Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Created by
This Marketing Plan Template is provided by Sequent Learning Networks in the interest
of marketing education. Building the skills of those responsible for creating, managing
and marketing products & services can contribute to improvements in team
communication, business decision making, product profitability, and marketplace
success.
For further information and guidance, or if your company needs assistance in product
planning, product strategy, training or consulting services, please call Sequent Learning
Networks at 212-647-9100.
The purpose of this document is to provide you with the basic framework for creating a
marketing plan by describing the intent of the marketing plan and describing the general
steps you’ll need to take to create a marketing plan.
In an ideal world, strategies at all levels of the organization should be well articulated
and understood. Interpretation of these strategies can then result in realistic, well-
defined marketing plans and programs which can be created and acted upon. In some
firms, strategies are not fully understood or are misinterpreted, leading to ill conceived
marketing plans and programs.
1) Formulating a strategy of your company or your division and making sure that
appropriate linkages are made between company strategy and marketing
activity planning.
2) Analyzing the environment within which you do business to make sure you
consider the marketplace, the industry, competitors, and other influences.
3) Carrying out market profiling, enabling you to identify market segment, target
customer types, and overall demand. Additionally, analysis of the industry and
competitors, coupled with analysis of customer types, enables the creation of
demand possibilities and the resulting forecasts. It also allows you to formulate
appropriate value propositions, and to position the product’s key benefits to the
target audience, and finally, why a customer would choose your solution versus
the competition. and expressing key values and benefits to the target audience
4) The marketing mix, which considers a combination of activities which come
together harmoniously, in bringing the product to market and sustaining it while
in the market, which includes:
i. Deciding on which products meet the need of identified market targets
ii. Pricing those products so that the true, competitive value is recognized
by the market targets.
iii. Defining promotional programs to reach those targets, which can include
communications and advertising programs.
iv. Creating channels to effectively distribute your products to your target
audience.
5) Determining who you’ll need to work with in successfully bringing the product to
market, including sales teams (to make sure that volumes can be attained),
6) Launching new products or product line extensions as needed.
7) Training the sales force to competitively position the product or service.
8) Budgeting of marketing programs so that the appropriate sales goals and
corporate strategies can be attained.
9) Executing on the plan - creating marketing project plans, and understanding
dependencies on other organizations. Also included are measurements to
determine the success of your marketing activities.
10) Identifying risks.
Strengths (what you’re really good at) Opportunities (how to leverage your strengths)
Weaknesses (where you’re falling short) Threats (your vulnerabilities due to your
weaknesses or competitor strengths)
An outcome of the SWOT analysis is to help you define what you’re good at and to
leverage those strengths to determine the opportunities you might be able to take
advantage of. Weaknesses reveal your vulnerabilities. By harnessing this data, you’ll
have a way to validate and guide your marketing investments. From this exercise, you
can also derive some key marketing objectives which carry through to the next exercise.
The ultimate goal is to uncover opportunities on which your company can capitalize.
To help understand or visualizing business issues is to organize them in a table like the
one shown below. List each key business issue and each possible marketing strategy
which could be considered in relation to each business issue – and then list any
resource requirements. Summarize these in the table below:
Finally, write your business environment analysis based on the data you collect and
make sure it’s aligned with the opportunities identified in your SWOT.
Market profiling involves the market research that needs to be carried out. The
ultimate goal is to identify the attractiveness of the marketplace and the competitive
posture you wish to assume. From this, you can determine the ultimate demand for
your product or service with respect to market share, revenue potential, and
ultimately, the profitability of your products and services. Market profiling is made up
of the following activities:
1) Analyzing the industry in which your company compete. Here are some
approaches to identifying the characteristics of the industry:
a. Identify if there are any political issues in the geographic area of interest.
b. Determine the general state of the economy.
c. Understand any of the societal trends or issues which may be prevalent in
your area of interest.
d. Consider the state of the technologies used in this market space
e. Secure actual growth rates of the industry using visuals to show the trend
lines.
f. Find out if there are any trends you can discern being used within this
industry space.
g. Determine how products and services are actually delivered from supplier
to customer.
a. Make a list of competitors, along with the products they offer. Can you
determine the total revenue of all competitors combined? This could
give you a rough estimate of the size of the overall marketplace.
