As you read in Chapter 2, there is more than one
correct format for a marketing plan. Many organizations have their own
distinctive format or terminology for creating a marketing plan, and every
marketing plan should be unique to the firm for which it was created. The
format and order of presentation, therefore, must be flexible.
This appendix presents only one way to organize a marketing
plan. The outline is meant to give you a more detailed look at what you need to
include, topics you need to cover, and the types of questions you must answer
in any marketing plan. But, depending on the product or service for which you
are drafting a plan, this set of questions may only be the starting point for
more industry-specific issues you need to address.
An actual marketing plan from E-motion Software follows this
outline. The E-motion marketing plan includes annotations that tie each part of
the plan to the material throughout the book. Youll see the correlation
between chapter concepts and the elements of a professional marketing plan for
a real company.
If you are assigned a marketing plan as a course
requirement, this appendix can help you organize your work. In addition,
worksheets that guide you through the process of marketing planning are
available on your textbooks companion site. The worksheets can be completed
electronically or printed out and filled in by hand.
I.
BUSINESS
MISSION
A.
What is the mission of the firm? What business
is it in? How well is its mission understood throughout the organization? Five
years from now, what business does it wish to be in?
B.
Does the firm define its business in terms of
benefits its customers want rather than in terms of goods and services?
II.
SITUATION ANALYSIS (SWOT ANALYSIS)
A.
Has one or more competitive advantages been
identified in the SWOT analysis?
B.
Are these advantages sustainable against the
competition?
1.
Internal Strengths and Weaknesses
What
is the history of the firm, including sales, profits, and organizational
philosophies?
What
is the nature of the firm and its current situation?
What
are the firms resources (financial, human, time, experience, asset, skill)?
What
policies inhibit the achievement of the firms objectives with respect to
organization, resource allocation, operations, hiring, training, and so on?
2.
External Opportunities and Threats
Social: What
major social and lifestyle trends will have an impact on the firm? What action
has the firm been taking in response to these trends?
Demographics: What
impact will forecasted trends in the size, age, profile, and distribution of
population have on the firm? How will the changing nature of the family, the
increase in the proportion of women in the workforce, and changes in the ethnic
composition of the population affect the firm? What action has the firm taken
in response to these developments and trends? Has the firm reevaluated its
traditional products and expanded the range of
specialized offerings to respond to these changes?
Economic: What
major trends in taxation and income sources will have an impact on the firm?
What action has the firm taken in response to these trends?
Political,
Legal, and Financial: What laws are now being proposed at
international, federal, state, and local levels that could affect marketing
strategy and tactics? What recent changes in regulations and court decisions
affect the firm? What political changes are taking place at each government
level? What action has the firm taken in response to these legal and political
changes?
Competition: Which
organizations are competing with the firm directly by offering a similar
product? Which organizations are competing with the firm indirectly by securing
its prime prospects time, money, energy, or commitment? What new competitive
trends seem likely to emerge? How effective is the competition? What benefits
do competitors offer that the firm does not? Is it appropriate for the firm to
compete?
Technological: What
major technological changes are occurring that affect the firm?
Ecological: What
is the outlook for the cost and availability of natural resources and energy
needed by the firm? Are the firms products, services, and operations
environmentally friendly?
III.
OBJECTIVES
1.
Is the firms mission statement able to be
translated into operational terms regarding the firms objectives?
2.
What are the stated objectives of the
organization? Are they formally written down? Do they lead logically to clearly
stated marketing objectives? Are objectives based on sales, profits, or
customers?
3.
Are the organizations marketing objectives
stated in hierarchical order? Are they specific so that progress toward
achievement can be measured? Are the objectives reasonable in light of the
organizations resources? Are the objectives ambiguous? Do the objectives
specify a time frame?
4.
Is the firms main objective to maximize customer
satisfaction or to get as many customers as possible?
IV.
MARKETING STRATEGY
1.
Target Market Strategy
Are the members of each market homogeneous or
heterogeneous with respect to geographic, sociodemographic, and behavioral
characteristics?
What are the size, growth rate, and national and
regional trends in each of the organizations market segments?
Is the size of each market segment sufficiently
large or important to warrant a unique marketing mix?
