MPS User Guide

Version 2.
2006 Edition
1 - Marketing Plan Success Users Guide 2001-2006, Business Plan Success
Dear Valued Customer: Congratulations on your purchase of the newest business writing product available from Business Plan SuccessMarketing Plan Success! Since 2001, Business Plan Success has been one of the most affordable solutions for entrepreneurs and small businesses that need a winning business plan. We are pleased to offer a marketing plan template with the same high quality and benefits. We prepared this users guide as a tool to help you write your plan. It also includes resources available to assist you with your preparation and research. Marketing Plan Success was created by experienced marketers who understand the ingredients required to launch a successful marketing program. You can trust that when youre finished with our template that youll have a comprehensive marketing plan. Thank you for choosing Marketing Plan Success from Business Plan Success!
2 - Marketing Plan Success Users Guide
4.
Before Writing Your Marketing Plan 5. 8. 15. Getting Started
Section 1: Situation Analysis Section 2: SWOT Analysis
17.
Section 3: Marketing Objectives & Issues 19. 23. Section 4: Marketing Strategy Section 5: Actions Items
24.
Section 6: Financials, Budget, & Forecasts 26. Section 7: Controls
27.
Writing the Executive Summary & Finishing Your Marketing Plan 28. 34. Completing the MPS Excel Template
Finding Information for Your Marketing Plan 36. Troubleshooting & FAQ 38. 39. Customer Support License Agreement
Taking a minute to gather your thoughts and prepare before writing your marketing plan will save time and energy. Before writing your marketing plan, take a few minutes and read through this Users Guide to give yourself an idea of how Marketing Plan Success can help you develop an effective marketing plan. Then, before starting the plan, ask yourself a few questions:

Why am I writing a marketing plan? Who is the audience of this marketing plan? What are my goals in writing this marketing plan?
Once you have set your goals and know why youre writing your plan, youre ready to gather the information youll need. You will need to gather information on your competitors, your products, your industry, and your company to complete the plan. Take note of this information as you read the guide. Once youve gathered the information youll need, youre ready to start writing your plan!
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So, youre ready to develop an effective marketing strategy for your company? Congratulations!!! Youve taken the right step to writing a winning marketing plan by downloading Marketing Plan Success. Business Plan Success has effectively helped companies with business planning since 2001 and is pleased to offer Marketing Plan Success as the latest addition to its business writing products. Why do I need a Marketing Plan? Whether youre starting a new business or trying to grow an existing business, a marketing plan is a must. Your marketing plan will give you the opportunity to evaluate your products, markets, and competitors, and identify new opportunities in the market to grow your business. It will also help you identify and avoid potential pitfalls that your company will face. When you are finished with your marketing plan, you will have a detailed analysis of your business and a strategy to help you meet objectives that you set. Marketing Plan Success will help you do everything from evaluating your industry to making decisions on how to spend your marketing budget. Get Started with Marketing Plan Success Marketing Plan Success is a complete marketing plan template that works with Microsoft Word and Excel. Your download includes three files: Marketing Plan Success.doc MPS Users Guide.pdf Marketing Plan Success.xls Marketing Plan Success.doc is the actual marketing plan template. To start using Marketing Plan Success, open Marketing Plan Success.doc.. The template includes prompts to assist you with writing you marketing plan. These are done in a form-like style to make filling the information into the template easy. Anywhere you see a grey box, you should fill in the information requested by clicking on the box and typing. The text in the grey boxes will usually be surrounded by brackets [] to make it easy to tell that this is part of the form. The only form element that is not in a grey box is [Company]. This is to make it easy to enter your company name throughout the template. Simply use the Find and Replace feature in Microsoft Word to replace [Company] with the name of your company. Make sure to include the brackets when doing the replace! The template will also have sections of text in red. These are notes to assist you with writing
your marketing plan and should be deleted before completing your marketing plan with Marketing Plan Success. Start your marketing plan by going through and adding any information you already know to the template. Skip the executive summary for now! You will not have all the information to fill this out until you complete the rest of you marketing plan. The information you are initially filling out on the template shouldnt require any research. For example, the company name and contact information would fit into this category. As you are going through the document you may notice that there are sections and paragraphs that do not pertain to your business. This is because Marketing Plan Success was developed to cover a wide range of situations. If something does not pertain to your company, simply delete it from the template and continue going through the document. Once you have finished adding everything you already know, it is time to start researching what you dont know. This Users Guide includes a section with Resources for Finding Information that has websites were you can find information for your marketing plan. Refer to this section as you work on your plan. Wait to fill in the financial information in your marketing plan until you have completed the Marketing Plan Success Excel Template. When you first open Marketing Plan Success.doc you will get this message or a similar message:
Marketing Plan Success.doc is linked to the file Marketing Plan Success.xls. When you click Yes in this box the template will automatically add any information you have entered into the Excel Template into your marketing plan. Completing the Marketing Plan Success Excel Template is the next step for writing your marketing plan. Complete the Excel Template by filling in the requested information in the yellow boxes. As you fill them in they will turn green, letting you know that the information was added. After you have completed the worksheets, fill in the remaining information in your marketing plan. Once you have completed the body of your marketing plan, go back to the Executive Summary and fill in the blanks using the information you have gathered. The Executive Summary is the plans thesis statement and should state your marketing plan objectives and summarize your strategy for achieving these objectives. If you think a piece of information is absolutely necessary for someone to know, make sure that it is included in the Executive Summary. Youre almost done! Now all you need to do is go through the document and proofread it. Make sure that everything makes sense and that all potential questions are answered. You know your business better than anyone else, so only you know everything that needs to be included in your companys marketing plan. As you proofread, get in the mind of your target audience. Strengthen any weak spots in the document. Once you are satisfied you have a great marketing plan and feel it will accomplish your goals, youre done! Detailed instructions for filling out each section of the marketing plan template and Excel template follow in this Users Guide. You may want to have this guide open as you write your marketing plan.
