Marketing & Business Plans

8/2/2019 Marketing & Business Plans

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MARKETING & BUSINESS PLANS


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To carry out their responsibilities marketing manager whether at the

corporate, division, business, or product level follow a marketing process.

Working within the plans set by the levels above them, product managers

come up with a marketing plan for individual products, lines, or brands.

A marketing plan is a written document that summarizes what the marketer

has learned about the marketplace and indicates how the firm plans to

reach its marketing objectives. It contains tactical guidelines for the

marketing programs and financial allocations over the planning period.

Marketing plans are becoming more customer and competitor oriented, better

reasoned, and more realistic than in the past. They draw more inputs from

all the functions and are team developed. Planning is becoming a

continuous process to respond to rapidly changing market conditions.

The marketing process consists of :

Analyzing marketing opportunities

Researching and selecting target markets

Designing marketing strategies

Planning marketing programs

Organizing, implementing & controlling the marketing effort


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Analyzing marketing opportunities : To identify its potential long-run

opportunities given its market experience & core competencies.

For this, it needs to manage a reliable marketing research &

information system. Marketing research gathers significantinformation about the market environment, both Micro

environment & Macro environment.

Selecting Target Markets : After analyzing market opportunities, it is

ready to select target markets. Marketing practice calls for dividing

the market into major market segments, evaluating each segment on the basis of size, growth, profitability and targeting those market

segments that the company can best serve.

Developing Marketing Strategies : Having developed the positioning

strategy, the allocation of resources for marketing expenditure,marketing mix etc. strategy will have to take into account, changing

global opportunities and effect any change if required and develop

strategies accordingly.


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Planning marketing programs : To transform marketing strategy intomarketing programs, managers are to make basic decision onmarketing expenditures, marketing mix and marketing allocation.Decide how to divide the total marketing budget among the various

tools in the marketing mix - and decide on the allocation of themarketing budget to the various products, channels, promotionmedia and sales areas.

Managing the Marketing effort : The company must build a marketingorganization that is capable of implementing the marketing plan

through sales persons, sales managers, marketing researchers, ad.Persons, product/brand managers, customer service personnel etc.For feedback and control, three types of marketing control throughAnnual plan, Profitability control and Strategic control.

Contents of Marketing Plan : Each product level, product line, brand -must develop a marketing plan for achieving its goals. The marketingplan is one of the most important outputs of the marketing process.Marketing plans have several sections, which are listed as follows :


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Executive Summary : This presents a brief summary of the marketing plan, focusingon the objectives, strategies, and expected financial performance. It provides abrief overview, which is useful for quickly reviewing the major elements of theplan by the top management and also for easily comparing the product plans.The executive summary will also have a table of contents.

Current marketing situation analysis : This section presents relevant backgrounddata on sales, costs, the market, competitors, and various forces in the macroenvironment. How do we define the market, how big is it, and how fast is itgrowing ? What are the relevant trends ? What is the product offering andwhat critical issues do we face ?

Opportunity & Issue analysis : All the above information shall be used for SWOT

analysis and related issues facing the product line.Objectives : Define the financial & marketing goals - sales, volume, market shareand profit etc.

Marketing Strategy : Broad marketing approach to be used to achieve plansobjective - specifics of target markets, positioning, and marketing cost levels. Italso outlines the specific strategies for each marketing-mix element andexplains how each responds to the threats, opportunities and critical issues

spelt out earlier in the plan.Action program : It is the implementation part of the plan. It spells out how the

marketing strategies will be turned into specific action programs to achieve thebusiness objectives.


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Projected profit-loss statement : It forecasts the plans expected financial outcomes & after approval by the top management, the budget becomes thebasis for materials buying, production scheduling, personnel planning, andmarketing operations.

Monitoring & controls : It outlines the controls that will be used to monitor the

progress and allow the top management to review implementation resultsand spot the products that are not meeting their goals & and takingcorrective/remedial action.

Marketing Mix - In Marketing Planning :

Where we are (SWOT)

Where we want to be (OBJECTIVES)

Designing market Strategy

Developing market Plan/Program

Appropriation Budgeting, estimating sales/profit

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Marketing & Business Plans