Are market segments measurable and accessible to
distribution and communication efforts?
Which are the high- or low-opportunity segments?
What are the evolving needs and satisfactions
being sought by target markets?
What benefits does the organization offer to
each segment? How do these benefits compare with benefits offered by
competitors?
Is the firm positioning itself with a unique
product? Is the product needed?
How much of the firms business is repeat versus
new business? What percentage of the public can be classified as nonusers,
light users, or heavy users?
How do current target markets rate the firm and
its competitors with respect to reputation, quality, and price? What is the
firms image with the specific market segments it seeks to serve?
Does the firm try to direct its products only to
specific groups of people or to everybody?
Who buys the firms products? How does a
potential customer find out about the organization? When and how does a person
become a customer?
What are the major objections given by potential
customers as to why they do not buy the firms products?
How do customers find out about and decide to
purchase the product? When and where?
Should the firm seek to expand, contract, or
change the emphasis of its selected target markets? If so, in which target
markets, and how vigorously?
Could the firm more usefully withdraw from some
areas where there are alternative suppliers and use its resources to serve new,
unserved customer groups?
What publics other than target markets
(financial, media, government, citizen, local, general, and internal) represent
opportunities or problems for the firm?
2. Marketing Mix
Does the firm seek to achieve its objective
chiefly through coordinated use of marketing activities (product, place,
promotion, and pricing) or only through intensive promotion?
Are the objectives and roles of each element of
the marketing mix clearly specified?
A. Product
What are the major product/service offerings of
the firm? Do they complement each other, or is there unnecessary duplication?
What are the features and benefits of each product
offering?
Where are the firm and each major product in the
life cycle?
What are the pressures among various target
markets to increase or decrease the range and quality of products?
What are the major weaknesses in each product
area? What are the major complaints? What goes wrong most often?
Is the product name easy to pronounce? Spell?
Recall? Is it descriptive, and does it communicate the benefits the product
offers? Does the name distinguish the firm or product from all others?
What warranties are offered with the product?
Are there other ways to guarantee customer satisfaction?
Does the product offer good customer value?
How is customer service handled? How is service
quality assessed?
B. Place/Distribution
Should the firm try to deliver its offerings
directly to customers, or can it better deliver selected offerings by involving
other organizations? What channel(s) should be used in distributing product
offerings?
What physical distribution facilities should be
used? Where should they be located? What should be their major characteristics?
Are members of the target market willing and
able to travel some distance to buy the product?
How good is access to facilities? Can access be
improved? Which facilities need priority attention in these areas?
How are facility locations chosen? Is the site
accessible to the target markets? Is it visible to the target markets?
What are the location and atmosphere of retail
establishments? Do these retailers satisfy customers?
When are products made available to users (season
of year, day of week, time of day)? Are these times most appropriate?
C. Promotion
How does a typical customer find out about the
firms products?
Does the message the firm delivers gain the
attention of the intended target audience? Does it address the wants and needs
of the target market, and does it suggest benefits or a means for satisfying
these wants? Is the message appropriately positioned?
Does the promotion effort effectively inform,
persuade, educate, and remind customers about the firms products?
Does the firm establish budgets and measure
effectiveness of promotional efforts?
Advertising
Which media are currently being used? Has the
firm chosen the types of media that will best reach its target markets?
Are the types of media used the most
cost-effective, and do they contribute positively to the firms image?
Are the dates and times the ads will appear the
most appropriate? Has the firm prepared several
versions of its advertisements?
Does the organization use an outside advertising
agency? What functions does the ad agency perform for the organization?
What system is used to handle consumer inquiries
resulting from advertising and promotions? What follow-up is done?
Public
Relations
Is there a well-conceived public relations and
publicity program? Does the program have the ability to respond to bad
publicity?
How are public relations normally handled by the
firm? By whom? Have those responsible nurtured working relationships with media
outlets?
Is the firm using all available public relations
avenues? Is an effort made to understand each of the publicity outlets needs
and to provide each with story types that will appeal to its audience in
readily usable forms?
What does the annual report say about the firm
and its products? Who is being effectively reached by this vehicle? Does the
benefit of the publication justify the cost?
Personal
Selling
How much of a typical salespersons time is
spent soliciting new customers as compared to serving existing customers?
