Marketing Plan

A marketing plan may be part of an overall business plan. Solid marketing strategy is the foundation of a well-written marketing plan so that goals may be achieved. While a marketing plan contains a list of actions, without a sound strategic foundation, it is of little use to a business.

A marketing plan is a comprehensive document or blueprint that outlines the advertising and marketing efforts for the coming year. It describes business activities involved in accomplishing specific marketing objectives within a set time frame. A marketing plan also includes a description of the current marketing position of a business, a discussion of the target market and a description of the marketing mix that a business will use to achieve their marketing goals. A marketing plan has a formal structure, but can be used as a formal or informal document which makes it very flexible. It contains some historical data, future predictions, and methods or strategies to achieve the marketing objectives. Marketing plans start with the identification of customer needs through a market research and how the business can satisfy these needs while generating an acceptable return. This includes processes such as market situation analysis, action programs, budgets, sales forecasts, strategies and projected financial statements. A marketing plan can also be described as a technique that helps a business to decide on the best use of its resources to achieve corporate objectives. It can also contain a full analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of a company, its organization and its products.

The marketing plan shows the step or actions that will be utilized in order to achieve the plan goals. For example, a marketing plan may include a strategy to increase the business’s market share by fifteen percent. The marketing plan would then outline the objectives that need to be achieved in order to reach the fifteen percent increase in the business market share. The marketing plan can be used to describe the methods of applying a company’s marketing resources to fulfill marketing objectives. Marketing planning segments the markets, identifies the market position, forecast the market size, and plans a viable market share within each market segment. Marketing planning can also be used to prepare a detailed case for introducing a new product, revamping current marketing strategies for an existing product or put together a company marketing plan to be included in the company corporate or business plan.

Outline

A marketing plan should be based on where a company needs to be at some point in the future. These are some of the most important things that companies need when developing a marketing plan:

Market research: Gathering and classifying data about the market the organization is currently in. Examining the market dynamics, patterns, customers, and the current sales volume for the industry as a whole.

Competition: The marketing plan should identify the organization’s competition. The plan should describe how the organization will stick out from its competition and what it will do to become a market leader.

Market plan strategies: Developing the marketing and promotion strategies that the organization will use. Such strategies may include advertising, direct marketing, training programs, trade shows, website, etc.

Marketing plan budget: Strategies identified in the marketing plan should be within the budget. Top managers need to revise what they hope to accomplish with the marketing plan, review their current financial situation, and then allocate funding for the marketing plan.

Marketing goals: The marketing plan should include attainable marketing goals. For example, one goal might be to increase the current client base by 100 over a three-month period.

Marketing Mix: The marketing plan should evaluate the appropriate marketing mix. This includes setting up the marketing 4 P’s the product, price, place, and promotion. These four elements are modified until the best combination have been found that will cater the needs of the product’s customer that would result to the maximum profitability of the company.

Monitoring of the marketing plan results: The marketing plan should include the process of analyzing the current position of the organization. The organization needs to identify the strategies that are working and those that are not working.

Purpose

One of the main purposes of developing a marketing plan is to set the company on a specific path in marketing. The marketing goals normally aligns itself to the broader company objectives. For example, a new company looking to grow their business will generally have a marketing plan that emphasizes strategies to increase their customer base. Acquiring marketing share, increasing customer awareness, and building a favorable business image are some of the objectives that can be related to marketing planning. The marketing plan also helps layout the necessary budget and resources needed to achieve the goals stated in the marketing plan. The marketing plan shows what the company is intended to accomplish within the budget and also to make it possible for company executives to assess potential return on the investment of marketing dollars. Different aspects of the marketing plan relate to accountability.

The marketing plan is a general responsibility from company leaders and the marketing staff to take the company in a specific direction. After the strategies are laid out and the tasks are developed, each task is assigned to a person or a team for implementation. The assigned roles allow companies to keep track of their milestones and communicate with the teams during the implementation process. Having a marketing plan helps company leaders to develop and keep an eye on the expectations for their functional areas. For example, if a company’s marketing plan goal is to increase sales growth then the company leaders may have to increase their sales staff in stores to help generate more sales.

The marketing plan offers a unique opportunity for a productive discussion between employees and leaders of an organization. It provides good communication within the company. The marketing plan also allows the marketing team to examine their past decisions and understand their results in order to better prepare for the future. It also lets the marketing team to observe and study the environment that they are operating in.

Marketing planning aims and objectives

Though it’s not clear, behind the corporate objectives, which in themselves offer the main context for the marketing plan, will lie the “corporate mission,” in turn provides the context for these corporate objectives. In a sales-oriented organization, the marketing planning function designs incentive pay plans to not only motivate and reward frontline staff fairly but also to align marketing activities with corporate mission. The marketing plan basically aims to make the business provide the solution with the awareness with the expected customers.

This “corporate mission” can be thought of as a definition of what the organization is, or what it does: “Our business is …”. This definition should not be too narrow, or it will constrict the development of the organization; a too rigorous concentration on the view that “We are in the business of making meat-scales,” as IBM was during the early 1900s, might have limited its subsequent development into other areas. On the other hand, it should not be too wide or it will become meaningless; “We want to make a profit” is not too helpful in developing specific plans.

The marketing objectives must usually be based, above all, on the organization’s financial objectives; converting these financial measurements into the related marketing measurements. He went on to explain his view of the role of “policies,” with which strategy is most often confused: “Policies are rules or guidelines that express the ‘limits’ within which action should occur. “Simplifying somewhat, marketing strategies can be seen as the means, or “game plan,” by which marketing objectives will be achieved and, in the framework that appears here, are generally concerned with the 8 P’s. Examples are:

Price: The amount of money needed to buy products

Product: The actual product

Promotion (advertising): Getting the product known

Placement: Where the product is sold

People: Represent the business

Physical environment: The ambiance, mood, or tone of the environment

Process: The Value-added services that differentiate the product from the competition (e.g. after-sales service, warranties)

Packaging: How the product will be protected

The most important element is, the detailed plans, which spell out exactly what programs and individual activities will carry at the period of the plan (usually over the next year). Without these activities the plan cannot be monitored. These plans must therefore be:

Clear: They should be an unambiguous statement of ‘exactly’ what is to be done.

Quantified: The predicted outcome of each activity should be, as far as possible, quantified, so that its performance can be monitored.

Focused: The temptation to proliferate activities beyond the numbers which can be realistically controlled should be avoided. The 80:20 Rule applies in this context too.

Realistic: They should be achievable.

Agreed: Those who are to implement them should be committed to them, and agree that they are achievable. The resulting plans should become a working document which will guide the campaigns taking place throughout the organization over the period of the plan. If the marketing plan is to work, every exception to it (throughout the year) must be questioned; and the lessons learnt, to be incorporated in the next year’s.

Content of the marketing plan

A Marketing Plan for a small business typically includes Small Business Administration Description of competitors, including the level of demand for the product or service and the strengths and weaknesses of competitors

1. Description of the product or service, including special features
2. Marketing budget, including the advertising and promotional plan
3. Description of the business location, including advantages and disadvantages for marketing
4. Pricing strategy
5. Market Segmentation

Medium-sized and large organizations

The main contents of a marketing plan are:

1. Executive Summary
2. Situational Analysis
3. Opportunities / Issue Analysis: SWOT Analysis
4. Objectives
5. Marketing Strategy
6. Action Program (the operational marketing plan itself for the period under review)
7. Financial Forecast
8. Controls