b. Determine the brand images of each of the competitors.
c. Identify how each of the products are positioned in the market and with
respect to other competitors.
d. Find out who their suppliers are.
e. Determine the number of employees on staff, and whether they are
hiring more people or cutting back, and why.
f. Make a list of the kinds of activities they engaged in over the past year
or two. For example, did they introduce new products, adjust their
prices, embark on advertising campaigns, etc.
i. Take this list and figure out what you think they might do next,
and…
ii. Make a list of the kinds of things you might want to compete.
g. Use the following table to create a profile for each competitor:
If you were running an airport and wanted to find out the probability of success
for a retail store selling travel supplies and impulse items, you might need to
find out how many passengers go through the airport every day. You would
need to understand the number of planes, their capacity and schedules in
order to figure out how many people would actually be passing through a
given area, and then make assumptions about the number of people who
would have an interest in shopping in that store. Further, you would want to
figure out how much an average purchase might be in that store and multiply
that amount by the number of people who you believe might go into that store.
This is just the beginning…
Without further elaboration, it can be seen that the research involved in market
profiling is critical. You need to understand the industry, the competitors and
potential customers to understanding the size of the market for the opportunities in
which you are interested.
Once the market segments and the market targets are determined, actionable elements
of the marketing plan can be uncovered. The Marketing Mix is a commonly used term
appearing in many marketing publications and is used widely by marketing managers
and product managers to describe the framework for actual marketing plans and
programs for a company. To describe the marketing mix, one expression has become
predominant – the 4Ps, which include:
• Product – a complete description of the product, its attributes, and how its
benefits and value are positioned in the marketplace.
• Price – A translation of the value or willingness of a customer to pay for the
product.
• Promotion – how customers are informed about the product or how businesses
communicate benefits, value, pricing actions, or product attributes.
• Place (distribution channels) – the manner in which businesses deliver products
to customers.
The marketing plan should contain a description of all of the elements of the marketing
mix. Imagine that each P is a lever in a ‘marketing machine.’ As the product moves
through the market, the product team and/or marketing managers will be making
adjustments to those ‘levers’ of the marketing mix. The goal for this section of the
marketing plan is to define each of the elements of the marketing mix and how those
elements will come together in a cogent plan.
In managing the Marketing Mix, it is important to understand that no one lever is pulled
on its own. These levers are adjusted in a synchronized, holistic manner in response to
a variety of observed conditions or data about market conditions. For example, your
promotional mix may be made up of a series of print advertising campaigns, events, and
email advertising. Your pricing programs may include promotional tie-ins and discounts,
and your promotional campaigns may focus only on select channels..
Key practices to consider in the marketing mix are the creation of value propositions
and in positioning the product. The Value Proposition is used to define and prove the
economic or strategic benefit of the product or service for a given target market. It must
be expressed in the customer’s terms. The proof should be expressed clearly (e.g.,
improves revenue, saves time by…, improves operating efficiencies by…., enables
more rapid decision making with…ensures higher levels of quality or integrity
None of the elements of a marketing plan can be carried out unless the contributions
of all resources are known and understood. Depending on the size of the company
and degree of specialization, the resources should be identified, the known work
items should be defined, and the timelines and schedules should be clear to all
stakeholders. Here is a template to use with an example
In the table below, the launch plan activities (deliverables) are shown by function, with the
appropriate start and end dates. Of utmost importance is the understanding by all functional
launch team members, are the dependencies of one team on another. The synchronization of
tasks, activities, and deliverables is critical to achieve an on-time launch. You will want to
create a plan similar to this for your products.
As products and services evolve, the sales force should have updated information and training
so they are prepared to qualify customers and represent the value and benefits provided by the
products and services they represent. Whether or not the sales force is direct or indirect, they
need to be equipped with the right tools to drive the revenue objectives of the firm. This section
is devoted to defining the work needed to help the sales force to sell. It should be written simply
and concisely and in an objective style, and should include:
1) Selling Strategy – Provide a paragraph or some bullets that can be used to help the
sales teams to be successful
2) Describe the product, service or solution. If there are simple diagrams or product
architectures, they should be included here. Furthermore, provide the following:
3) Teach the Sales force to get the customer’s attention and get them excited about what’s
being offered. Each target group has a specific set of needs. These were identified
during the market segmentation and targeting. Compelling information which serves to
surprise customers and prospects because of your knowledge and understanding of
their specific issues and challenges will be highly beneficial to establishing rapport. The
following sub-sections establish this framework for you, and were described in other
parts of this marketing plan.
