Marketing essay on: Marketing plan for increasing sales
Introduction
The assignment begins with describing and defining a Marketing Plan followed by description of its contents. It then explains relationship between marketing plan and business plan. The use of marketing plans has been showed tactically and strategically. The typical structure of marketing plan has also been described considering if all marketing plans are same or different. The discussion includes various elements of marketing plan while showing the purpose of each sections followed by common sources of getting the information and techniques for preparing the section. Then the details about links between elements of marketing plan have been discussion if any of the elements are independent. After this come assumptions of marketing plan. Lastly is the discussion on common misconceptions which are generally made in the process of making a marketing plan. The essay is then followed by a conclusion of overall discussion.
Marketing Plan
Marketing Plan is a written document which describes the marketing strategies and current market position of a business along with marketing efforts and advertising needed for coming year. It contains details of markets to be targeted, company positioning and marketing mix which would be required to accomplish goals of marketing. Marketing plans have a life span of one to five years depending on the goals or targets to be achieved. It shows the step by step procedure for achieving marketing objectives of the business. In other words it outlines the actions needed to be performed to interest potential clients persuading them to buy product or service which the company offers. It is a management process of setting marketing objectives through logical sequence of activities for formulation of plans (Ferrell and Hartline 2010).
A marketing plan includes competitor’s details, strength and weakness of business and competitors from market point of view and lastly about demand for goods and services. Few other elements contained in marketing plan are pricing strategy, segmentation of market, description of location of business including its advantages and disadvantages, budget for marketing for promotion and advertising and special features of goods and services offered by the company. The need for marketing plan depends on three factors namely margin and sales, market types and lastly managerial reasons for developing a marketing plan. It is necessary because of the complications caused by external and internal factors creating hassles in achieving goals of organization. Marketing plan is an important document of business which needs to be updated regularly from time to time. Periodical revisit to this plan can address change in demand, price issues, market conditions etc (Debelak 2000).
Relationship between Marketing Plan and Business Plan
Business plan tells about the business and its goals and will change with change in operations.
To describe business plan in detail, it is a written document stating the type or nature of business, its financial background and the marketing and sales strategy of business. It covers a wide arena of strategic alliance, location, finance, staffing etc. It serves as a road map giving directions to the business. The time spent in making and updating a business plan is considered as investment which pays in long run. Business plan contains the guidelines for business, description of business, about the product and services which business offers, the market and competitive analysis, about the operations and management, the supporting documents and lastly financial components of the business. Business plan on external front focuses on financial stakeholders who are customers and investors. On internal front a business plan focuses on restructuring of finance and organization while developing new product and service (Ferrell and Hartline 2010).
Marketing plan explains the motive of customer for buying the product or service. For reaching the customer it considers various factors such as nature of competition, size of market, potential price and channels through which customers can be reached. It is a blueprint communicating the value of products or services to the customer. Marketing plan can be defined as list of activities needed to be carried out in order to achieve goals and objectives of business. It can be either short term or long term ranging from one to five years. Marketing plan needs timely revaluation so that it can updated as per the changes in demand and market conditions. Marketing Plan stands in the middle place which changes with change in preferences of customer and market trends. Thus Marketing plan and Business plan though complement each other but operate at different scales (McDonald and Wilson 2011).
Marketing plans used for
Strategic marketing planning is about doing the right things while Tactical marketing planning is doing things in the right manner. Strategy deals with knowing where the company wants to go and then deciding the course of action to reach there. Strategic planning is the process of providing long term directions and framework for the organization. Through strategic marketing plan evaluation is done from overall perspective about the goals and strategies of the organization. Goals are further divided into targets making it convenient to measure performance and results of day to day activities. Strategic marketing plan serves as a blueprint for achieving marketing goals through inter connected, systematic and logical step by step procedures. To attain the marketing goals efficiently the strategic marketing plan analyses the market, competitors and internal and external environment while specifying the schedules, tasks, budgets and resources. The contents of strategic marketing plan includes marketing objectives, marketing strategies, market overview, assumptions, issues to be addressed followed by a mission statement and financial summary (McDonald and Keegan 2002).
Tactical planning is the process of outlining actions to be performed by various departments of an organization in order to reach its goals and objectives. It is useful for areas of marketing, production, finance, personnel and plant facilities. It deals with day to day functioning of the organization thus covering a shorter span of time. The tactical marketing plan focuses on implementation of planning done in strategic plan. The contents of tactical marketing plan are summary and cost of marketing activities, strategies, objectives, sub-objectives, contingency plan, key activities schedule, financial cost and its operating results. Tactical marketing plan is short term planning which emphasizes the operations of organization.
Typical structure of marketing plan
Starting a company is easy but it takes hard work and efforts to keep it going. Healthy business depends on regular flow of customers. Structuring a marketing plan helps in developing strategies for cost effective advertisements and getting customers. It helps business in coping up with day to day changes in market conditions, demands and needs of customers. Structuring of almost all the marketing plans is same. Slight changes can be seen as per the need of organization else basic steps are all same. The marketing plan structure is described below (McDonald and Keegan 2002).
Structuring a marketing plan starts with analysis of current situation. This analysis would be done in the form of internal audit. Internal audit will highlight all past marketing strategies, objectives and its rate of success, previous budgets and segmentation, positioning and targeting of strategies in the past.
