Marketing Plan

When talking about a marketing plan many people and organizations as well tend to focus on the physical document and forget about the efforts that stood behind its creation and those efforts that are put afterwards in its implementation. The marketing plan is just the result of hours of research, planning, and forecasting work. Additionally, while there is an infinite number of templates for marketing plans, with differences based on their author’s preferences and beliefs or on the type of company, market, industry they are designed for, the main structure stays the same while its content changes from case to case.

The main components of a marketing plan include executive summary, situational analysis, SWOT analysis, objectives, strategy, action program, financial forecast, evaluation and control.

The executive summary is the quintessence of the entire plan, containing just a little more information than what one would normally include in an elevator pitch. Its length is usually in between one and three pages but content and structure are extremely significant due to the fact that it is often the only part seen by potential investors.

The situational analysis includes information about the macro-environment (such as legal, economic, and socio-cultural factors), the market (such as key players, market size, market shares, and market trends), the consumer and its purchase and consumption behavior, the company with its organizational culture and internal resources.

The well-known SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis summarizes the findings and the facts stated in the situational analysis in four categories, depending on whether those are internal or external factors, current or expected, with positive or negative impact on the company’s performance.

The objectives should be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound) and should indicate what the company is aiming for.

The strategy should further indicate the approach or the path the company chooses to use in order to achieve its objectives and it can further be broken into a strategy for each of the component of the marketing mix.

The action program is a step-by-step approach establishing responsibilities and milestones. It often includes a Gantt chart or a PERT chart, where PERT stands for Program (or Project) Evaluation and Review Technique.

The financial forecast relates the forecasts of the market from the situational analysis with the production capacity and other capabilities of the organization in order to provide information in regards to expected sales and profits.

The evaluation and control section establishes measurements and scales for assessing the progress the company is making in implementing the plan successfully. It is also a way to obtain feedback and account for change in the internal or external environment of the organization and adjust the company’s strategies and implementation accordingly.

Marketing companies know exactly what to include in a marketing plan and how detailed each section should be in order to catch reader’s attention and lead to an investment or simply to good performance in the organization. All these further lead to good performance on the market, as reflected through indicators such as sales volumes and profits.