A marketing plan is a document in which the main goals of marketing the company’s goods and services and ways to achieve them are formulated. Although we are talking about products in this chapter, they almost always include some components of services, such as after-sales service, advice from specially trained sellers, and (in the case of consumer goods) art of sales.
The marketing plan has a formal structure, but can also be used as an informal, flexible enough tool:
- to prepare arguments for the introduction of a new product;
- when changing approaches to the marketing of goods of the company;
- when developing full marketing plans for a department, division or company for inclusion in a corporate or business plan.
Our agency is working in the sphere of project management, and marketing plan, ready to offer solutions to all its clients.
In fact, a marketing plan for one product in a separate trade zone can also be prepared, but large-scale plans are becoming more common. In the future, we will consider examples from various industries (production of investment and consumer goods, services). Despite the significant differences between the goods produced, the basic principles of marketing apply to each of them. Yes, the ways of using them vary, but the fundamental approach to drawing up a marketing plan does not change. For a marketing plan, there are no minor or too large issues.
With the same success, you can develop a marketing plan for a wide variety of goods and services (from chemical products to fast-food restaurants) at the district, country or the whole world level. If we are talking about companies with subsidiaries, marketing plans for each of them are developed either by their employees or employees of the head office.
Each marketing plan for a subsidiary is developed on the basis of individual, smaller-scale individual plans. The main condition for developing plans for departments and subsidiaries is that they must be linked to the general plan of the company. This does not mean that you must prepare a plan for each product or trade area. But if they are developed, they should be coordinated with the general marketing plan.
The marketing plan cannot be considered complete if it does not include data from the previous period, future forecasts, goals and methods or strategies for achieving these goals. If a plan is drawn up for a new product, the data of past periods for which are not available, it is possible to use information about the product that it replaces, or estimated data for similar products of a competing company.
In its simplest form, a marketing plan begins with the collection and evaluation of data from the past period. It usually contains detailed information about competitors, their strengths and weaknesses, strengths and weaknesses. The best plan should consider the strengths and weaknesses of your company, your successes, and your failures.
But this is not a plan, but only the first step in its development. It is then supplemented with forecasts for the future, which implies a detailed description of the strategies that will be used to achieve the goals. The full form of the plan provides an assessment of the resources required for its execution, examines in detail its impact on the profit and loss figures, or the plan includes the forecast of the company’s financial report.
What is an Executive Summary in Digital Agency London?
Executive Summary – A summary or summary of key areas of a marketing plan. In this section of the marketing plan, they try to state the main conclusions, recommendations and goals of the company for the next few years. This section is the last one you fill out, but when you present your marketing plan, you start with this section.
Content of the marketing plan
The marketing plan has a fairly clear and logically structured structure, and its development is a multi-day process. You will need a lot of time to collect detailed information about consumers, to study the features and market conditions, to determine the competitive advantages of the product and much more. Get ready to process and summarize many different facts, consider more than one alternative to business development. Do not be afraid to spend time analyzing different strategies.
On average, drawing up a high-quality marketing plan can take from 1-3 months (depending on the size of the business and the number of product groups in the company’s portfolio). And if you are engaged in marketing planning while solving current issues, then lay down at least 2-4 months for this process. 50% of this time will be spent on collecting information, 40% on the analysis and consideration of alternatives, and only 10% on the preparation of the marketing plan itself.
The structure of a standard marketing plan includes 8 elements and is as follows:
- Executive Summary
- Company situational analysis results
- SWOT analysis and determination of competitive advantages
- Definition of marketing goals and objectives
- The formulation of the marketing strategy in relation to the marketing mix of the product
- Target financial performance and business model
- Tactical Action Plan and Key Marketing Milestones
- Assumptions, Resources and Possible Risks
