How to Write a Marketing Plan

How to write a marketing plan

 

The other evening I ran a workshop called “How to Write a Marketing Plan” for the Chartered Institute of Marketing and East Riding of Yorkshire Council in Beverley (Yorkshire). This blog outlines what I presented and it includes an interactive Prezi.

What is Marketing?

Before starting the process of looking at how to write a marketing plan, it is worth spending a moment defining marketing:

Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying and satisfying customer requirements profitability. CIM (2009).

Now, as an ardent social marketer, I do have a slight issue with the CIM’s definition of marketing because its main focus is on commercial activities. Those of you who are familiar with my blog will know that I have already written about this and will not be surprised when I say that I prefer the AMA’s definition of marketing:

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. AMA (2013).

Ultimately it will be up to you to decide which of the two definitions you prefer. There is however one thing that cannot be disputed and that is, marketing is a practice that requires a structure to support those who implement it. This blog will now give you an outline framework for writing a marketing plan (another option is the presentation below).

Click on the center to start the presentation.

What is a Marketing Plan?

The first thing I have to say about a marketing plan is that it should not be confused with a marketing strategy although it is part of the same process. The marketing plan is a tactical process used to support the launching of a new product or articulating the activities for the coming year, a definition could be:

It is an action plan used to guide an organisation’s marketing activities for a given period.

You should also bear in mind that a  marketing plan should not turn into an academic exercise, marketing plans are extremely important as they can help you understand your customers by supporting the implementation of a feed-back mechanism or research process. It can help you win new customers through the development of relevant and timely promotional campaigns. It is key in finding new business opportunities: you do this by setting clear objectives for your team. Finally, it is critical if you are looking to win funding or capital support from investors: the document you produce will be used to judge the viability of your organization’s vision.

Marketing plans can also provide businesses with the opportunity to match key activities to the target markets needs. It facilitates the linking of objectives within the organization to the target market priorities. More importantly it provides focus and ensures that everyone is doing what they should be doing. The development of a marketing plan should happen after you have done the strategic analysis, we will now spend a moment looking at this topic.

Strategic Analysis.

Strategic analysis is a process used in the development of the marketing strategy and the marketing plan, figures 1 and 2 below illustrate the process.

Strategic Management Framework 1

Figure 1: Strategic Management Framework 1

Strategic Management Framework 2

Figure2: Strategic Management Framework Option 2

To develop a marketing plan you must fully understand the market place you are operating in. Use the PESTLE tool to review the macro environment (you can see an example here) and Porters 5 Forces to review the micro environment. You should also establish where your brand sits on the product life cycle continuum, this is particularly important if it is at the beginning or end of the life cycle (think of what happened to Kodak). If you are part of a big organisation with the appropriate resources then you may want to write up the strategic analysis as a report. Elements of this report can then be added to your marketing plan: a summary of the relevant  facts is all you need. If you are an SME and you don’t need to write up a report, make yourself a notice board where you can stick on the key element you need to consider,  examples could be:

  • Changes in the law will mean that you now have to…
  • A new competitor has just launched…
  • Technology changes mean that…
  • Prices for similar products have…

This helps you set the scene and should provide you and/or the marketing plan reader some confidence that what you are about to propose makes sense. What you now need to do is set some objectives.

Marketing Objectives.

You need to articulate the marketing objectives, first at the strategic level and then at the short term level, ie for this particular marketing plan. It should highlight why you are doing what you say you are gone to do (what this objective really means to the business). As mentioned earlier, the marketing plan is your framework for achieving your targets and objectives. Included within your objectives should be the way you will manage your different market segments.

Market Segmentation.

You will have the option of targeting a number of segments. They could be based on demographics (like age or sex), geographic (where they are in the world), psychographic (like social standing) and/or behavioural. Your marketing plan should have a section explaining how you deal with each of these. You need to be very clear which you are targeting and why, you may need a different approach for each element of the marketing mix.

Marketing Mix.

The bulk of your marketing plan should focus on the marketing mix. These could be any or all of the following (you could add others if you they are also important and these others do not necessary have to be a word starting with the letter “P”):

  • Product
  • Price
  • Promotion
  • Place
  • People
  • Partnership
  • Process ….

Lets look at some of these in detail now.

Product.

You will already have establish a brand image and differentiator for your product (or service): this should not be part of the marketing plan as you should not be changing it every year. You will use this image and differentiator as your driving theme throughout your marketing plan. Your marketing plan should focus on the the products sale profile. Table 1 illustrates the sales by brand over a year and as a percentage of total turnover. This will drive other elements of the marketing plan.

Marketing Plan Product

Table 1: Sales Profile

Price.

Having established the sales profile you can now map out a pricing strategy for the brands. It should be done to maximise profits, optimise cash flow and increase utilisation (in most cases). Table 2 illustrates the profit margin by brand over a year (you may also want to do this for a week and/or at different times of the day: restaurateurs use this to develop special deals). What we can see happening here is profits are at their highest during the busy seasons and lowest when you are trying to get rid of old season stock.

Marketing Plan Price

Table 2: Profit margins by brand through out the year.

Promotion.

The promotion element will require a great deal of work. You should deicide when promotional activities are to take place. They should be syncronised with your sales plan ensuring maximum exposure takes place before peak sales. You should consider both traditional and digital channels and how they might impact your target market segment. Unlike the product and price elements of the marketing mix you should  also consider who will be doing the promotion for you and how much it will cost. You will need this for your marketing budget. Don’t forget PR,  this is what can (or should you be doing) to gain exposure without paying for it. Table 3 illustrates the sort of things you should consider.

Marketing Plan Promotion

Table 3: Types of promotional activities.

 Place.

The place element of the marketing mix is your channels to market. How and where are you going to engage with your customers? This could be a shop, the internet, trade shows, telesales etc. For each of these channels you should have an idea of what volume of sales will be going through it: monitor this and take appropriate action if it is much higher or lower then expected. You should also consider the PROCESS used to “complete the deal”, test it yourself and make sure it works.

I have gone through the main 4Ps of the marketing mix, you need to include other elements if you think they are important. So in summary, your marketing plan should be made up of:

  • Executive Summary.
  • Market summary (pick out key points from the PESTLE and 5 Forces.
  • Marketing Objectives (including Market segments and likely sales impact).
  • Action plans for the Key Marketing Mix Elements (Includes, Who, when, where, How and Costs).
  • Monitor and review process.
  • Contingencies.

 

 

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Dr Alan Shaw is a Senior Lecturer and Marketing consultant focusing on a range of sectors. His main interests are in strategy development, social marketing, digital marketing, advertising, consumer behaviour and marketing application.
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