Contents
Introduction to Marketing
The Marketing Plan
Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
Consumer Behavior
The Four Ps
Product
Place
Promotion
Price
Market Research
Other Types of Marketing
Marketing Ethics
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The Marketing Plan
A company’s marketing plan is a formal document that provides a comprehensive blending of the so-called four Ps—
product, promotion, place, and price—to create a marketing mix specifically relevant for each target market (for more details, see The Four Ps). The marketing plan should include the following elements:
- Executive summary: Outlines the key elements of the marketing plan, focusing on the target markets, the four Ps, the budget, and the expected results.
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Situation analysis, or SWOT analysis: SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This analysis includes the following:
- Strengths/weaknesses: Highlights the strengths and weaknesses (e.g., profit margins, sales figures, and product positioning) of the company’s brand in the current marketplace. Strengths and weaknesses refer to brand-specific attributes and not to overall market conditions.
- Opportunities/threats: Identifies potential opportunities or threats outside the company that impact the brand’s sales potential. This analysis often entails highlighting market trends, consumer confidence, and technological advances.
- Competitive market analysis: Often, the situation analysis also includes a competitive market analysis (i.e., an examination of what competitors are doing) and detailed descriptions of various target segments.
- Goals: Clearly identify the objectives of the marketing plan. This section should estimate the market potential (a target market’s potential size) and then perform a sales forecast to determine the quantitative market share (e.g., 10%) that the brand can attain. Two common approaches to forecasting are extending past performance and predicting future performance. Both approaches have limits, and neither should be used in isolation.
- Budgets: Specify both the resource allocation for the marketing plan and the intended return on those resources.
- Measures: Introduces appropriate measurement tools up front. These are used throughout the marketing campaign to do performance analysis (i.e., compare actual results against the budget). The company can then revamp its marketing activities if necessary.
- Marketing strategy: Indicates the specific strategies the firm intends to use to reach the desired target markets.
- Marketing mix: Details the specific blend of the four Ps along with actionable implementation steps (i.e., who is responsible for which activities). Because target markets change as products move through the product life cycle, tailoring the marketing mix to these changing target markets should be an evolving process.
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