How does the sales force determine which
prospect will be called on and by whom? How is the frequency of contacts
determined?
How is the sales force compensated? Are there
incentives for encouraging more business?
How is the sales force organized and managed?
Has the sales force prepared an approach
tailored to each prospect?
Has the firm matched sales personnel with the
target market characteristics?
Is there appropriate follow-up to the initial
personal selling effort? Are customers made to feel appreciated?
Can database or direct marketing be used to
replace or supplement the sales force?
Sales
Promotion
What is the specific purpose of each sales
promotion activity? Why is it offered? What does it try to achieve?
What categories of sales promotion are being
used? Is sales promotion directed to the trade, the final consumer, or both?
Is the effort directed at all the firms key
publics or restricted to only potential customers?
D. Price
What levels of pricing and specific prices
should be used?
What mechanisms does the firm have to ensure that
the prices charged are acceptable to customers?
How price sensitive are customers?
If a price change is put into effect, how will
the number of customers change? Will total revenue increase or decrease?
Which method is used for establishing a price: going
rate, demand-oriented, or cost-based?
What discounts are offered, and with what
rationale?
Has the firm considered the psychological
dimensions of price?
Have price increases kept pace with cost
increases, inflation, or competitive levels?
How are price promotions used?
Do interested prospects have opportunities to
sample products at an introductory price?
What methods of payment are accepted? Is it in
the firms best interest to use these various payment methods?
IMPLEMENTATION, EVALUATION, AND CONTROL
Is the marketing organization structured
appropriately to implement the marketing plan?
What specific activities must take place? Who is
responsible for these activities?
What is the implementation timetable?
What other marketing research is necessary?
What will be the financial impact of this plan
on a one-year projected income statement? How does projected income compare
with expected revenue if the plan is not implemented?
What are the performance standards?
What monitoring procedures (audits) will take
place and when?
Does the firm seem to be trying to do too much
or not enough?
Are the core marketing strategies for achieving
objectives sound? Are the objectives being met, and are the objectives
appropriate?
Are enough resources (or too many resources)
budgeted to accomplish the marketing objectives?
As you read in Chapter 2, there is more than one
correct format for a marketing plan. Many organizations have their own
distinctive format or terminology for creating a marketing plan, and every
marketing plan should be unique to the firm for which it was created. The
format and order of presentation, therefore, must be flexible.This appendix presents only one way to organize a marketing
plan. The outline is meant to give you a more detailed look at what you need to
include, topics you need to cover, and the types of questions you must answer
in any marketing plan. But, depending on the product or service for which you
are drafting a plan, this set of questions may only be the starting point for
more industry-specific issues you need to address.An actual marketing plan from E-motion Software follows this
outline. The E-motion marketing plan includes annotations that tie each part of
the plan to the material throughout the book. Youll see the correlation
between chapter concepts and the elements of a professional marketing plan for
a real company.If you are assigned a marketing plan as a course
requirement, this appendix can help you organize your work. In addition,
worksheets that guide you through the process of marketing planning are
available on your textbooks companion site. The worksheets can be completed
electronically or printed out and filled in by hand.
I.
BUSINESS
MISSIONA.
What is the mission of the firm? What business
is it in? How well is its mission understood throughout the organization? Five
years from now, what business does it wish to be in?B.
Does the firm define its business in terms of
benefits its customers want rather than in terms of goods and services?
II.
SITUATION ANALYSIS (SWOT ANALYSIS)A.
Has one or more competitive advantages been
identified in the SWOT analysis?B.
Are these advantages sustainable against the
competition?1.
Internal Strengths and Weaknesses
What
is the history of the firm, including sales, profits, and organizational
philosophies?
What
is the nature of the firm and its current situation?
What
are the firms resources (financial, human, time, experience, asset, skill)?
What
policies inhibit the achievement of the firms objectives with respect to
organization, resource allocation, operations, hiring, training, and so on?2.
External Opportunities and Threats
Social: What
major social and lifestyle trends will have an impact on the firm? What action
has the firm been taking in response to these trends?
