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 Executive Summary

 

The executive summary is the opening section of the marketing plan. It presents a summary of the main goals and recommendations to be presented in the plan.

Current Marketing Situation

The current marketing situation is the first major section of the plan. It describes the target market and the company’s position therein.

This section contains information about the market, product performance, competition, and distribution.

It contains a market description that defines the market, including major market segments. The market planner estimates market size as a whole and segments for the few preceding years and then reviews customer needs and factors in the marketing environment that may influence customer purchasing.

Then comes product review, which shows sales, price, and gross margins of the product line’s major products.

A subsection on competition identifies major competitors and evaluates their strategies for product quality, pricing, distribution, and promotion. It also shows the companies and each of its competitors' present market share.

Finally, a subsection on distribution describes recent sales trends and changes in the major channels of distribution.

Threats and Opportunities

In this section, the planner lists as many threats and opportunities as anticipated that the product might face. This section enables the manager to anticipate important developments that might affect the company.

An increase in the number of competitors and the introduction of new products are examples of threats. In contrast, the improvement of economic conditions and product innovation are examples of opportunities that have important implications for a marketer.

Threats and opportunities should be carefully analyzed from the company’s standpoint so that the managers might develop proper strategies to counter these threats and exploit these opportunities.

Objectives and Issues

Analysis of threats and opportunities leads the marketer towards setting objectives and consider issues that will affect them. The objectives should be stated in terms of goals the company would like to attain during the plan’s period.

For example, a company’s goal may be ”to increase market share by 10 percent during the next year.”

This raises an important issue. How can market share be increased? The marketer should consider the major issues regarding increasing market share.

Marketing Strategies

In this section of the marketing plan, the manager outlines the broad marketing strategy or ”game plan” for attaining the objectives. Marketing strategy is the marketing logic by which the business unit hopes to achieve its marketing objectives.

It consists of specific strategies for target markets, positioning, the marketing mix, and marketing expenditure levels. The marketing strategy should detail the market segments on which the company will focus.

These segments differ in their needs and want, responses to marketing, and profitability. The company would be smart to put its effort and energy into those market segments; it can best-serve from a competitive perspective and then develop a marketing strategy for each targeted segment.

The manager should also outline specific marketing mix elements such as new products, field sales, advertising, sales promotion, prices, and distribution. The manager should explain how each strategy responds to the threats, opportunities, and critical issues spelled out earlier in the plan.

Action Programs

Marketing strategies should be translated into specific action programs that will indicate what to do and when and by whom it will be done and its cost. The action plan indicates when activities will be started, reviewed, and completed.

Budgets

Action plans allow the manager to make a supporting marketing budget that is essentially a projected profit-and-loss statement. It shows the forecasted number of units that would be sold and the average net price for revenues.

On the expense side, it shows the cost of production, physical distribution, and marketing. The difference is the projected profit. Top management will review the budget and either approve or modify it.

Once approved, the budget is based on materials buying, production scheduling, personnel planning, and marketing operations. Budgeting can be very difficult, and budgeting methods range from simple ”rules of thumb” to complex computer models.

Controls

Control is the last section of the marketing plan. It outlines the control methods that will be used to monitor development. Goals and budgets are set for a specific time period. This allows the management to review the results each period and identify businesses or products that are not meeting their goals.

Persons responsible for managing these businesses and products have to explain these problems and the corrective measures.