Running head: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MARKETING PLAN IN AN ORGANIZATION 1

The Importance of the Marketing Plan in an Organization

Terri Berry Waldron

Florida Institute of Technology: BUS5470
1/20/2108
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A marketing plan is extremely important to an organization because of the direct

relationship that can be correlated between an organizations’ marketing plan and its’ business

performance. A company is better able react to a dynamic market by developing dynamic

capabilities for responding to an ever-changing market environment. The marketing plan assists

companies in “applying their knowledge and skills to acquire, combine, and transform available

resources” (Morgan, 1992), directly affecting the outcome of a firm in meeting their strategic

goals. The marketing plan is the key to staying competitive.

Marketing plans act as a guide toward the goals of an organization, and an instrument to

keep the organization focused (SCORE, 2012). When organizations create these detailed maps,

they are more likely to succeed in reaching their goals on time and with a minimal amount of

stress. By plotting one’s goals and marketing strategies, a company can be proactive in

responding to the market, and realistic about the time frame and energy expended in achieving

their goals.

An organizations’ marketing plan is a clear and concise vision that identifies what an

organization wants to achieve, the time frame for achieving, the best path for achieving, and the

internal and external mechanics of communication and distribution efforts necessary to achieve

those goals. It defines the target market of the business, describes the competition and their

offerings in comparison to one’s own offerings, and outlines specific goals for the business. The

plan also declares the marketing techniques and tactics, methods of promotion, and the

marketing strategy objectives of the company. An effective marketing plan should include

income projections and define the monitoring processes for measuring results. (Leventhal, 2005).

The act of documenting the items that go into the marketing plan requires a thorough market

analysis and forces an organization to know their market space completely. By knowing your
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market, your competition, and your customers, you can only then outline the right strategies for

providing offers that will satisfy the customers. (Vargo, 2004)

Because a marketing plan is a living, breathing document, it may be modified to reflect

the current market environment as the map is followed. For this reason, defining and

establishing timeframes is integral part of any effective marketing plan. These timeframes reflect

what an organization wants to get accomplished, and when these accomplishments are to be

realized. An organization should continually track, monitor, and measure performance against

this roadmap to ensure that they are on the path to success. At any point in time, the

organization may decide to modify the plan in a proactive effort to stay focused and keep on

track to reaching their goals, given the current market condition. The key here is flexibility and

change, which are truly important parts of knowing that your marketing plan is working. The

marketing plan allows an organization to adapt to change in the current market environment, and

if necessary, change the course of their marketing strategies to remain competitive in the target

market, and continue to maintain and deliver offerings that have value and satisfy customer

needs. Necessary adjustments to the marketing plan will result in the success in meeting the

expectations for projected growth and profit of the company. (Murray, 2016) Therefore,

continual revisit and revise cycles to the marketing plan and designated timeframes, will attribute

to not only the short-term goals of an organization, but also to the long-term the goals for its’

growth and profit.

In an article in the Huffington Post by Neil Sheth, 2015, he discusses the importance of

Elon Musk’s superior knowledge of brand awareness, hype, and product confidence to making

the ventures taken on by Mr. Musk so successful. Sheth indicates that these attributes even

earned Musk the title of the Silicon Valley’s best marketer. (Sheth, 2015) To understand how
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these attributes play such an important role in success in business, it is worth looking at how

Elon Musk himself believes that these attributes have positively impacted his outstanding

success. In Sheth’s article, he highlights the fact that Musk is a proponent of highly effective

marketing plans and marketing strategies for realizing growth, profit, and success within an

organization. Musk is quoted as making the following statement that unquestionably highlights

Musk’s position on the subject, “You may not have the Model X, but with the right marketing

plan, your product might as well be one.” Sheth expounds on three marketing strategies that

Elon Musk documents, and then implements in all of his marketing plans for his various

ventures.

The first of Musk’s strategies is to make your brand stand out from the others. You must

know your competition, which can also be likened to knowing your enemy. If you don’t know

your enemy, you can’t outmatch or outplay them. This means that you need to understand the

products, product features, and product feature gaps of your competition. You also need to

understand how your competition communicates and promotes their products.

In addition to understanding the competition, organizations also need to know and

understand their customer. A company needs to truly understand their market and the customers

that delineate that market. By doing so, they can build products that have value to the customer.