The first section of your marketing plan is the Situation Analysis. It is important for you to understand and describe the CURRENT conditions surrounding your marketing efforts before developing a strategy for the future of your product. This is the goal of the Situation Analysis. Think of the Situation Analysis as a snapshot of where things are presently. You will describe your goals for the future and how you will accomplish these goals later in your marketing plan. The Situation Analysis will describe your target market and explain how your company is positioned in that market. This section will also include historical results, macroeconomic forces, and information on the industry, products, competitors, and distribution. Marketing Plan Success includes the following sub-sections in the Situation Analysis: Introduction (<1 page) Product & Service Analysis (1 page) Market Analysis (4-5 pages) Target Market Market Demographics Geographics, Demographics, Psychographics, and Behaviors Market Needs Market Trends & Growth Distribution Network Analysis (1 page) Competitive Analysis (2 pages) Current Financial Situation (1 page) Historical Results (1 page) Macroenvironment (1 page) The following worksheets and graphs are available in the Excel template for this section: TargetMarket Market Growth Chart Market Segments Graph Market Segment Growth Forecasts Competitors Competitor Growth and Market Share Competitor Pricing Comparison CurrentSales Current Sales Analysis
Introduction The introduction of the Situation Analysis gives a brief overview of the current companys status. You will discuss this in more detail in the Situation Analysis. If you are preparing a marketing plan for a new company you should mention this information in your introduction. In this case you may need to slightly modify the text for the introduction as it is written for an organization that is presently in the market. Marketing Plan Success has the flexibility to adapt to any situation. Youre in complete control. Product & Service Analysis The Product & Service Analysis of the Situation Analysis gives a detailed overview of your current product mix. This analysis will list the product mix and includes features for the product. Information on how these products are distributed is also summarized. This sub-section includes a chart that lists the products and services offered by your company and their annual sales, revenue per unit, and gross margin. This chart is not linked to the Excel spreadsheet. The gross margin column lists the percentage of the product revenue left after the cost of the product to the company is subtracted from the revenue. For example, if you sell a product for $19.95 and your cost is $4.50, the gross margin would be (19.95-4.5)/19.95 or 77.44%. This means that 77.44% of the revenue is left to cover other expenses. Describe the current situation with your products in this analysis. How are they meeting the needs of your customers? Do you need to expand or contract your product line? What do customers like about your products? How is your product distributed? What services do customers expect after they purchase your product? Include the strengths and weaknesses of your products compared to the products of your competition. Summarize the features and benefits of your products. Product benefits usually derive from the features. For example, if a feature on an SUV is 4-wheel drive, the benefit might be the ability to drive in conditions where a 2-wheel drive vehicle would struggle. Finally, list ideas for future products and plans that you have discussed. Include when the plans will be implemented or if they require further research. Market Analysis Your Market Analysis will include information on the market size, segments, demographics, needs, trends, and growth. This information is used to help you understand your target market to assist you with developing a strategy that adequately targets this market. Market DemographicsBegin the Market Analysis sub-section of your marketing plan by completing the market demographics section. Demographics describe characteristics that are common to a population. Completing this information first will make the other portions of the Market Analysis easier to write. The following resources will assist you with completing the
information on the market demographics. All of these resources are available at no cost: American FactFinderhttp://factfinder.census.gov Find ZIP Codes in a Radiushttp://www.zipcodedownload.com/Lookup Business NAICS Lookuphttp://www.census.gov/naics SIC/NAICS Code Listshttp://www.sic-naics-codes.com Business Demographicshttp://www.census.gov These sources will also give you information to help you with describing the typical person in your market. This is not necessarily the person who you are targeting with your marketing efforts. After establishing the demographics of your target market, you will want to describe the psychographics of the market. Psychographics describe attitudes and characteristics that will influence your target markets lifestyle. More importantly, these characteristics will influence members of the target markets purchasing behavior and how they perceive your product. The psychographics describe what motivates the target market to purchase your product. Answer the questions in this sub-section with your product in mind. You may need to do some market research to complete this section accurately.
Geographic Nation State Neighborhood County Climate City size Population Density Demographic Age Gender Income Education Religion Race Family Size Generation Psychographic Values Attitudes Life Styles Personalities Social Class Behavioral Product Benefits Product Usage Purchase Cycle User Status Attitudes
The final portion of the Market Demographics is the Behavior sub-section. Here you will include behaviors related to your product that are typical of your target market. For example, if you are marketing bath soap for women you might mention that women typically bathe daily in the United States. Estimating the size of your target marketIf you dont already know the size of your target market, you will need to estimate its size in order to prepare your marketing plan. Once you have completed your market demographics it should be fairly simple to estimate the size of the target market using the American FactFinder at http:/factfinder.census.gov. Using the American Fact Finder you can query the census reports and find some great information on the population of your target market. Segmenting your marketSegmenting your market is an important process in any marketing plan. It allows you to define different groups within your target market that might benefit from different marketing angles. In the end, this allows you to market more effectively and efficiently. Here are some examples of ways you could segment your market: Gender Age
Income Customer Type Geography Climate
Your market segments should be divided up based on the theory that they will respond differently to aspects of your marketing program. To ensure that the segmentation you choose is useful you need to make sure that you can measure the different variables, such as the size, of the segment. You will want to create market segments of significant sizes that can be reached through your marketing. Identifying the needs of your marketOnce you have established the characteristics of your target market you need to describe what the market needs and how your company will fulfill this need. Sometimes you can guess what benefits the market is seeking, but it is always helpful to perform market research to give you a better idea. After you have identified the needs in your market, describe what your company will be doing to fulfill these needs. For example, if you are preparing a marketing plan for an automobile manufacturer and the market desires automobiles with improved gas mileage you might fulfill this need with new technology. Including these needs in your advertising message is an important part of your communication strategy. Describing trends in the target marketEvery organization could benefit from a crystal ball. Keeping your eye on the future is essential if you dont want to get left behind the competition. Since you probably dont have access to a crystal ball, your best bet is to identify trends in your target market and make plans related to these trends. For example, if you provide a product that is targeted with children as an end user and the population of children in your region is decreasing, you would want to include this information in your marketing plan. Describe how it will impact the market (in this case, the market would shrink). Market trends dont just deal with population. They also deal with the behaviors and psychographical information you included in your demographics section. If you know the underlying reasons behind the trends, mention these in this section. The underlying cause might be anything from an economic recession to a change in priorities. The market growth section is completed using the Excel template. Detailed instructions for using the template are included in this Users Guide in the Completing the MPS Excel Templates section and in the Excel file.
