The Contents Of A Plan: What's In, What's Out

The purpose of a marketing plan is to simplify the execution of the marketing idea: moving goods or services from concept to customer. You may ask, “Why do I even need a plan?” The answer is because without it, you are likely to use your limited resources in a wasteful way and thereby fail in the effort. For almost everything we do, we have a plan to accomplish it.

Whether your plan is one page, five pages, or 50 pages, a good plan will always have the basic SOS formula:

S-Situation: Where are we now?

O-Objective: Where are we going?

S-Strategy: How are we going to get there?

These elements do not always have to be in this order, but any good marketing plan will have this formula included.

Before starting your plan, the first step is to write an outline. You may not need every topic, but using this outline as a check list will determine if it applies to your situation. The following outline represents all the basic ingredients of a good marketing plan:

I. Corporate Objective

II. Situation Analysis

A. Market Current Situation

B. Direct Competition

1. Market Share

2. Position

3. Creative

4. Spending

C. Indirect Competition

D. Target Audience

1. Demographics

2. Psychographics

3. Trends

4. Problems & Opportunities

III. Marketing Objectives

IV. Strategies

A. Positioning Product

B. Price

C. Packaging

D. Distribution

E. Promotion

F. Creative

G. Media

H. Direct Mail Tactics

I. Budget

V. Projections

Now that you have your basic outline, let's discuss what each topic entails.

Corporate Objective: Before you can devise an effective plan, know where the chief executive officer is taking the company. Where does he/she want to be in two years? Five years? Or even ten years? If you don't know this, you are going to spend a lot of wasted time and energy developing a plan that may be totally opposed to the philosophy of the company. Sit down with the CEO and find out this information. Then, condense it into one or two sentences. You now have the Corporate Objective for the company.

Situation Analysis: Here's where the 90% of the work lies. Situation Analysis is also the phrase where market research occurs. Research can be an invaluable tool to help determine the necessary strategies to take in your marketing plan. However, research alone is insufficient. It needs to be objectively reviewed. An example is Coca-Cola's use of market research in the decision to introduce New Coke. Research indicated that consumers liked the taste of New Coke. Unfortunately, their research didn't convey the tremendous emotional attachment consumers had to the old product. The result was almost devastating.

Market/Current Situation: Describe the market in which you are competing.

How large is the market? How many players are in the market? How do you fit within this market? You may need professional market research, or conduct some of your own with what I call “bird dog” research. Find out as much as you can about the product and companies in the marketplace. Paint a picture of how your company fits into this overall market.

Direct Competition: Who are your direct competitors? If you can, state the sales and size of each one of these competitors. See where you fit into the scheme of things.

Share: What is your current market share? If you do not have a product in the market, find out who owns what share of the marketplace among your competitors.

Position: How is your company perceived in the marketplace? Notice I didn't say how do you think you are perceived. Only an outsider can tell you how you are truly perceived. This is best done through research. How is your company positioned in the marketplace? And how is your competition positioned? Are you known for your quality of service? Research will uncover the unique traits of your product or service?

Eventually any negative trait—from poor service, to slow delivery—will have a negative impact on your business.

Creative: How does your competition portray their creative product? Is their advertising effective? What is the value of their packaging? Examine every area of the physical nature of your competition.

Indirect Competition: Sometimes it is important to look beyond the direct competition and to focus on indirect competition. A good example of indirect competition for a book store might be records and gifts found in a competitor's bookstore. Is the direct competition other books, or is it in fact the records and gifts that are also found in a competitor's bookstore?

Target Audience: Who do you really want to sell this product to? Who is the prime audience for this product? You'll want to break this down in terms of demographics and psychographics by asking questions like: How old is the target audience? Are they middle class? College educated? Paint a profile of the individual most likely to buy this product. This is going to be especially important when you start planning your media buys.

Trends: What are the current trends that relate to your product? Has it been a down economy for this product or are forecasters predicting a bright future? Take a look at the industry in terms of the past, the present, and the future.

Problems and Opportunities: By now you have had the opportunity to identify problems. You will be able to recognize your weaknesses and your strengths as they compare to your competitor's. A good marketing plan turns a problem into an opportunity. This can work for your product, too. The problems you've worked so hard to unearth can become opportunities. Try to draw concrete conclusions from your problems and opportunities. These will be important to you in establishing your marketing objectives and strategies.

Marketing Objectives: Here's where you want to state in clear, simple and achievable terms what your Marketing Objective is. Be specific. Increasing sales is not a Marketing Objective. Increasing sales by 4% in 1993 is a Marketing Objective.

Declare that you will achieve your Marketing Objective! Now you are going to show how you will do it. However, perhaps you have gotten to this point and discovered through your research that it is impossible to achieve a 4% increase in sales based on your findings. If you sincerely believe this, then it is your responsibility to state it unapologetically. Be realistic in your projections and make your projections based on the facts you have.

Strategies: Our Strategies section tells what action is needed to achieve your marketing objective.

Product Positioning: How do you want to position your product? If your product is toothpaste do you want it to be positioned as a “whitener” or a “breath freshener”?

Price: How do you want to market the product? Above market, below market, or in-between?

Package: How do you want to package this product? Will it have four-color? Will is be packaged similarly to your competitor's product? Perhaps you will do something totally different in the packaging area. One of the greatest examples of the impact of packaging on a product is in the pantyhose industry. For years pantyhose was packaged in flat boxes and mostly marketed through department stores. Now through the efforts of L'eggs, women can go to quick-stops and other outlets to buy pantyhose found in unique egg-shaped packaging.

Distribution: Do you want to change the way the customer can get the product? If it is a book, do you want him to find it in a specialty bookstore? Or can you reach the customer through a grocery store or other outlet?

Promotion: Do you want to use contests, sweepstakes, or give-aways in your strategies of selling the product?

Creative: How do you creatively present your product to the marketplace? Will you use humor, “slice-of-life” approaches, or product-oriented advertising?

Media: What forms of media will best reach your targeted customer? Is this product best suited for television, radio, print, or direct mail?

Promotion: What other avenues can you pursue to promote this product? Perhaps you need to do a full PR campaign on the release of the product.

Budget/Projections: Here's where you state what it is going to cost in order to accomplish your objective. Not only will you produce a budget, but also want to project sales based on that budget. The plan does not necessarily have to show profit on the product during the first year. Proctor & Gamble states it takes 18-24 months before they get on the upswing of any new product. But, remember, it must make a profit at some point!

A good marketing plan will be an invaluable tool to your organization. It is your track to run on. A detailed, concise plan takes the guess work out of the marketing process and insures you the greatest opportunity for a successful marketing effort.