A marketing plan summarizes and indicates how the firm intends to achieve its objectives in the market. It provides clarity for a brand, product or company. The marketing plan reveals how the organization will achieve its goals through specific marketing strategies and tactics, with the customer avatar as the starting point. It is also linked to the plans of other departments. Suppose a marketing plan calls for the sale of 300,000 units annually; the production department must prepare to manufacture those units, human resources must be prepared to hire and train the appropriate personnel, etc.
Marketing plans must become increasingly customer and competitor oriented, disruptive and realistic. The most common shortcomings of marketing plans are lack of realism, insufficient competitive analysis and short-term focus. Although the exact length and layout varies from company to company, most marketing plans cover a year in 5 to 30 pages. Smaller businesses may create shorter or less formal marketing plans, while corporations generally require more comprehensive documents.
To effectively guide implementation, each part of the plan must be described in detail. A well-crafted marketing plan usually contains the following sections:
- Executive summary and table of contents. The marketing plan should begin with a table of contents and a brief summary for senior management of the main objectives and recommendations.
- Analysis of the situation. This section should present relevant data on sales, costs, market, competitors and various forces in the macro environment. How do we define the market, how big is it and how fast is it growing? What are the relevant trends and critical issues? We will use all this information to perform the SWOT analysis.
- Marketing strategy. This defines the tactics, methods, platforms, objectives and needs that the market offer is intended to satisfy, as well as its competitive positioning.
- Financial forecasts. Financial projections include a forecast of both sales and expenses, and a break-even analysis. Break-even analysis estimates how many units must be sold each month to break even on its fixed costs and average variable costs per unit.
A more complex method of profit estimation is risk analysis. Here we obtain three estimates (optimistic, pessimistic and most likely) for each variable affecting profitability.
- Implementation controls. Implementation controls. The last section presents the controls for monitoring and regulating the implementation of the plan. They usually state the goals and budget for each month or quarter so that the results of each period can be reviewed.
The role of research
To develop innovative products, successful strategies and programs of action, marketers need up-to-date information about the environment, competition and selected market segments.
The role of relationships
Although the marketing plan shows how the company will establish and maintain profitable customer relationships, it also involves internal and external relationships. It influences how marketing staff work with other departments to deliver value and the company's relationship with suppliers, distributors and partners.
From marketing plan to action
Most companies create annual marketing plans to allow time for marketing research, analysis, management review, and cross-departmental coordination. As each action program begins, ongoing results are monitored, any deviations are investigated and corrective action is taken.
The marketing plan should define how progress toward goals will be measured. Marketing budgets, schedules, and metrics are typically used to monitor and evaluate results.