Distribution Network Analysis The Distribution Network Analysis describes how your products are distributed to customers. It includes a outline of the sales portion of the supply chain and analyses the past and current relationship between the company and its distributors. The level of detail needed for the Distribution Network Analysis section of the Situation Analysis varies depending on the type of products or services that your company offered. It will have some level of relevance to every business. First, you need to determine whether or not your company distributes its products directly to consumers or if it works through some type of distribution network. Many companies will have a combination or direct sales and distributor sales. Identify the types of distributors (manufactures, vendors, retail outlets, affiliates, etc) and input this information in the Supply Chain diagram. Continue your analysis by describing the distributor purchase process and what influences this process. Explain how your product is used in the distributors business and strategy and the perception of your product with distributors. Finally, describe the typical distributor of your product and list significant distributors and how you maintain your relationship with these distributors. Consider what needs and benefits distributors look for when selecting suppliers for products. Competitive Analysis The Competitive Analysis is a review of companies who are competing with you in your market. Some of these will target the same market that your company is targeting. Others may target a different niche. This information is important for identifying possible threats and opportunities related to your market position. Start this sub-section by making a chart with the following information: Name each competitor Summarize each competitors marketing mix (products, promotion strategy, where they are distributed, pricing, etc.). List the competitors strengths and weaknesses. What is their competitive advantage? Evaluate their competitors strategy and goals. Include the information from your analysis in your marketing plan. You will also need to estimate the growth rate of each competitor and market share to complete the Competitor Growth and Market Share section in the Excel template. Since youve already determined the size of your market, you can use this information to estimate the market share of each of the competitors. If they are public companies you might be able to obtain some information off the company financial filings. If they are private companies youll have to be more creative on where you obtain your information. As always, indicate the source of your information in your marketing plan.
Current Financial Situation The Current Financial Situation describes economic conditions in the market that assist you with forecasting the direction that the market is headed. It also allows you to compare where your company is financially to where the rest of the market stands financially. This section includes a chart that is linked to in the Excel templates. Based of the financial information for the last year sales, you should have an idea of whether or not sales in your market are seasonal or not seasonal. Seasonal means that sales tend to occur heavily at a certain time of year. For example, Christmas lights are a seasonal product. Explain why sales are seasonal in your marketing plan. You might also mention opportunities for extending the length of the sales season for your product. Historical Results The Historical Results section of the Situation Analysis gives you an opportunity to review current and past marketing efforts and determine whether or not they were effective. If your company is new and is launching a new product this section might not apply. In this case, mention in your marketing plan that historical results are not available for this product or fill out the section using observations from your competitors marketing efforts. Evaluating whether or not past marketing efforts were effective helps you determine what marketing efforts you should pursue in the future. In order to determine whether or not the marketing efforts were successful or not successful you need to establish criteria for evaluating the efforts. What was the goal? Were you looking to build brand awareness, or was revenue your only goal? If your company doesnt already have an established criteria for evaluating your marketing activities, now would be a great time to establish it. List your successful marketing efforts in the left column and your unsuccessful marketing efforts in the right column. Compare the two lists and look for similarities among the items in each list. Make a note of any trends and include these in your marketing plan. Macroenvironment The last sub-section of your Situation Analysis is an analysis of the Macroenvironment. The Macroenvironment is the economic, natural, demographic, technological, political, and cultural conditions the surround your business. These are important for establishing trends, making policies, and understanding the general conditions in which your business operates. Reflect on how each of these forces will impact your company over the next few years and briefly describe these conditions in your marketing plan. Here are some examples of items that you could analyze in each category:
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Economic ForcesPer capita GDP/GNP & GDP/GNP growth; Inflation; Exchange rates; Inventories; Economic trends; Unemployment; Changes in income; Consumer spending patterns; Trade balances; Minimum wage laws Natural ForcesNatural resource supplies; Environmental concerns affecting the production of your goods; Consumer habits affected by the environment; Demographic ForcesPopulation size/distribution; Age of population; Education; Income levels; Marital status; Religious affiliation; Home ownership Technological ForcesInfrastructure; New technology; Disruptive technologies; Manufacturing processes Political ForcesStability of the government; Government regulations; Tax rates; Government debt; Tariffs and quotas; Export/import regulations; International trade restrictions; Any relevant laws Cultural ForcesValues; Perceptions; Preferences; Behaviors; Conditions
A SWOT Analysis is a strategic analysis method commonly used to evaluate a companys Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It is an essential element of your marketing plan. In many ways, it is simply a summary of the important points in your Situation Analysis. Your SWOT Analysis assists management with assessing and anticipating the threats and opportunities associated with your marketing plan. The SWOT Analysis you will create with Marketing Plan Success will evaluate the internal conditions of your company and the external environment where it operates. This information will then be evaluated as a whole to match your companys strengths and weaknesses with the opportunities and threats in its environment. Marketing Plan Success contains the following sub-sections in the SWOT Analysis: Introduction (<1 page) Internal Strengths and Weaknesses (1 page) External Opportunities and Threats (1 page) SWOT Action Plan (<1 page)
