Marketing Planning

Marketing Plan A detailed statement of the marketing strategy. It provides information about the way in which the strategy was drawn up and how it will be implemented

Plan contents Actual contents will vary depending on size & type of the company, but most will include the following: An introduction or overview Company objectives & related marketing objectives Marketing strategy (how objectives will be achieved) Action plans (giving details of the various activities, with target dates)

Plan contents (cont) Detailed budgets, showing estimated revenue/costs for each department/product A means of evaluating & monitoring budgets

Benefits of Marketing Planning Encourages firms to reflect on their marketing activity, to develop sound marketing policies & to provide the means to evaluate them Provides a means of encouraging an integrated approach to achieving objectives. Employees will know what their role is, which could be motivating, especially when they can see goals actually being reached

Benefits of Marketing Planning Ensures that resources are in place when needed Objectives & targets include time constraints, which could be used as a means of evaluation Helps firms to utilise their strengths in meeting identified opportunities

Benefits of Marketing Planning Overall, helps firms to avoid unexpected complications, or to plan how they will respond to the unexpected

Problems A marketing plan may focus too much on product development or increasing sales and not enough on customer needs & requirements The means of evaluating a marketing plan must centre on satisfying customer needs – not, for example, on how successful an advertising campaign is. Such a campaign might win awards, but does it result in increased sales?

Problems Success of a marketing plan depends to a large extent on other areas of the company sharing the aim of satisfying customer needs. This requires effective communication Marketing plans may be too long and contain so much information that the main points are lost External factors may change, making the plan redundant or out of date – too much time planning may be a waste of time in a fast-changing evironment