Demographics: What
impact will forecasted trends in the size, age, profile, and distribution of
population have on the firm? How will the changing nature of the family, the
increase in the proportion of women in the workforce, and changes in the ethnic
composition of the population affect the firm? What action has the firm taken
in response to these developments and trends? Has the firm reevaluated its
traditional products and expanded the range of
specialized offerings to respond to these changes?
Economic: What
major trends in taxation and income sources will have an impact on the firm?
What action has the firm taken in response to these trends?
Political,
Legal, and Financial: What laws are now being proposed at
international, federal, state, and local levels that could affect marketing
strategy and tactics? What recent changes in regulations and court decisions
affect the firm? What political changes are taking place at each government
level? What action has the firm taken in response to these legal and political
changes?
Competition: Which
organizations are competing with the firm directly by offering a similar
product? Which organizations are competing with the firm indirectly by securing
its prime prospects time, money, energy, or commitment? What new competitive
trends seem likely to emerge? How effective is the competition? What benefits
do competitors offer that the firm does not? Is it appropriate for the firm to
compete?
Technological: What
major technological changes are occurring that affect the firm?
Ecological: What
is the outlook for the cost and availability of natural resources and energy
needed by the firm? Are the firms products, services, and operations
environmentally friendly?
III.
OBJECTIVES1.
Is the firms mission statement able to be
translated into operational terms regarding the firms objectives?2.
What are the stated objectives of the
organization? Are they formally written down? Do they lead logically to clearly
stated marketing objectives? Are objectives based on sales, profits, or
customers?3.
Are the organizations marketing objectives
stated in hierarchical order? Are they specific so that progress toward
achievement can be measured? Are the objectives reasonable in light of the
organizations resources? Are the objectives ambiguous? Do the objectives
specify a time frame?4.
Is the firms main objective to maximize customer
satisfaction or to get as many customers as possible?
IV.
MARKETING STRATEGY
1.
Target Market Strategy
Are the members of each market homogeneous or
heterogeneous with respect to geographic, sociodemographic, and behavioral
characteristics?
What are the size, growth rate, and national and
regional trends in each of the organizations market segments?
Is the size of each market segment sufficiently
large or important to warrant a unique marketing mix?
Are market segments measurable and accessible to
distribution and communication efforts?
Which are the high- or low-opportunity segments?
What are the evolving needs and satisfactions
being sought by target markets?
What benefits does the organization offer to
each segment? How do these benefits compare with benefits offered by
competitors?
Is the firm positioning itself with a unique
product? Is the product needed?
How much of the firms business is repeat versus
new business? What percentage of the public can be classified as nonusers,
light users, or heavy users?
How do current target markets rate the firm and
its competitors with respect to reputation, quality, and price? What is the
firms image with the specific market segments it seeks to serve?
Does the firm try to direct its products only to
specific groups of people or to everybody?
Who buys the firms products? How does a
potential customer find out about the organization? When and how does a person
become a customer?
What are the major objections given by potential
customers as to why they do not buy the firms products?
How do customers find out about and decide to
purchase the product? When and where?
Should the firm seek to expand, contract, or
change the emphasis of its selected target markets? If so, in which target
markets, and how vigorously?
Could the firm more usefully withdraw from some
areas where there are alternative suppliers and use its resources to serve new,
unserved customer groups?
What publics other than target markets
(financial, media, government, citizen, local, general, and internal) represent
opportunities or problems for the firm?2. Marketing Mix
Does the firm seek to achieve its objective
chiefly through coordinated use of marketing activities (product, place,
promotion, and pricing) or only through intensive promotion?
Are the objectives and roles of each element of
the marketing mix clearly specified?A. Product
What are the major product/service offerings of
the firm? Do they complement each other, or is there unnecessary duplication?
What are the features and benefits of each product
offering?
Where are the firm and each major product in the
life cycle?
What are the pressures among various target
markets to increase or decrease the range and quality of products?
What are the major weaknesses in each product
area? What are the major complaints? What goes wrong most often?
Is the product name easy to pronounce? Spell?
Recall? Is it descriptive, and does it communicate the benefits the product
offers? Does the name distinguish the firm or product from all others?
What warranties are offered with the product?
Are there other ways to guarantee customer satisfaction?
Does the product offer good customer value?