There are no graphs or worksheets in the Excel template for this portion of the marketing plan. Internal Strengths and Weaknesses The strengths and weaknesses sections of the SWOT analysis should concentrate on your companys internal attributes. Your companys strengths are what give it a competitive advantage. They are also the attributes that will assist your company with achieving the objectives that you outline in your marketing plan. As you list the company strengths, think about how you can take advantage of each strength in your marketing strategy. The weaknesses you list in your marketing plan are items that may hinder its success. For example, if your companys distribution network is small and underdeveloped it may be difficult to meet your sales goals even if you increase the advertising for your products and services. It is important to diminish the impact of your companys weaknesses - especially if they are directly related to the goals that you are setting forth. You will want to evaluate these items, among others, as you analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your company:
Distribution network Departments in the organization Patents, copyrights, and trademarks Internal processes and efficiency Manufacturing capacity Customer service Infrastructure Management and employees Financial resources
Outside Opportunities and Threats The outside opportunities and threats portion of the SWOT analysis evaluates your companys external environment. The information you collected for the macroenvironment section of the Situation Analysis will be helpful in completing this portion of your marketing plan. Begin by evaluating the opportunities available to your company that you are not yet exploiting. For example, you may have discovered from your earlier research that customers would like a product that your company is not currently offering. There may also be changes in the laws or government regulations that allow your company to pursue routes that were previously not possible. Use this type of information to identify opportunities that build on your companys internal strengths and minimize the impact of your companys weaknesses. Threats from the competition and in your environment also play an important role in your marketing strategy. You need to set up defenses to minimize the impact of any issues that may threaten your company and its marketing efforts. Again, using the information in your Situation Analysis, identify significant threats that your company is facing in the market. Take the following issues into consideration as you evaluate the opportunities and threats that are presented to your company: Changes in technology Government legislation and regulations Changes in demographics or psychographics Competitors Economic conditions Product lifecycle Market needs SWOT Action Plan After you have completed your SWOT Analysis, you can fill in the SWOT Action Plan as a summary of your findings. You will want to use this information to establish objectives in the following section which utilize your companys strengths, diminish your companys weaknesses, exploit available opportunities, and minimize or eliminate threats.
Now that youve analyzed where your company stands presently, youre ready to make decisions on where you would like it to go in the future. In the Marketing Objectives & Issues section of your marketing plan you will state the marketing and financial objectives, the key success items related to achieving these objectives, and any critical issues that are important for consideration by management. Marketing Plan Success contains the following sub-sections in the Marketing Objectives and Issues section: Introduction (<1 page) Marketing Objectives (<1 page) Financial Objectives (<1 page) Critical Issues (<1 page) There are no graphs or worksheets in the Excel template for this portion of the marketing plan. This section does not need a lot of detail. You are simply stating your companys goals and what needs to be done to accomplish these goals. Leave the specifics on how you will achieve these goals to the strategy portion of your marketing plan. When writing objectives, make sure that they are statements that are (1) specific and (2) measurable. Make more money isnt a good objective. These objectives will be the focus of the rest of your plan, so make sure that they are good. If your marketing plan is built on a weak foundation it is likely to fail. The objectives you outline in your marketing plan should be determined by evaluating the mission statement of your company. Every objective should be directly tied to the mission of the company. Introduction The introduction to the section has already been written. You will want to include your companys mission statement in the introduction so that readers understand the basis for the objectives you establish. The companys mission should have been developed by management when it developed its business plan. If your company does not have a mission you should consult with management to create one. Financial Objectives The Financial Objectives for your marketing plan should guide towards the ultimate goals of increasing owners value and improving the bottom line for your company. Financial Objec17 - Marketing Plan Success Users Guide
tives focus on numbers from the companys income statement and the business ratios used to measure performance in your industry. Financial Objectives can be put in four categories: Sales, Margins, Profits, and Ratios. Here are some examples of financial objectives that could be used in your marketing plan: Increase sales to young adults by 25% Reduce Cost of Sales by 10% Earn $500,000 in profits Each Financial Objective will have one or more keys to success associated with it. These are items that are essential for meeting the objectives established. For example, if one of your financial objectives were to improve sales to young adults, it might be important to improve product distribution to reach this market. If your objective were to improve the gross margin you may need to find suppliers who offer resources at a lower price or renegotiate contracts with present suppliers. Marketing Objectives Marketing Objectives is a much broader category than Financial Objectives. These objectives explain how your business will measure the success of your marketing plan using non-financial means. These objectives focus on the target market, promotions and advertising, channels and distribution, market research, product development, and other marketing activities. For example, improving customer retention may be an issue that your company has struggled with in the past. You might set forth an objectives that focus on improving communication with customers and increasing return sales. Perhaps you might need to understand the reasons why customers do not repeat purchases or make improvements to your product to add value for the customer. As with the Financial Objectives, you will want to list Keys to Success for your Marketing Objectives. Critical Issues Finally, you will want to list any Critical Issues you have recognized in developing the Situation Analysis and Objectives. Your SWOT Analysis is a great place to find this type of information. For example, does your company have weaknesses in areas where it needs to improve? You may want to briefly describe the background behind these issues if it is appropriate.
After establishing your marketing objectives and identifying the keys to success and critical issues, you are ready to create strategies based on these objectives. This is the next section of your marketing plan.
