Marketing aims: mission and corporate objectives
Where the plan starts
- The standard is specific: marketing aims refer to the mission statement and corporate objectives. The marketing plan sits underneath the business's strategy and exists to serve it.
- So the first section of the plan answers: what is this business for, and what has it committed to achieve? Everything after that has to point in the same direction.
The mission statement
- A mission statement says what the business exists to do, for whom, and what it values. It is qualitative and it does not change often.
- A useful mission statement answers three things:
- What we do — the product or service, described by the need it meets rather than the object itself
- Who we do it for — the customers
- What we stand for — the values that constrain how the business will pursue its aims
- Why it matters to a marketing plan: it rules things out. A business whose mission is built on sustainability cannot market on disposability; a business built on premium quality cannot chase volume by discounting.
- For a Māori business, the mission is often an expression of pūtake — the reason for being — and may commit the business to social, cultural and environmental outcomes alongside profit. A marketing plan for such a business has to serve all of them.
Corporate objectives
- Corporate objectives are what the business as a whole intends to achieve, usually over one to five years. They are measurable where the mission is not.
- Common ones:
- Growth — revenue, volume or market share
- Profitability — margin or return
- Market development — entering a new market or segment
- Product development — launching new products
- Sustainability — environmental, social and cultural targets
- Survival or stability, in a difficult period
- The marketing plan must name which corporate objective it serves. A plan that cannot say which one it is contributing to has no reason to be funded.
Turning aims into marketing aims
- The move is from business-wide to product-specific:
- Corporate objective: "Grow export revenue by 25% over three years."
- Marketing aim for this product: "Establish the product in the Australian market so it contributes a meaningful share of that growth."
- Marketing objective (SMART, in the strategy stage): "Achieve $400,000 of Australian sales in the first twelve months from launch."
- Notice the sharpening at each step. The aim is directional; the objective is measurable.
Worked ExampleDeriving a marketing aim from the business's aims
Puhoi Peak Chocolate (invented business, illustrative figures) is a small Auckland chocolate maker planning to launch a single-origin bar into Australia.
Show how the marketing aim is derived from the business's aims.
Step 1 — State the mission
"Puhoi Peak makes chocolate for people who care where their food comes from, paying growers above market rates and keeping every step of manufacture in New Zealand."
Step 2 — State the relevant corporate objective
"Grow annual revenue from $2.1 million to $3.0 million within three years, with at least half the growth coming from outside New Zealand."
Step 3 — Identify what that requires of this product
Half of a $900,000 increase is $450,000 of new offshore revenue over three years. Australia is the obvious first market: closest, no language barrier, and an existing appetite for premium New Zealand food.
Step 4 — Write the marketing aim
"Establish the single-origin bar in the Australian premium grocery channel, contributing the majority of Puhoi Peak's offshore growth over three years, without discounting below New Zealand shelf pricing."
Note what the mission ruled out. Because the mission commits to paying growers above market rates and manufacturing in New Zealand, the aim cannot be achieved by cutting costs — so the strategy that follows must compete on positioning rather than price. That constraint is now carried into every later stage of the plan.