environment, then you should step back and consider what changes or trends have the potential to have the largest impact on your marketing efforts. Those changes or trends are known as the key planning assumptions.

Normally, there should be just three to five key planning assumptions. The temptation is to make a long list of planning assumptions so that every possible event is covered. Unfortunately, such long lists are not very useful because they do not spotlight the most important assumptions.

Examples of key planning assumptions for a restaurant include:

• In the next two years, the number of young couples in our geographical area will increase by 20 percent.

• Because of an economic slowdown, people will be eating out less often.

• A new Italian restaurant from a national chain will try to attract customers with discount coupons.

• Local supermarkets will offer precooked Italian meals.

The product/market strategy is built on the key planning assumptions. Those assumptions need to be checked regularly. If you have reasons to believe that one of them is no longer realistic, then you should replace that assumption with a new one that is correct and then reevaluate your product/ market strategy and, if necessary, redo the strategy.

Continue reading here: Sales Objectives

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