The Marketing Strategy section of your marketing plan outlines the strategy and logic associated with how the company will meet the objectives listed in the Marketing Objectives and Issues section. You will outline the strategies for the products, pricing, promotion, and placement and detail how each of these aspects of the marketing mix will respond to the items you have identified in your SWOT Analysis and Critical Issues. Marketing Plan Success includes the following sub-sections in the Marketing Strategy: Introduction (<1 page) Target Marketing (<1 page) Positioning (<1 page) Marketing Strategy & Tactics (3-4 pages) Marketing Mix (2-3 pages) Products Pricing Promotion Distribution Marketing Research (1 page) Focus Groups Surveys Interviews Internal Data External Data The following worksheets and graphs are available in the Excel template for this section: Competitors Competitor Pricing Graph
Introduction Introduce your Marketing Strategy by stating the overall objective of your companys marketing efforts. Refer to your companys mission statement for assistance with developing this objective. Next, state the performance areas that are critical to achieving this objective. These performance areas may deal with customer service, technical support, price, product quality, distribution, etc. They may or may not be based on the critical issues mentioned in the previous section. After you have summarized the direction of the Marketing Strategy, mention what the strategy will do to help you meet this objective. Marketing goals might be to create awareness for your product or improve the reach of your products distribution. Whatever the case may be, it is important for you to set forth the direction for your marketing strategy before you begin to develop the tactics. Target Marketing The Target Marketing information is included in the Marketing Strategy to put the strategy in the context of who you are targeting. Refer to the Target Market section of your Situation Analysis to remind yourself of the market segments established for your market. The information in the Target Marketing section of the Marketing Strategy should correspond with the information listed in the Situation Analysis. Explain why these segments are being targeted by your company. Next, briefly summarize the characteristics of each market segment your company has decided to target. This information can be obtained by referring to the Situation Analysis that you wrote earlier in your marketing plan. Positioning Positioning refers to the perception of your products in the minds of your consumers. It is usually in relation to your competitors products. In this portion of your strategy, you want to explain the attributes of your product that fulfill the needs of your consumers. Also, mention any attributes of your product that set it above the competition. This could be the price or some feature or benefit. Understanding the competitive advantage of your product and how it fills the needs of your target market is extremely helpful when developing a marketing communication strategy. When this section is done, it should explain why customers will want to choose your product over the products of your competitors in order to meet their needs. Marketing Strategy & Tactics Now that youve analyzed your market and competitors and established your marketing objectives, youre ready to develop strategies to meet these objectives. First, list the primary marketing objective for your overall strategy. This should be the same objective that you stated in the introduction to the Marketing Strategy section. Next list the marketing strategies that your marketing team has determined will help you successfully meet this objective. Your strategy may
be to improve sales to current customers, increase the total number of customers, sell additional products to existing customers, or promote your product though specified means. Be creative and think outside the box. Marketing Strategies usually fit into one of these categories: Market growth (increase sales to current markets, enter new markets, develop new products, etc), Market stability, Cost control, or Market Exit. After determining your strategies, you need to describe the strategies and determine the tactics that will be used to meet these strategies. For example, assume that a company has created the strategy to improve sales to current customers. The tactical portion of your marketing plan may look like this: Strategy #1Improve Sales to Existing CustomersThe least expensive and most valuable sales will come as a result of leveraging our existing customer base. Customer Service 1 week after making their purchase, all customers should be contacted for feedback and to see if they need assistance with the products purchased Newsletter A monthly newsletter will be released to all customers that includes valuable offers and highlights from products that would interest existing customers Think of the methods as being how you will meet your strategic goals and the programs as what will be done under each method. Marketing Mix The Marketing Mix is also know as the Four Ps in marketing: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Many will also include a fifth P in this listPeople. ProductsYou have already briefly mentioned your product line in your Situation Analysis. In this sub-section, you will outline how the products fit into the strategic vision of your company. Answer these questions under the Product header: What is the strategic vision behind your products? What elements of the product (packaging, presentation, warranty, etc) are important for strategic success and how do these elements fit into the product strategy? PricingThe second P in the Marketing Mix is Price. The pricing of your product is an important aspect of your marketing strategy. The pricing strategy needs to take both internal and
external forces into account. For example, internally you need to consider the marketing objectives, marketing strategy, and costs. Externally you should consider the competition, the market, economics, resellers, governments, etc. Answer these questions under the Pricing header: What are you trying to communicate with your products price? How does your products price relate to the prices of your competitors? How will the price contribute to the companys overall strategy (revenues, etc)? A chart that shows the competitors pricing is available for this section under Competitors in the Excel template. PromotionsPromotion is how you build awareness for your products and is an important aspect of the Marketing Mix. Evaluate how your successful competitors promote their products and how you have promoted your products in the past to determine the promotion strategy for your marketing plan. Include any communications methods you will use to reach your target market in this plan. For each of the categories (Advertising, Public Relations/Publicity, Direct Marketing, Promotions/Events, Product Marketing Materials, Sales Force, and Online Advertising), include the channels that you will use, where you have had success in the past, and any other details that will be helpful in implementing the marketing plan. Be specific when explaining the different tactics. It may be helpful to define what you will do under each category. Distribution/PlaceThe last P is Place, also known as distribution. How are you going to get your products in the hands of your customers once they know that they exist? Explain how your products are distributed and the strategy behind your distribution methods. This includes the image that you are trying to create by where you choose to place your products in the market. For example, if you are selling high-end jewelry, you wont want to make it available in the local discount outlet. Describe distribution issues that your product might face, such as sales staff knowledge, shelf space competition, product image, and possible changes in the market. Marketing Research Finally, mention how marketing research is conducted in your company. This provides feedback on how successful your marketing strategy is in accomplishing its objectives. Include any research activities that are used by your company to improve its marketing efforts.
The Marketing Strategy section in Marketing Plan Success includes the sections that are commonly used when developing marketing strategies but that doesnt mean that there are no additional sections that you could use for your company. Pause before continuing to the next section to make sure that you have addressed everything that is important for meeting the objectives set forth in your marketing plan. The Marketing Strategy portion of the marketing plan is the most important section for meeting these objectives. After you are satisfied that you have developed a successful strategy, youre ready to create your marketing budget and forecasts.
