Preparing a marketing plan

1. Set strategic objectives Top management has traditionally set these although current practice is to employ more democratic processes involving the key stakeholders if not all the staff. They are not usually within the brief of the market planner alone. They must be kept firmly in mind and the strategies and action plans drawn up must be broadly in line with them. The market planning process can't go forward without them. The written plan should include a copy of the strategic objectives and the organisation's mission statement. 2. Carry out a marketing audit This process enables a company to analyse and understand the environment in which it operates. It is the key to the SWOT analysis, the next stage in the marketing planning process. It is carried out in two parts: the external audit and the internal audit. The external audit should cover the business and economic environment, the market and the competition; this should examine the important trends which have affected and which will be affecting the market and the industry. It also involves searching questions about competitors and customers, now and in the future. The internal audit should concentrate on the planner's own company, its operational efficiency and service effectiveness, its key skills, competences and resources, its products / services and the 'core' business it is in. 3. Carry out a SWOT analysis This is a summary of the audit under the headings Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats and should be included in the final written plan. Strengths and weaknesses refer to the company and its internal environment while opportunities and threats are external factors over which the company has no control but which it must anticipate, evaluate and try to exploit. Only key data should be included. (There is a related checklist on SWOT analysis in this series.) 4. Make assumptions These assumptions are the strategic drivers of the marketing plan and they may relate to economic, technological or competitive factors. Assumptions should be based on accurate information and sensible estimates of what can

be achieved in the light of past performance. Sound information is problematic because the pace of change is making the future discontinuous from the past. Coming up with viable and challenging assumptions involves creative, lateral thinking and breaking with the past. Only a few major assumptions should be included in the written plan. 5. Set marketing objectives This is the central step in the marketing planning process because the setting of achievable and realistic objectives is based on the analysis of the marketing audit, while strategy decisions cannot be made without reference to objectives. Marketing objectives are concerned with which products are to be sold in which markets: it is important not to confuse objectives (what you want to do) with strategies (how you are going to do it). The objectives should be included in the written plan. 6. Estimate expected results Marketing objectives should be SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-tabled. For example, "to gain a 6% share of the overall market" or "to achieve 600 customers by the end of the year". Terms such as "increase" or "maximise" should not be used unless they can be quantified. 7. Generate marketing strategies These are the broad methods by which the marketing objectives will be achieved and they describe the means of doing so within the required time. They are generally referred to as the marketing mix or as the four Ps: Product - what are its benefits to the customer Price - how it is priced to attract the right, or the appropriate customer base Place - who are those customers Promotion - how may they be reached.

They should appear in the written plan. 8. Define programmes The general strategies must be developed so that they have their own programmes or action plans. The combination of these plans and their relative importance will depend on the company. A large company with several different functions or departments may have several plans covering advertising, sales promotion, pricing and so on. Other companies may have one plan. For example, a product plan embracing all four Ps. Details of the programmes should be included in the written plan.

9. Communicate the plan Everyone should understand the plan. It is advisable to make a presentation of it rather than to circulate written copies. If the plan is not effectively communicated, it will fail. 10. Measure and review progress The plan should be monitored as it progresses. Make sure the measures you collect are meaningful to the success of the plan. If circumstances change, it should be revised to take advantage of unforeseen opportunities or to counter unforeseen threats. Details of how this should be done need to be included in the written plan and should relate directly to stages 4-9 above.