Everyone who has a part to play in the project, including outside organizations, participates, страница 11

Figure 3-3  Marketing Plan Schedule

Schedules and Budgets. It is important to recognize that every single marketing action costs resources. Of primary interest are the financial resources required and when they may be needed. As a result, a schedule is prepared as in Figure 3-3, where each task is listed in addition to when it begins and when it ends and its cost on a monthly basis. In this way, not only are resources required to implement your plan known, but once the marketing plan is implemented, the schedule can be used to monitor the plan and make changes as required to keep within planned budget.

Financial Data and Control. As pointed out earlier, because the im plementation of any marketing plan requires the use of financial resources, finances and financial data are closely integrated with marketing planning and are a requirement of it. Because resources are never unlimited, an ideal strategy may not be possible since a company may not have the necessary resources. Rather, a more realistic but less ideal strategy may be needed that is within the financial resources available to the company. In this section on financial data, sales estimates on a monthly basis through the life of the plan should be given along with cash flow requirements based on the sales or revenue coming in less the cost of implementation of monies going out. Certain calculations and ratios are also important in this section, including a break-even analysis; an estimate of inventory turnover; measures of profitability, including asset earning power determined by the ratio of earnings before interest and taxes to total assets; net profit on sales ratio, which measures the difference between what you take in and

what you spend in the process of doing business; investment turnover ratio, which is the annual net sales to total assets; and any other fi nancial ratios or data felt to be important to the execution of the plan.

Simply initiating the plan and hoping for the best is insufficient to ensure success. As a matter of fact, due to a changing environment, such a procedure is almost certain to result in failure. Therefore, it is important to specify a means of evaluation and control even before the plan is implemented and as a part of the plan itself. For example, what will be done if sales are not at the level anticipated or forecast? Will the plan be dropped? Will the plan be modified? How will it be modi fied? What if certain parts are profitable and others not? Or certain geographical areas profitable and others not? What will we do about new competitors entering the market or a change in an old competitor's strategy? How will these facts alter the plan and, indeed, how will these results be known and the effects of these facts be determined? Failing, to anticipate an evaluation and control means is like pointing an au tomobile at a destination, closing your eyes, pushing the gas pedal, and crossing your fingers. The chances of arriving safely at your destination, even if it is only a short, distance, is slim. Feedback is needed to measure the changes in the environment as you proceed. Then, action must be taken to allow for these changes and keep your vehicle on course to your destination. In the same fashion, changes in the environs must be anticipated and means of measuring these changes as well as variances in anticipated results and means of measuring these variances must be developed and specified in the marketing plan.

Information Input for Marketing Plans--------------------

A marketing plan cannot be developed in a vacuum. Naturally it requires input from various other divisions, departments, and functions within a company. However, and more important, it requires considerable information coming externally from the company. These evolve into two basic methods, primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources are those that you obtain firsthand. An example might be marketing research in which you yourself go out and survey your potential customers to find out. what type of product they like or whether certain features of a product are desired and at what price. Secondary sources are where you may obtain the identical information, but you obtain it secondhand since someone else has already done the marketing research for you. In developing information for a marketing plan, both primary and secondary sources will be used, depending upon the time available, the money available, and other elements of the situation. Use of primary sources may be constrained due to the time and money that you have for the task and may dictate to use the      The Marketing Plan and secondary sources. On the other hand, certain types of research can        Planning Process