ITUCU

A marketing plan may be part of an overall Business Plan. In general terms, it must:

• Describe and Explain the Current Situation
• Specify the Expected Results (objectives)
• Identify the Resources that will be needed (including financing, time, and skills)
• Describe the Actions that will need to be taken to achieve the objective(s)
• Devise a Method of Monitoring Results and Adjusting the Plan where necessary

Many companies prefer an abridged format that would yield a 10 to 20-page plan.

MARKETING PLAN DETAILS

1.Title page

• Title page is usually the details about the Plan, if there are more than one company in the group, and the time period etc.
• Information that enables us to identify the Plan.

2. Executive Summary

• The Plan should open with a brief summary of the plans most important Goals and Recommendations.
• The summary can be expressed like in a brief statement, say “will enter UK market this year” etc.

3  a) Current Situation – Macro-environment

• All situations regarding Economy, Government, Legal, Technology, Ecological, Socio-cultural,
• Supply chain and some other macro factors must be carefully studied. Relevant data from authentic sources collected and analyzed.

b) Current Situation – Market Analysis

• Indeed, market situation must be taken into account in all details and carefully studied.
• Market definition, Market size, Market Segmentation, Industry Structure and strategic groupings, Competition and market share, Competitors’ Strengths and Weaknesses and Market Trends must be carefully studied and analyzed.
• This will give us the exact position of our product vis-à-vis market, to enable us to plan future our future course of action.

c) Current Situation – Consumer Analysis

• As we have seen before, consumer and customer knowledge is very essential.
• We must be aware of nature of the buying decision, participants, demographics,psychographics, buyer motivation and expectations, loyalty segments etc to be fully aware of consumer reactions and expectations.

d) Current Situation – Internal Environment

• The next step is obviously to ascertain the company’s own resources in terms of financial, people, time and skills and to set objectives.
• Mission statement and vision statement, corporate objectives, financial objective, marketing objectives, long term objectives, etc must be clearly established.
• Corporate culture must be established.

4. Summary of Situation Analysis

• External threats, external opportunities, internal strengths, internal weaknesses,key success factors in the industry, our sustainable competitive advantage,marketing research etc must be carefully understood and analyzed.
• Information requirements, research methodology and research results must be carefully ascertained at this stage and carried out.

5  a) Marketing Strategy – Product

• Product mix, product strengths and weaknesses, perceptual mapping, product life cycle management and new product development, brand name, brand image, and brand equity, the augmented product, and product portfolio analysis are now easy to establish

b) Marketing Strategy – Pricing

• Pricing objectives, pricing method (eg.: cost plus, demand based, or competitor indexing), pricing strategy (eg.: skimming, or penetration), discounts and allowances, price elasticity and customer sensitivity, price zoning, break even analysis at various prices

c) Marketing Strategy Promotion

• Promotional goals, promotional mix, advertising reach, frequency, flights, theme,and media, sales force requirements, techniques, and management, sales promotion, publicity and public relations, electronic promotion (eg.: Web, or telephone)

d) Marketing Strategy – Distribution

• Geographical coverage, distribution channels, physical distribution and logistics, electronic distribution etc must be earmarked

6. Implementation

• Personnel requirements, assigning responsibilities, give incentives, training on selling methods, financial requirements, management information systems requirements, month-by-month agenda, pert or critical path analysis,monitoring results and benchmarks, adjustment mechanism, contingencies (What if’s) need to be worked out

7. Financial Summary

Assumptions, pro-forma monthly income statement, contribution margin analysis,breakeven analysis. This information must be very formally done at this stage

8. Appendix

Pictures and specifications of the new product, results from research already completed

 STRATEGIC MARKETING PLANNING

• Marketing strategies are those plans designed to reach marketing goals.
•  A good marketing strategy should integrate an organization’s marketing goals, policies, and action sequences (tactics) into a cohesive whole.
• The objective of a marketing strategy is to put the organization into a position to carry out its mission effectively and efficiently.