The Action Items section outlines what needs to be done, who is responsible for doing it and how much it will cost. Marketing Plan Success includes the following sub-sections in the Action Items section: Introduction (<1 page) Milestones (<1 page) Marketing Organization (<1 page) The following worksheets and graphs are available in the Excel template for this section: Milestones Introduction No changes are required for the introduction in the Action Items section. Milestones The Milestones portion of the Action Items section consists mainly of a chart that is filled out using the Excel template. Detailed instructions for filling out this chart are found in the Excel template instructions in this users guide. This section may be one of the most important sections in the marketing plan because it outlines exactly who is responsible for specific aspects of the implementation of the strategy. Be specific on when you want things done and list the people in the company who will be responsible for getting them done. Make sure that you communicate these expectations to these individuals once your plan has been approved. Describe in this section how you will keep track of the milestones and measurements used to determine their success. Marketing Organization The Action Item section is also the place in your marketing plan where you will outline the organization of your marketing department. List the name and title of the person who is responsible for the marketing in your company and then list the individuals who this person manages. Include the name and title for every individual and a brief list of their responsibilities (especially those related to the marketing objectives and strategy). This information will be useful when assigning tasks and filling out the milestones chart. You may want to complete it first. There is also an optional organization chart to show the relationships between individuals in the department.
In the Financials, Budgets, & Forecasts section of Marketing Plan Success, you will project profits and losses and show your expected revenues and costs resulting from the strategy outlined in your marketing plan. Although it may be one of the more difficult sections to complete, this section is extremely important for evaluating the viability of your marketing plan. Luckily, the tools you downloaded with Marketing Plan Success will help make completing this analysis much easier than it would be otherwise. Marketing Plan Success includes the following sub-sections in the Action Items section: Introduction (<1 page) Break-even Analysis (<1 page) Sales Forecast (1 page) Cost of Sales Forecast (1 page) Marketing Budget Forecast (1 page) Sales vs. Expense Summary (1 page) The following worksheets and graphs are available in the Excel template for this section: BreakEven Break-even Analysis Graph Cost of Sales Forecast Sales Forecast Marketing Budget Sales vs. Expense Summary Introduction No changes are required for the Introduction to this section of your marketing plan. Break-even Analysis The break-even analysis compares your revenues with your costs and estimates the number of units that need to be sold to break even. This means that you are selling enough to cover your costs. Any sales above the breakeven point are profits for your company and its shareholders. This is also a useful analysis for pricing your product in such a way that the revenues are able to meet the costs if you have estimated the number of units that can be sold at different price points. The break-even volume is found with this formula: Fixed Costs / (Price - Variable Cost) = Break-even Volume. These calculations are performed automatically in the Excel spreadsheet
after you enter in the required information. You can find more information on completing the Excel template in this Users Guide. Sales Forecast The Sales Forecast is used to project sales for your product in different sales channels. A sales channel is a channel conduit through which a product goes before it reaches your customer. This following list includes examples of possible sales channels for your products: Retail Sales Web Sales Distributor Sales Direct Sales Outside Sales Inside Sales Telemarketing Sales Door-to-door Sales Consignment Sales Simply list each channel through which you sell your product in the Excel template and create your sales and growth estimates (instructions are found in this users guide). As you develop your sales forecasts, youll want to consider any seasonality that might apply to your product and the impact that your marketing plan will have over time on your sales. Describe any conditions or activities that will impact sales in the section and include the impact of these activities in your forecasts. Cost of Sales Forecast Marketing Plan Successuses the terms Cost of Sales and Cost of Goods Sold interchangeably. The Cost of Sales Forecast projects the cost of the products to your company in each sales channel. This cost may be the cost of purchasing the product from a distributor or the cost of the goods used to manufacture the product. Speak with your accountant if you have questions about how your company defines the cost of sales for a product. The Cost of Sales chart is completed using the Excel template. Marketing Budget Use the Excel templates to complete the marketing budget for your company for the next 5 years. The templates also include budget projection tools to assist you with this process. Sales vs. Expense Summary This chart is completed automatically in the Excel charts when you complete your expense and sales forecasts. It simply summarizes and combines the information into one chart to give an overview of the results of your marketing plan. You may wish to include an analysis of this chart in your marketing plan.
The final section of your marketing plan, Controls, will outline how progress of your plan implementation will be monitored and how management will be able to determine if your products and services are meeting the objectives. It also includes difficulties and risks that your company may face and worst case scenarios. Marketing Plan Success includes the following sub-sections in the Controls section: Performance Monitoring (<1 page) Contingency Planning (<1 page) There are no graphs or worksheets in the Excel template for this portion of the marketing plan. Performance Monitoring How will management determine if your marketing plan is successful? In this section, you will list the ways that performance will be monitored. Refer to your objectives and use measurements related to these objectives. This list includes some examples of how your company might monitor the performance of your marketing strategy: Monthly and Annual Revenues Monthly and Annual Expenses Monthly and Annual Profits Customer Satisfaction Product Effectiveness Contingency Planning In the Contingency Planning sub-section you will list any difficulties or risks that you will face in implementing this marketing plan and the worst case scenarios. First, list the difficulties or risks that your company might face. These difficulties or risks could come from within the company or from outside the company. Finally, list the worst case scenarios for your business. For most businesses, the worst case scenario is usually the business shutting down. For larger companies the worst case scenario might be that the product line is discontinued. You will need to determine what potential impact your marketing plan will have on the business if it is a complete failure. An example of a worst case scenario is that the company determines that the business is unable to support itself and it liquidates the company assets to cover its liabilities.