.
a. A description of the market segment and the target groups in this segment
b. Listing of observed customer issues and challenges, which may be articulated as
‘needs.’
c. The value proposition (see earlier sections on this topic) which can be used to
describe the benefits of the product, service or solution
d. The positioning statement. Pay particular attention to your advantages versus the
competition.
e. An analysis of the competition
No marketing or business plan is complete without a financial plan. The budgets established for
this marketing plan should be prepared within the context of the financial targets for the firm.
Furthermore, the financial plan establishes some of the metrics against which actual
performance will be evaluated as the plan is executed.
Here is a sample profit and loss statement with a more detailed view of the marketing plans and
programs magnified, to show how these marketing budgets are integrated with the financial
plan. The numbers are fictitious and are used for demonstration purposes only.
SALES PLAN
- Number of Units 1,000
- Price/Unit $ 5.00
- Total Sales $ 5,000 Marketing Budget:
COST OF GOODS SOLD (COGS) Print Advertising: 50
- Number of Units Sold 1000
Direct Mail: 30
- Cost per unit $2.00
- Total Costs of Goods Sold $ 2,000
Printing: 15
eMail Newsletters: 20
Gross Margin $3,000 PR Team: 25
GM % 60% Marketing Strategy: 85
Events: 40
DIRECT EXPENSES Premiums: 15
- Marketing 350 Promo Discounts 20
- R&D 500 Radio 30
- Sales 750
Training 20
- Depreciation 50
Total Expenses $1,650
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Total
Print
(trade periodicals, etc.)
Direct Mail (letter
shop/postage/printing)
E-mail
(list rental, email tools)
Premiums
(spell out details for each)
Events
(provide details)
Ad agency fees/creatives
(define each program)
Promotional discounts
Sales training
Radio/TV
Travel
Staffing
- Totals -
Just like the Launch plan, the marketing plan is usually carried out by a number of
individuals from other business functions, or other groups within the marketing
department. If, for example, there is a pricing team, and their programs are dependent
on the advertising and promotion team’s work with outside agencies, their work plans
need to be coordinated and the associated dependencies identified. As the marketing
teams meet together, or with the cross-functional product team, the deliverables and
metrics should be fully understood so that program status and issues can be
communicated.
The table below can be used to define each marketing plan element, the committed
time frames, responsible department, etc. This can be used to both summarize all
deliverables in one place, so that programs can be tracked.
Every dimension of the marketing plan requires an investment. Whether it’s carrying
out a research project or investing in a big advertisement. All activities are planned to
drive business. Therefore, measurements need to be put into place to determine
whether the investment yielded the intended results. Typical measurements might
consider:
- Did the marketing program generate the number of sales leads?
- Were the number of sales leads sufficient to create proposals which led to new
business?
- Did the advertisement generate more visits to the website?
- Did the new product generate higher levels of customer satisfaction?
As described, all operational elements and project plans need to come together
seamlessly, results tracked against performance metrics, and corrective actions taken.
Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. This section should be used to articulate the
risks and issues that may emerge if deadlines aren’t met or results aren’t achieved.
The mere mention of these items is only the first step. The real challenge is to define
the alternative action plans should a specific condition be encountered
Conclusion
A marketing plan, like other plans, is a roadmap, enabling a business to define its
current situation (where are we?), its goals (where do we want to go?) and the path
to get there (the marketing strategy and the tactical plans, as represented by the
marketing mix). Carrying out this process requires a degree of discipline, structure,
and some creativity. It cannot be emphasized enough that market profiling and
research be carried out on an ongoing basis. The marketplace is filled with so many
dynamics, that by not paying attention, you could lose your competitive advantage.
For additional information, contact Sequent Learning Networks, your trusted source
for marketing and product management training and advisory services.
www.sequentlearning.com