How is customer service handled? How is service
quality assessed?B. Place/Distribution
Should the firm try to deliver its offerings
directly to customers, or can it better deliver selected offerings by involving
other organizations? What channel(s) should be used in distributing product
offerings?
What physical distribution facilities should be
used? Where should they be located? What should be their major characteristics?
Are members of the target market willing and
able to travel some distance to buy the product?
How good is access to facilities? Can access be
improved? Which facilities need priority attention in these areas?
How are facility locations chosen? Is the site
accessible to the target markets? Is it visible to the target markets?
What are the location and atmosphere of retail
establishments? Do these retailers satisfy customers?
When are products made available to users (season
of year, day of week, time of day)? Are these times most appropriate?C. Promotion
How does a typical customer find out about the
firms products?
Does the message the firm delivers gain the
attention of the intended target audience? Does it address the wants and needs
of the target market, and does it suggest benefits or a means for satisfying
these wants? Is the message appropriately positioned?
Does the promotion effort effectively inform,
persuade, educate, and remind customers about the firms products?
Does the firm establish budgets and measure
effectiveness of promotional efforts?Advertising
Which media are currently being used? Has the
firm chosen the types of media that will best reach its target markets?
Are the types of media used the most
cost-effective, and do they contribute positively to the firms image?
Are the dates and times the ads will appear the
most appropriate? Has the firm prepared several
versions of its advertisements?
Does the organization use an outside advertising
agency? What functions does the ad agency perform for the organization?
What system is used to handle consumer inquiries
resulting from advertising and promotions? What follow-up is done?Public
Relations
Is there a well-conceived public relations and
publicity program? Does the program have the ability to respond to bad
publicity?
How are public relations normally handled by the
firm? By whom? Have those responsible nurtured working relationships with media
outlets?
Is the firm using all available public relations
avenues? Is an effort made to understand each of the publicity outlets needs
and to provide each with story types that will appeal to its audience in
readily usable forms?
What does the annual report say about the firm
and its products? Who is being effectively reached by this vehicle? Does the
benefit of the publication justify the cost?Personal
Selling
How much of a typical salespersons time is
spent soliciting new customers as compared to serving existing customers?
How does the sales force determine which
prospect will be called on and by whom? How is the frequency of contacts
determined?
How is the sales force compensated? Are there
incentives for encouraging more business?
How is the sales force organized and managed?
Has the sales force prepared an approach
tailored to each prospect?
Has the firm matched sales personnel with the
target market characteristics?
Is there appropriate follow-up to the initial
personal selling effort? Are customers made to feel appreciated?
Can database or direct marketing be used to
replace or supplement the sales force?Sales
Promotion
What is the specific purpose of each sales
promotion activity? Why is it offered? What does it try to achieve?
What categories of sales promotion are being
used? Is sales promotion directed to the trade, the final consumer, or both?
Is the effort directed at all the firms key
publics or restricted to only potential customers?D. Price
What levels of pricing and specific prices
should be used?
What mechanisms does the firm have to ensure that
the prices charged are acceptable to customers?
How price sensitive are customers?
If a price change is put into effect, how will
the number of customers change? Will total revenue increase or decrease?
Which method is used for establishing a price: going
rate, demand-oriented, or cost-based?
What discounts are offered, and with what
rationale?
Has the firm considered the psychological
dimensions of price?
Have price increases kept pace with cost
increases, inflation, or competitive levels?
How are price promotions used?
Do interested prospects have opportunities to
sample products at an introductory price?
What methods of payment are accepted? Is it in
the firms best interest to use these various payment methods?
IMPLEMENTATION, EVALUATION, AND CONTROL
Is the marketing organization structured
appropriately to implement the marketing plan?
What specific activities must take place? Who is
responsible for these activities?
What is the implementation timetable?
What other marketing research is necessary?
What will be the financial impact of this plan
on a one-year projected income statement? How does projected income compare
with expected revenue if the plan is not implemented?
What are the performance standards?
What monitoring procedures (audits) will take
place and when?
Does the firm seem to be trying to do too much
or not enough?
Are the core marketing strategies for achieving
objectives sound? Are the objectives being met, and are the objectives
appropriate?
Are enough resources (or too many resources)
budgeted to accomplish the marketing objectives?
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