Marketing - Marketing Plans
The Lowdown on Marketing Plans

The Lowdown on Marketing Plans

Typically, marketing plans are used in product-oriented businesses, but have an importance to service companies as well. A separate plan should be devised at least once a year for each distinctive service or group of related services that the firm offers.

A marketing plan is not simply a list of advertising or other promotional activities. A good marketing plan should begin with an evaluation of the entire potential market for each product category and include an analysis of consumer behavior, the competition and its product, and the strengths and weaknesses of the company as a competitor. Then you need to detail your product positioning and product attributes, including its benefits and features. Planned sales and promotional activities also need to be addressed. Then you need to subject your spreadsheets to some heavy-duty numbers crunching and develop profit and loss pro formas (projections) for each product. The conclusion to a marketing plan predicts competitive reaction and a very brief consideration of possible longer-term product options.

Some steps in creating a marketing plan that takes a serious, individual look at each product or service group will create analysis overlaps between other product or company-wide strategies. This is fine. It is extremely important to look at each product line and service separately. Doing your homework for each product may reveal very different product characteristics or competitive positioning requirements that may not have been considered otherwise.