Internal audit aims at reviewing all the activities of past so as to ascertain its success and failure depending on which the future plan will be decided. Once an internal audit is done, next step is to conduct an external audit. It includes researching for the latest trends within the industry, analysis of competitors and finally doing the SWOT analysis to check on strength, weakness, opportunity and threat. Next step is evaluation of marketing objectives. It consists of evaluation in terms of customer targeting, customer segmentation, positioning of market, branding, competitor differentiation, and also evaluating USP’s of competitors (McDonald and Keegan 2002). Third step in structuring a market plan is deployment of marketing tactics. It includes defining of strategy for targeting, positioning and segmenting of target market with product, its pricing and processes. Fourth step in structuring a market plan is marketing communication which is done through advertising, direct marketing, sales promotion, personal selling and e-marketing. Fifth step in structuring a market plan is control and management which includes managing of budgets, structure and resources. Last step in structuring a market plan is review and measurement. It includes evaluation of results on regular basis. This is done in order to check the efficiency of plan (Dibb and Simkin 2008).
Marketing plan elements
Marketing plan focuses on company’s strength and provides opportunities for increasing sales. The course of action for the company to follow includes interrelated elements of marketing plan which are discussed below.
Description of the target market includes age, sex, profession, residence, educational level and income level of the targeted potential customers. The purpose of this section is to focus on the individual needs of customers within targeted market. The source of getting this information can be through customer relationship management where all the data related to potential customers are saved (Debelak 2000).
Description of Competitors means assessing about competitors business, strength and weaknesses of direct and indirect competitors. It includes extensive market research of data for demand of product. It also emphasizes on the unique features of company’s products while showing the similarity and differences between them.
Description of product or services includes details of the product while emphasizing its unique features. This would help customers to understand the product easily and also to compare it with other products thus making it easy for them to decide and buy.
Description of location states the advantages and disadvantages of the location from where business operates. If the location is approachable for customers then it’s an advantage and if location is on outskirts which cannot be easily approached then it will be considered as disadvantage of that location.
Marketing Budget includes the overall cost of all types of promotional plans and advertising which company may incur throughout the year. This also contains the entire promotional material that would be used for advertising. The list of media used for advertising will also be ascertained in the marketing budget along with the estimated cost for each medium.
Pricing Strategy includes the cost of material, cost of labor, overhead costs, pricing techniques and their description, pricing above the competition, pricing below the competition, retail costing and pricing and price lining (Debelak 2000).
Links exist between elements of a marketing plan
Marketing plan is an important tool which converts the strategies of a company into written statements stating targets, responsibilities, activities and budgets. A good marketing plan would help the company reaching its goals and objectives. On being confirmed a marketing plan shows clear path as to what action needs to be taken and by whom providing entire guidelines towards achievement of goal (McDonald and Keegan 2002).
The elements of marketing plan are interrelated and it is necessary to prepare one element before the other. The elements of marketing plan namely situation analysis, objectives, strategies, action plan, control and evaluation works in chronological order which provides clear guidance towards accomplishment of objectives. None of the elements can work independently as each element is depended upon previous one thus interrelating them with each other (Bangs 2002).
The element situation analysis is the initial element that states the current position of business and where the company wants to go in future as in the future opportunities for progress of business (Wrenn and Mansfield 2005).
It also includes analysis of current trends, economic conditions, competitive activity and laws and regulations related to the product. Analysis of situation provides objectives providing guidelines as to what is to be achieved while keeping them realistic, time oriented and achievable that can be measured. Objectives provide strategies as to what needs to be done in order to achieve the objectives. Strategy lays action plan involving internal and external activities for achieving goals of business. Last element followed by all the above elements come control and evaluation of all the above actions. In order to be effective a marketing plan need to be controlled and evaluated so as to get maximum benefit out of it.
Marketing plan assumptions
Assumptions may be defined as drivers of marketing plan which should be based on accurate information about past performances. This would help in deciding realistic goals which would be feasible enough to be achieved. Only major assumptions which are necessary should be mentioned in the marketing plan so that action would directly lead towards accomplishment of goals.
Marketing misconceptions can be defined as false belief which gives no importance to marketing activities. It can ruin a business as in absence of proper publicity about a product company would not be able to convey its message about the product which would make it more difficult in getting consumer’s interest. Two misconceptions common made in relation to a marketing plan are described below (Wrenn and Mansfield 2005).
First misconception is “Losing Marketing Focus.” This is the most common misconception in marketing which states the goal of advertising is just to provide the product with a punch line. It becomes impossible to catch attention of consumers with just a punch line with no humor attached with it. Goal of humor in advertisement is to catch initial attention of consumer through which consumer gets message about the product.
Second misconception is “Myth of Multiple Mechanisms.” Believing that advertising with only one marketing initiative at a time can provide sufficient exposure to a product is another common misconception. This would result in under exposure of product where the product could have been advertised using multiple marketing initiatives. Use of print media along with advertisements on TV, Radio, social networking sites can provide publicity to a product to a great extent and can cover majority of consumers. This would maximize company’s exposure and would increase consumer’s interest in those products.
CONCLUSION
From the analysis of the above factors it can be concluded that marketing plan is the vital part for describing the overall marketing strategies of a business. It is important for identification of the marketing strategies and also the current market position of organization or business enterprises. Marketing plan includes several essential elements which determine the basic factors based on which the effectiveness of marketing activities of business is judged. Marketing plan can be used in both the manners namely tactically and strategically which determines the success of business. From the above discussion it can be stated that structure of marketing plan differs from business to business but the basic elements mostly remain same and might change as per the requirement of business. The discussion also states that marketing plan should be based on realistic assumptions making it easier for objectives of the company to be achieved.
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