Contents of a Marketing Plan
A marketing plan usually contains the following sections.
- Executive summary and table of contents.
- Situation analysis.
This section presents relevant background data on sales, costs, the market, competitors, and the macro environment. How do we define the market, how big is it, how fast is it growing, and what are the relevant trends and critical issues? Firms use all this information to carry out a SWOT analysis. - Marketing strategy.
The marketing manager defines the mission, marketing and financial objectives, and needs the market offering is intended to satisfy as well as its competitive positioning. This requires inputs from areas such as purchasing, manufacturing, sales, finance, and human resources. - Marketing tactics.
Here the marketing manager outlines the marketing activities that will be undertaken to execute the marketing strategy, including decisions about the product or service offering, pricing, channels, and communications. - Financial projections.
Financial projections include a sales forecast (by month and product category), an expense forecast (broken down into finer categories), and a break-even analysis (how many units the firm must sell to offset its fixed costs and average per-unit variable costs). - Implementation controls.
Management outlines the controls for monitoring activities and adjusting implementation. Typically, this section spells out the goals and budget for each month or quarter so management can review results and take corrective action as needed.
From Marketing Plan to Marketing Action
From Marketing Plan to Marketing Action investigate any deviation from plans, and take corrective steps as needed to keep marketing performance on track. Some firms prepare contingency plans so they can update and adapt the marketing plan at any time.
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