Marketing Plan Basics

The Marketing Plan is a highly detailed, heavily researched and, hopefully, well written report that many inside and possibly outside the organization will evaluate. It is an essential document for both large corporate marketing departments and for startup companies. Essentially the Marketing Plan:
• forces the marketing personnel to look internally in order to fully understand the results of past marketing decisions.
• forces the marketing personnel to look externally in order to fully understand the market in which they operate.
• sets future goals and provides direction for future marketing efforts that everyone within the organization should understand and support.
• is a key component in obtaining funding to pursue new initiatives.
The Marketing Plan is generally undertaken for one of the following reasons:
1. Needed as part of the yearly planning process within the marketing functional area.
2. Needed for a specialized strategy to introduce something new, such as new product planning, entering new markets, or trying a new strategy to fix an existing problem.
3. Is a component within an overall business plan, such as a new business proposal to the financial community.
There are many ways to develop and format a marketing plan (you can find more ideas in the KnowThis Marketing Plan topic area). The approach taken here is to present a 6-Part plan that includes:
1. Part 1: Purpose and Mission
2. Part 2: Situational Analysis o Product, Market Analysis o Distribution Analysis o Competitor Analysis o Financial Analysis o Other Analysis
3. Part 3: Strategy and Objectives o Marketing Strategy o Marketing Objectives
4. Part 4: Tactical Programs o Markets o Product o Promotion o Distribution o Pricing o Others
5. Part 5: Budgets,Performance Analysis, Implementation o Budgeting and Analysis o Implementation
6. Part 6: Additional Considerations
This plan is aimed at individual products and product lines, however,