This ultimately drives greater profitability and return on investment. (Leventhal, 2005). Building

a marketing plan requires analysis of the market and its’ customers to gain information for

becoming more innovative and better branded to meet the needs of the customer. The

information that an organization gathers in this effort must be acted upon, or it is useless.

The second of Musk’s strategies is to become very social. If you want your product to

stand out, you must get the word out to the masses. All types of social media should be
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leveraged to achieve this goal. The object is to communicate effectively with everyone,

especially those people that represent your target market.

Musk’s third strategy is to let your content do the talking. Every marketing plan should

include a detailed strategy for content that will be delivered to the target market. It is extremely

important to identify who this content is to be addressing, and what the expected outcome of

publishing the information, or content is to be.

A marketing plan ultimately helps an organization to make decisions by identifying how

those decisions will affect both the organizations’ short and long-term goals. The marketing

plan places emphasis on where the company wants to be positioned in the future by providing

short-term and long-term objectives, milestones, and methodologies for achieving them; and by

continually monitoring and measuring progress toward those milestones over time, so that

adjustments can be made along the way in adaptation for reaching long-term goals, including

return on investment, and profitability. (Carr, 2011)

The marketing plan must be embraced both internally and externally within an

organization, because it integrates the business functions of an organization. An organization

must be diligent to communicate, involve, and gain deep commitment to making the plan work

across all organizational boundaries. Commitment to the marketing plan should span across both

intra and inter-organizational boundaries for a company to have long-term viability. Employees

and partners should be motivated and incentivized by the marketing plan.

In summary, the marketing plan is fundamental to an organization because it directly

drives the performance of a business. It forces an organization to know its’ customers and target

market, understand its’ competition, set time-framed objectives and goals, and build effective

marketing strategies that for meet customer needs. The marketing plan keeps the organization
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focused, flexible, and adaptive. Creation and implementation of a customer-focused, service-

oriented marketing plan to sense and respond to the market, strengthens competitive advantage

for an organization. By careful design and implementation of the marketing plan, and by being

flexible and adaptive through continual revisit and revise of a well-defined plan starting point,

organizations can continue to provide offerings that customers want, and maximize their profits

as a result. The purpose of marketing is to produce greater value in exchange, (Vargo, 2004).

By taking a customer-centric approach, collaborating with and learning from ones’ customers in

to understand and meet their needs, an organizations’ business performance is greatly enhanced.

The marketing plan is the key to how an organization communicates to, and informs consumers

about the offerings of the firm, and ultimately turns consumers into buying customers, (Carr,

2012). An organization who commits themselves to planning, is thereby committing themselves

to succeeding.
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References

Carr, S. (2011) Is a marketing plan necessary? CRANIO: The Journal of Craniomandibular

Practice, 29(2), 164+. Retrieved from

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A254678213/AONE?u=melb26933&sid=AONE&xid=44f2a

13a.

Leventhal R.C., (2005) "The importance of marketing", Strategic Direction, Vol. 21 Issue: 6,

pp.3-4. Retrieved from

https://doi.org/10.1108/02580540510594084

Vargo, S. L., & Lusch, R. F. (2004). Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing. Journal

Of Marketing, 68(1), 1-17. Retrieved from

https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.68.1.1.24036

Morgan, N. A. (2012). Marketing and business performance. Journal of the Academy of

Marketing Science, 40(1), 102-119. Retrieved from

https://doi-org.portal.lib.fit.edu/10.1007/s11747-011-0279-9

Sheth, N. (2015, November 10). Elon musk has a marketing plan. do you? The Huffington Post.

Retrieved from

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/neil-sheth/elon-musk-has-a-marketing_b_8499344.html
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Murray, D. S. (2016, November). Marketing plan is absolute necessity. Wenatchee Business

Journal, 30(8), 18. Retrieved from

http://link.galegroup.com.portal.lib.fit.edu/apps/doc/A470462342/ITOF?u=melb26933&sid=ITO

F&xid=c2225898

SCORE (2012, January 23). Why is a Marketing Plan Important for a New Business? Next

Avenue. Retrieved from

http://www.nextavenue.org/why-marketing-plan-important-new-business/