marketing plan
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A marketing plan is a
plan A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with details of timing and resources, used to achieve an Goal, objective to do something. It is commonly understood as a modal logic, temporal set (mathematics), set of intended actions through wh ...
created to accomplish specific marketing objectives, outlining a company's
advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...
and marketing efforts for a given period, describing the current marketing position of a business, and discussing the target market and marketing mix to be used to achieve marketing goals. It is often created together by marketing managers, product marketing managers, product managers, and sales teams. A marketing plan comprises part of an overall business plan. A comprehensive marketing plan may contains historical data, future predictions, methods or strategies to achieve marketing objectives, and analyses of the strengths and weaknesses of a company, its organization and its products.


Objectives

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. It is able to show what the company is intended to accomplish within the budget and also makes it possible for company executives to assess potential return on the investment of marketing dollars. The marketing plan offers an opportunity for a productive discussion between employees and leaders of an organisation. 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.


Components

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 mix,
research Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...
, situation analysis, segmentation, strategies, budgets, financial forecasts, competitive strategies, objective setting, and results monitoring. The marketing plan also shows the actions that will be taken, and the resources to be applied, in order to achieve planned goals. Marketing planning can also be used to prepare a detailed case for introducing a new product or revamping current marketing strategies for existing products. A complete marketing plan may include: # Executive summary # Market research ## Market environment (e.g. economic, legal, governmental, technological, ecological, sociocultural, supply chain) ## Market analysis (e.g. market size, segmentation, industry structure, competitive analysis) ## Consumer analysis (e.g. participants,
demographics Demography () is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analysis examin ...
, psychographics) ## Internal analysis (e.g. company finances, people, time, skills; objectives,
mission statement A mission statement is a short statement of why an organization exists, what its overall goal is, the goal of its operations: what kind of product or service it provides, its primary customers or market, and its geographical region of operation ...
, vision statement;
organizational culture Organizational culture encompasses the shared norms, values, corporate language and behaviors - observed in schools, universities, not-for-profit groups, government agencies, and businesses - reflecting their core values and strategic direction. ...
) ## Situation analysis (e.g. external threats and opportunities, internal strengths and weaknesses, critical success factors, sustainable competitive advantage) # Objective setting # Marketing Strategy ## Product management (e.g. unique selling proposition, product mix, perceptual mapping, product life cycle management and new product development, branding; product portfolio analysis: BCG analysis, contribution margin analysis, GE multifactorial analysis, quality function deployment) ## Segmented marketing actions and
market share Market share is the percentage of the total revenue or sales in a Market (economics), market that a company's business makes up. For example, if there are 50,000 units sold per year in a given industry, a company whose sales were 5,000 of those ...
objectives ## Pricing (e.g. objectives,
strategy Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "troop leadership; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the " a ...
, discounts and allowances, price elasticity, price zoning, break-even analysis) ## Promotion (e.g.
promotional mix In marketing, the promotional mix describes a blend of promotional variables chosen by marketers to help a firm reach its goals.Contemporary Marketing 2011 (textbook), Louis Boone, David Kurtz, Cengage Learning, Jan 1, 2010Elements of the promotio ...
, advertising, sales promotion, publicity,
public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...
, word-of-mouth marketing, viral marketing) ## Distribution # Implementation (e.g. personnel, financial, management information systems, results monitoring, contingencies,
project management Project management is the process of supervising the work of a Project team, team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project initiation documentation, project documentation, crea ...
) # Financial Summary (e.g. pro-forma monthly income statement) # Scenarios # Controls (e.g. performance indicators, feedback mechanisms)


Research

Marketing research can be either internal or external. Internal research refers to creating better experiences and products for existing customers, while external research involves looking to gain new customers.


Objective setting

James Quinn defined objectives as "stat ngwhat is to be achieved and when results are to be accomplished", but not "how the results are to be achieved"''.'' Marketing objectives typically relate to what products will be where in what markets, based on customer behavior in those markets. Other objectives in a marketing plan include those for pricing, distribution, and advertising. Quinn describes marketing plans as generally concerned with "8 Ps": Price, Product, Promotion, Place, People, Physical environment, Process, and Packaging. It is important to put both quantities and timescales into the marketing objectives.


Implementation

Marketing plans typically use budgets, schedules and marketing metrics for monitoring and evaluating results. With budget, they can compare planned expenditures with actual expenditures for given period. Schedules allow management to see when tasks were supposed to be completed and when they actually were. Marketing metrics tracks actual outcomes of marketing programs to see whether the company is moving forward towards its objectives. Apart from metrics, a specific action plan allows a marketing plan to better measure results and that criteria are met. Elements of marketing performance that may be tracked include sales analysis, market share analysis, expense analysis, and financial analysis (including figures such as profit, return on investment and contribution).


See also

* Business plan *
Marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...
* Marketing management * Strategic management * Product differentiation


References


Further reading

* H. A. Simon, "Rational decision making in business organisations," ''American Economic Review'' * J. Pfeffer and G. R. Salancik, ''The External Control of Organizations'' * K. Paolo Sumagaysay, "The oversaturated world" {{DEFAULTSORT:Marketing Plan Business planning Marketing analytics