Objectives setting

The forecasts of market and sales will be the guidelines to determine the objectives and the marketing strategy and programme. An example of a specific statements are: decrease the cost of the sales force as a percentage of sales, improve advertising awareness by 5% amongst the target age 18–25 or improving company image by 2% in the general public. These statements have to be quantified and a time horizon has to be set. If you need to set objectives you are best advised to research the SMART objectives framework a discussion of which lies outside the scope of this book.