Youre finally finished with your Marketing Plan! Using Marketing Plan Success, you should have been able to create a comprehensive marketing plan with realistic objectives and a viable strategy for meeting these objectives. Now, you need to simply summarize your marketing plan for management in an Executive Summary. The Executive Summary should be the last section of your marketing plan that you write and should be about 1 page long. The Executive Summary will provide a brief summary of the main goals and recommendations included in your marketing plan. Its purpose is to assist management with finding the main points of your marketing plan quickly. To make writing your Executive Summary easier, the Marketing Plan template includes a pre-written Executive Summary that you can use in your marketing plan. There may be more information that youd like to include in this section. Once you finish writing your Executive Summary, read through and proofread your marketing plan. You will want to make sure that information in the plan is consistent throughout the different sections and that there are no grammar or spelling errors. Finally, make sure that you have explained the information in your marketing plan clearly and that all the vital information is included. After you are satisfied with your marketing plan, save it and youre done! If you are distributing the marketing plan throughout your company in an electronic format, we suggest saving it as a PDF document. Your license agreement requires you to distribute your marketing plan outside your organization in a non-editable format. This could be a printed hard copy of the marketing plan or a protected .PDF. If you dont have software on your computer for saving as a PDF already, you can download free software from various sites on the Internet. Distributing the marketing plan as a PDF will allow you to distribute it without having to distribute the Excel template with the Word document.
Marketing Plan Success.xls is a great way to add financial information and charts to your marketing plan. The spreadsheet will include detailed information about your companys marketing efforts when you are finished. Marketing Plan Success.doc and Marketing Plan Success.xls are linked together so the Word document automatically updates in the Excel spreadsheet. Instructions for Using Marketing Plan Success.xls When using Marketing Plan Success.xls with Marketing Plan Success.doc, be sure to have both files open when you save the files with new names. That way, the charts in the Word document, which are directly linked to this file, will follow the link to the new file that you create by saving it with a new name. Refer to the FAQs for more information on saving the files with new names. The worksheets can each be accessed by clicking on the tabs at the bottom of the screen. Each tab has the worksheet's name on it. You can also move among the sheets by holding down the "Ctrl" key and pressing "Page Up" or "Page Down." Except as noted in the worksheet instructions, entries should only be made in the yellow boxes; all other numbers are calculated automatically. We cannot be responsible for changes made to the formulas in the spreadsheet and changing these formulas may require you to restart your work, especially if you are unfamiliar with Excel. Marketing Plan Success.xls contains 9 different tabs. : Instructions TargetMarket Competitors CurrentSales Milestones BreakEven SalesForecast CostofSales Budget SalesExpenses You can move between these sheets using the tabs at the bottom of the window. More direction on the purpose and use of the sheets is found on the Instructions sheet.
The hardest part of using the Marketing Plan Success spreadsheet is finding all the information. In order to complete the data entry you will need to gather financial information and make forecasts for the next five years. You will also need to research your industry and competitors. If your company is new you may have to estimate certain figures to complete the spreadsheets. Be conservative in your estimates. At first, filling out this information may seem like a daunting task, but if you have gathered the appropriate data it is very straight-forward. All you do is fill in the blanks one section at a time. Once you have completely filled out the worksheets you will notice that all the other charts are already complete! Excel Tips Here are some tips for using Excel: To enter data into the Excel spreadsheet, click on the cell where you would like to enter the data and begin typing. To reformat a cell, right click and select Format Cells from the drop down. To repair a link between your marketing plan and the Excel template, highlight the area you would like to appear in the marketing plan and select Copy in the Edit menu. In the marketing plan, put your cursor where you would like the chart to appear and select Paste Special from the Edit menu. Check the Paste Link radio button and select the desired format (usually Excel). To add or remove rows, right click on the row or column number and right click. Select add or remove in the menu. This may require some adjustment in the formulas and links and should only be done by advanced users.
TargetMarket On the Target Market Worksheet (found on the TargetMarket tab), enter the following information: Total Population of Target MarketThe population of the market that you are targeting in with your marketing efforts. This information was already obtained for the Target Market section in your Situation Analysis. Segment NamesThe names of each of the market segments that you identified in your Situation Analysis % of MarketEnter what percentage of the market that each segment makes up. The template will automatically divide up the population of your target market into the different segments based off the percentages you enter. Growth RatesThese are the rates that you are projecting your market segments to grow over the next few years. Finding the information on the growth rates can be a little more difficult. The level of difficulty will depend on how your market is segmented. Data for forecasting your market can be found at http://www.econdata.net and http://odwin.ucsd.edu/ idata/. You can find a directory of many statistical resources at http://www.lib.umich.edu/ govdocs/stats.html. Internal company data is also helpful for making these estimations. If you plan for steady growth over the next five years, enter the same growth rate in each of the five columns. The Marketing Plan Success template is also designed to enable you to forecast changes in the growth rate from year to year. Marketing Plan Success is setup to include five market segments. This may or may not be the correct number of segments for your business. If you have experience with Excel you can easily modify the template to include more or less than five market segments. Make sure to also make the necessary changes in the Linked Chart and follow the instructions at the beginning of this tutorial to modify the area in the Excel template linked to the Word document. This information is used to build the Market Growth chart. This chart outlines the population growth of each of your segments over the next five years. It also includes the CAGR or Compound Average Growth Rate. This is the year-over-year growth rate over the last five years. Competitors To fill out the Competitors Worksheet (found on the Competitors tab) you will need to gather the name, price, growth rate, and market share for your competitors and their products. You will also need this information for your company. Competitors NameList the name of your company in the first row and then list the names of each of your competitors and/or their products. PriceThis is the price of each competitors comparable product. You may be able to find this information by contacting the competitor directly or on the internet. Growth RateThis is the rate at which your competitors business is growing. This information can be difficult to come by and may need to be estimated or determined through market research. Market ShareThis is the percent of the market that each competitor holds. Again, you may need to estimate this information or conduct market research.
