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.

Explore the essential components and characteristics of a marketing plan in this quiz. Understand the importance of clear objectives, systematic content, and the integration of online strategies. This quiz will help you develop measurable and realistic marketing plans for various business environments.