Preparing Your Marketing Plan

Disclaimer The information contained herein is for the sole purpose of information, guidance and education which was extracted and compiled from various sources. This template represents guidelines and SME Corporation Malaysia reserves the right to modify this template, amend or terminate the information published at any time without notice. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information presented as factual, however error or omission may still exist. The information, whether policies, procedures, samples, examples or guidelines is not guaranteed for accuracy and legality. Please seek legal advice to make certain your legal interpretation and decisions are correct. SME Corporation Malaysia is not responsible for errors, omissions or damages of any kind resulting from the use of the information contained herein. If you need further information, assistance or reference about SME or microfinance issues or in completing this business plan, please contact us at 1 300 88 1801 or the One Referral Centre or send us an email at info@smecorp.gov.my.
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[Place your business logo here]

[Business Name] Marketing Plan

Date prepared: [Date prepared] Prepared by : [Your Name] [Your Title] [Business Name] [Business Address]

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Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary Objectives 2.1 Corporate Objectives 2.2 Marketing Objectives 5 Environmental Scanning 3.1 Market Analysis 3.2 SWOT Analysis 3.3 Competitive Analysis Marketing Plan 4.1 Market Segmentation Analysis 4.2 Targeting Market 4.3 Marketing Strategy 4.4 Market Research Findings 4.5 Product Lifecycle The Marketing Plan 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Product Price Place / Distribution Promotion People 9 10 7 7 8 8 9 6 6 6 6 7 5 5 5 5 4

Financial Information 2. Contingency Plan

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Executive summary should highlight the most important parts. It forms an overview of your business marketing plan. It is suggested for the executive summary to be written at the very last so that it will describe a holistic overview of your marketing plan. It is recommended for the executive summary to include: Description of the Company

To include a brief summary of the company e.g. when was founded? To highlight on the important details about your company that you want the reader to know What products / services are you selling/providing? What make your products / services different from your competitors? Who are your potential customers? Why would they buy your products / use your services? Where will you be marketing your product/ services? Why did you choose this market and what research has been undertaken? What message would you like to send to this market with regard to your products/ services? Why are your products / services better than your competitors? What are the extra advantages? What are the attractions? Who are your direct and indirect competitors? Competitive advantage can be chosen from any element of the existing marketing mix known as 5Ps e.g. Product, Price, Place, Promotion and People

Brief description of products or services Target market

Competitive advantage

Why are your products / services better than your competitors? What are the extra advantages? What are the attractions? Who are your direct and indirect competitors? Financial Feasibility

What are your company financial strengths, its financial performance and forecasted cash flow? As for existing businesses, what has been your companys past performance in terms of business profitability, liquidity and balance sheet? What is your financial forecast for at least next 2 to 3 years comprising profit and loss statement, cash flow statement and balance sheet statement?

Keys to Success

What are your proposed strategies and action plan?

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What will be the key to your success in this business?

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2. OBJECTIVES
Corporate Objectives What is your mission statement in order to determine your businesses purpose and what you want to accomplish? Remember your mission statement should be market oriented and thus, vital for your business future success What are your companys main goal and marketing objectives? Remember the main goal of marketing objectives should lead to sales. It must be clear, measurable, have time frame and should be achievable.

Marketing Objectives

If your marketing objective does not lead to actual sales revenue, you will need to re-examine it so that it relates to sales results

3. ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING
Market Analysis

What type market analysis has your company undertaken? Remember : It is important for you to do market research to

analyse the market and to identify if there are any changes in the economic, social, political environments or any other factors that will affect your products/ services, customer purchasing power and business competition]

SWOT Analysis

Based on your assessment, what are your business strengths,

weaknesses, opportunities or threats? How do you plan to address them?

SWOT Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats

Description

Plan of Action to Address

Competitive Analysis

How do you rate against your competitors? How can your business do better than what they offer? Who are your top 5 competitors within the vicinity or in the industry? e.g. to provide an overview of product competitors

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Sample of Competitors Details Analysis: Competitor A Establishment Date When were they establishe d Size No. of Staff Market Share (%) Approximate market share Value to Customers E.g. convenience, quality, price or services? Strengths Weaknesses

B C D

Market Segmentation

Through market segmentation analysis, you will be able to: Identify sales and the development of goods and services Explore consumers needs Divide homogenous subgroup e.g. male/ female, homemakers, senior citizens, children Clarify the attributes of products/services life cycle for each subgroup Categorize the different income brackets Analyse local social and cultural characteristics Classify purchasing patterns e.g. motives for buying, products usage. Who are your potential customers? Why would they buy your products/services? You can identify your target market by looking at the following factors: o Geographical: location, population size. o Demographical: age, gender, income of the population around your business area. o Psychographic: social class, lifestyle, interest. o Behavioural: usefulness of product, brand loyalty

Target market

Marketing strategy

Are you exporting your products / Services? What is the percentage? If only for domestic market, explain why? To describe market situation in the Past, Present, and foreseeable Future] Review changes in the market, which can include: Market share. Leadership. Players. Competition. Market shifts.
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Market Research Findings

Costs. Pricing

To highlight the overview of your market research findings e.g. :

o o o o o Product Lifecycle anticipated demand; customer profiles; customer characteristics; customer needs and wants ; and what is the latest/ new in thing.]

