Marketing Plan Overview

Marketing Plan

• A written document used for commercial planning.
• Essential for business management.
• Characteristics:
  • Simple and periodic.
  • Complete and realistic.
  • Clear and objective writing.
  • Systematized content.
  • Define responsibilities and establish control.
  • Assumed by management and marketing personnel.
  • Measurable and achievable objectives.
  • Tailored.
  • Rigorous and adaptable.
• Must include budget and marketing aspects.

Marketing Plan - Implementation

• Includes businesses operating in both physical and virtual environments.
• Online strategies are fundamental.
• Online marketing aspects include e-commerce and online communication.
• Online strategies should have synergy with the general marketing strategy.
• Online strategies employ similar marketing mix instruments, but with distinct characteristics.
• Characteristics emphasizing internet business:
  • Easy access to information.
  • Enhanced consumer power (prosumers).
  • The ability to understand data better and spot trends.
  • Possibilities for direct customer interaction.
  • Direct feedback loops.

Marketing Plan - Structure

• Includes:
  • Situation analysis: diagnostic, forecasting.
  • Objective establishment.
  • Strategy definition.
  • Action plan.
  • Commercial budget and sales forecast.
  • Control.

Marketing Plan - Stages of Planning and Content (Stage 1)

• The stage involves several questions:
  • Where are we now?
  • What are the current trends and needs of the market?
• The analysis identifies internal and external factors.
• Includes a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis.
• The analysis covers external factors (macro and micro environments).

Marketing Plan - Stages of Planning and Content (Stage 2)

• Focuses on objectives.
• Defining objectives is a key component to achieve goals.
• Questions needed to be considered when defining objectives:
  • What do we aim to achieve?
  • What sales volume do we want to achieve?
  • What level of profitability do we aim to reach?
• Clear goal setting is important to establish metrics for success.
• Crucial to set measurable aims (qualitative and quantitative).

Marketing Plan - Stages of Planning and Content (Stage 3)

• Focuses on the strategy.
• Questions to consider in the strategy stage:
  • How will we achieve our goals?
  • What are the essential elements for success?
• Key elements involve segmentation, positioning, competitive positioning and a marketing mix.

Marketing Plan - Stages of Planning and Content (Stage 4)

• Focuses on implementation.
• Questions to consider when planning implementation:
  • What has been planned?
  • How will it be put into action?
  • Who will be responsible?
  • When will it start and end?
  • What will be the cost?
• Includes details on resources (human, material, and financial), responsible personnel, execution timescales, costs, and expected results.

Marketing Plan - Stages of Planning and Content (Stage 5)

• Focuses on control.
• Control measures to consider in this stage include detecting deviations and applying corrective actions.
• Questions to consider include:
  • What metrics need to be measured?
  • How will we ensure plan adherence?
• This stage compares actual results to the planned objectives and assesses any adjustments.

Marketing Plan - Budget

• A critical element.
• Evaluation of costs based on projected sales volumes, market share, and desired profitability.
• Aims to provide both planning and control.
• Linking costs to sales actions is key.
• Sales forecasts are important for developing the budget.
• Maximizing the benefit function is a core principle of financial optimization.

Marketing Plan - Budget - Sales Forecast

• The financial forecast guides the budget.
• Allocation of marketing resources should maximize benefit.
• Key formula: B° = Q (P - CV - G) - CF- A - F - D - X, where:
  • B°: Profit function.
  • Q: Sales quantity.
  • P: Price.
  • CV: Variable cost per unit.
  • G: Additional variable costs.
  • CF: Fixed costs.
  • A: Advertising costs.
  • F: Sales force costs.
  • D: Distribution costs.
  • X: Levels of product quality.

Marketing Plan - Control

• The marketing plan requires ongoing evaluation of effectiveness and success, along with any needed adjustments.
  • Annual plan control: assesses whether the plan's objectives were met.
  • Profitability control: identifies areas where the company gains or loses money.
  • Efficiency control: analyses the efficiency of marketing costs.
  • Strategic control: checks that the company aligns with potential market opportunities for products and channels.
• Includes the definition of standards for each aspect of the plan.
• Measures actual performance against these standards.
• Comparisons highlight differences between expected and actual outcomes. Corrective measures are taken to account for variances.

Marketing Plan - Audit

• A key aspect of checking marketing effectiveness.
• Focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of strategies, resources, and methods.
• Provides advice on improving marketing practices.
• Involves creating and identifying critical success factors (CSFs) based on variances, evaluating activity performance, and establishing dashboards of key metrics.

Marketing Budget - Actions

• Links costs to specific marketing activities.
• Essential for controlling and predicting spending.
• The budget is a detailed financial plan for implementing the marketing plan.

Marketing Budget - Stages

• Each stage of the plan has a corresponding budget portion.