Marketing Plans—Costs and Benefits
There are costs associated with marketing plans and planning. These include the time that must be devoted to planning, as well as money in the form of planners' salaries. But as you can see very dramatically in Figure 3-1, the benefits far outweigh the costs.
Types of Marketing Plans
Marketing plans tend to fall into two general categories: (1) strategic plans, as discussed in the previous chapter, which tend to be done by top management of the company, and (2) operational plans, which tend
The New Product Plan
The new product plan is for a product, product line, or service that has not yet been introduced by the firm. Many companies require the development of a complete new product plan even before the product has been developed. In such a way alternate candidates for development can be compared at an early stage and a decision made as to which are more suitable for full development. The marketing plan for a new product or new service will generally have more unknowns than that of an annual plan, since actual feedback from the marketplace is not yet available in most cases. However, frequently, logical assumptions can be made from similar products or services that the company has marketed, or products or services marketed by other companies from which information may be available. A marketing plan for a new product or
50 new service may also include product development in many companies,
The Marketing Manager: whereas other companies will separate development from marketing Tasks and Responsibilities anG; the marketing plan will include only those elements having to do with actual sales of the product.
Executive Summary (Overview of entire plan, product or service, the differential advantage, anticipated sales and profits).
including a description of the the required investment, and
The Marketing Plan and Planning Process
Annual Marketing Plans
Annual marketing plans are for products, product lines, or services that are already established as a part of a company's product line. Periodic planning requires a look into the future in a formalized fashion with the advantages mentioned previously of identifying opportunities, problems, and threats that otherwise might be missed in the day-today handling of crises associated with an ongoing product line or service. Here again, because the plan is for the future, there will be various unknowns, unknowns for which information must be forecast or in some cases assumed. Generally, annual planning is for a one-year period only, although some companies plan for several years at a time and then revise these plans annually.
The Contents and Structure
of the Marketing Plans------------------------------------------
There are many different structures that may be used to format a mar keting plan. One such structure is shown in Figure 3-2. Although structures tend to vary somewhat depending upon the situation, the industry, and other factors, certain items are common to most. These include an executive summary, table of contents, a situational analysis, designation of marketing objectives, marketing strategies, marketing tactics, schedules of budgets, financial data, and evaluation and control methodology. Let's look at each in turn.
The Executive Summary. The executive summary is an overall view of the marketing project and its potential, including what, you want to do, how much money and what other resources are needed for the project, and specific financial measurements such as return on investment that might be anticipated. The executive summary is extremely important and should not be overlooked. As implied by the title "executive summary," it is an overview or summary or abstract of the entire plan intended for a top management executive audience. As the top management executives review your marketing plan, they will frequently skip around to parts of the plan that are of more interest to
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