Product life cycle is the life of a product in the market with respect to business/commercial costs and sales measures that go through multiple phases as follows: o Introductory period: o Growing period: o Maturing period; and o Declining period. As a product moves through the stages of its life cycle, the business environment surrounding the product changes, requiring re-examination and adjusting the marketing mix (5Ps): o Product o Price o Place / Distribution o Promotion o People It is crucial for a company to respond properly and in a timely manner to the sales market by planning new products/ services and strategies or enhancing existing products/services

4. THE MARKETING PLAN

Product The product or service offered to the customer by your company must consider: o the physical attributes of your products /services, o what they do, o how they differ from your competitors and o what benefits do they provide to your potential customers. The product decisions should consider the product's advantages and should include: Brand name Quality Scope of product line Warranty Packaging How do you intend to price your products which will help you reach your target profit margin? How will you price your product or service so that the price remains competitive but allows you to make a reasonable profit?
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Price

How you price your product/service can influence your customer-buying motive. You may wish to consider the following: i. List price ii. Discounts iii. Bundling iv. Payment terms and financing options v. Leasing options (if any) Your pricing strategies will have direct impact on the profitability and future sustainability of the business. It is imperative that some research be done to compare your products prices with similar products in the market.

Place / Distribution

Where will your company sell its products or services?

How will your products or services reach your customers in your target market? What distribution channels and methods that you will use to distribute your products/services? i. Distribution channels e.g. retail, distributors/ middle man or distributing yourself. ii. Motivating the channel - e.g. reward their performance. iii. Criteria for evaluating distributors- e.g. ability to distribute / sell the products/ services to customers. iv. Locations - state the geographical area you need to cover

v.

Logistics - transportation, warehousing, and order fulfilment / storage The location of the distribution place may impact the product marketability and exposure to potential customers. Good locations can be expensive especially if located in high-end areas.

Sample of sales and distribution channels: Channel Type e.g. Shopfront, internet, direct mail, export or wholesale Products/ Services List of all the products/ services to be sold via this channel Percentage of Sales (%) What percentage of overall sales do you anticipate to sell via this channel? Advantages What are the advantages of using this channel for these products / services? Disadvantages What are the challenges when using this channel? How will you address them?

Promotion

What methods of promotion will you use to communicate the features and benefits of your products / services to your potential customers? It is essential that the promotional strategy ensures consumers find out about your product / service. How much is your company willing to spend on the promotional costs? Is it going to be cost effective? And why? You should also consider advertising/promoting your product
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via the internet by setting your own website. This would broaden your market base to include regional and international clients. The frequently used approaches for marketing / promotion are: Leaflets and Brochures Internet own website and e-commerce Windows display Newspaper Radio / Television Billboards / Banners Promotion decisions involve advertising, public relations / publicity, sales promotion, personal sales etc. It is suggested for you to provide planned promotion / advertising type as example below.

Planned Promotion / Advertising Type

Print media advertising, online advertising, mailout, giveaway, media release or event

Expected Business Improvement

How will this improve your business success?

Cost (RM)

Target Date
e.g. Dec 2009

People

How would your level of service and the people who will provide that service be used in marketing your products or services to the customer? Who will be providing this service and what kind of training will they receive? Do you plan to offer any incentives to your customer service representatives? How do you plan to measure customer satisfaction?

5. BUDGETTING
Budget allocation What is the size budget allocation for sales, expenses and marketing, and how was this determined? You need to prepare and provide sales projection for at least 3 years on monthly or weekly basis that comprises the following: i. Profit and loss statement ii. Cash flow statement iii. Balance sheet statement How do you intend to source for funding for the above expenses / outflows? Bank borrowings (e.g. overdraft) carry interest charges and can be relatively expensive. The results of such advertising efforts will take time and there is an element of uncertainty of success.
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Source of funding

Therefore, careful consideration needs to be given to planning your marketing efforts and to undertake the marketing action plan over a period of time so as to reduce the financing burden and to ensure that the promotion is done in a continuous mode.

6. CONTINGENCY PLAN
Business risk What are the potential risks in your business? How do you plan to overcome them? You must consider the possible risks to the business and make contingency plans to address them. Some possible risks can be identified under the weaknesses and threats sections of the SWOT analysis. You also need to identify: i. Symptoms of failure ii. Alternative strategies

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