You may be able to determine information for this chart by conducting market research to estimate the percentage of your target market that has made purchases from each competitor. This type of study can be outsourced if you are not familiar with statistical analysis and market research. If you can not conduct a survey to determine growth rate and market share you could see if similar studies have already been conducted. Look at the resources available in this guide to see if research is available that you could use. The information in the Competitors Worksheet is used to build the Competitor Growth and Market Share chart and the Competitor Pricing Comparison graph. These charts compare the price, growth rate, and market share of your main competitors. CurrentSales The Current Sales Analysis Worksheet, found on the CurrentSales tab, compares your companys month-to-month sales for the previous year with those of your competitors. This chart is helpful for estimating your companys market share (needed for various sections of your Marketing Plan). Market Sales for Previous YearThis is the total sales for your industry each month in the last 12 months. Your Product Sales for Previous YearThis is your total sales each month in the last 12 months. After you enter this information, the competitor sales will be automatically computed. Data for your companys sales can be obtained from internal financial data. Data for the industry sales may be harder to come by. If you already know your market share, you can estimate industry sales using your sales figures and market share. You might also be able to find this information in industry publications. This information is used to build the Current Sales Analysis chart which compares your sales with your competitions sales. Milestones The Milestones Worksheet, found on the Milestones tab, is used to assign responsibilities for the implementation of different tasks associated with your plan. These tasks should be specific items needed to be done to achieve the objectives in your marketing plan. It is important that they are consistent with your strategy. Filling in this chart is fairly simple. Enter the following information on the spreadsheet: MilestoneThis is an event, such as the completion of an advertising campaign, associated with your marketing plan. BudgetThis is the dollar amount allocated to completing the milestone in the chart. Start DateThe date when you will begin working towards completing this milestone. End DateThe deadline for completing this milestone.
ManagerThe person or persons who are responsible for the completion of this milestone. There may be more than one person responsible for its completion. If this is the case, list each individual in the chart. DepartmentThe department in your company responsible for completing the milestone.
The worksheet is setup to handle 10 milestones. It is likely that you will have more or less than 10 milestones in your plan. To add milestones, select one of the rows by right-clicking on the number next to it and select insert in the dropdown list. This will add a row in the spreadsheet. You will want to add the same number of rows, following the same steps, to the linked chart. There are instructions for doing this and repairing the link to the Word template at the beginning of this section. This information is used to complete the Milestones chart and a pie graph of the milestones budgets. These charts show the deadlines for and who is responsible for completing milestones in your marketing plan. BreakEven The BreakEven tab requires you to enter three figures: Monthly Fixed Costs EstimateYour fixed costs are costs, such as rent, that do not change each month and are not affected by the sales volume. Speak with your accounting department if you do not have this information. Since the breakeven is done on a per-month basis, you will want to get the monthly fixed costs to complete this chart. Average Revenue/UnitThis is most likely the price of your product. If you sell the product for different prices in different channels you will want to do a weighted average of the price. Average Variable Cost/UnitVariable costs are costs that increase or decrease as sales increase and decrease. A variable cost might be shipping, for example. If costs for your products vary, you will want to do a weighted average to properly record the average variable cost for your break-even analysis.
This information is used to build the Break-even Analysis chart. After you fill in these fields the template will automatically compute the volume and revenue required for your company to break even, meaning the sales required to meet the expenses with no profits. A graph demonstrating the break-even point is also included with Marketing Plan Success. You can copy and paste this graph into your marketing plan following the instructions in this tutorial. Do not make changes to the data next to the graph unless you are experienced with Excel. This data is used to create the graph. SalesForecast The SalesForecast tab requires you to enter the following information: Sales ChannelsThese are the channels that your product will be sold through (web sales, direct sales, telemarketing sales, etc.). The names of these sales channels will be carried over to the CostofSales worksheet.
Year 1 Sales Projections by MonthForecast, using your preferred forecasting method, the sales projections for each sales channel in each month over the next year. Make sure that you take any seasonality of the product into account as you outline your projections. Forecasted Growth Rates for Years 2 to 5Enter the projected growth rate for your sales in years two through five.
This information is used to build the Sales Forecast chart and Sales vs. Expenses Summary Chart. The Sales Channels are also included in the Cost of Sales chart. These charts are used to project the sales for your company over the next five years. CostofSales The CostofSales tab requires you to enter the following information: Cost of SalesThe cost of sales is the cost of providing the customer your product to your company. This information needs to be entered for each month of year 1. Growth RatesEnter the growth rates for the cost of sales from year two to five. This information may or may not be correlated with the cost of sales. This information is used to build the Cost of Sales Forecast chart and the Sales vs. Expenses Summary Chart. Budget The Budget tab requires you to enter the following information: Marketing ExpensesYou will need to enter the marketing expenses for your different programs for each month over the next five years. Marketing Plan Success has included many of the most common marketing methods in the budget list. These can be modified to fit your specific strategies and the modifications will be carried over through the templates. This information is used to build the Marketing Budget and Sales vs. Expense Summary Charts. The Budget tab also includes an optional worksheet for planning your budget. These worksheets use your sales forecasts to assist you with determining how much your total budget should be for each of the five years. The budget planning worksheet uses the Percent of Sales method and has the option for either planning off of the previous years sales or the current years sales. SalesExpenses The SalesExpenses tab does not include a worksheet. The information in this chart is derived from the inputs in the SalesForecast, CostofSales, and Budget tabs. Modifications to the charts in these tabs may require you to reformat the Sales vs. Expense Summary. Instructions for doing this are found at the beginning of this tutorial.
The following resources may help you in gathering information for your marketing plan. Many of these resources are available at no cost. Much of the data that you will need may be found by using internal resources or on the internet by using a search engine such as Google. Corporate Information Company website Hoovers: www.hoovers.com/free/ Tip: Use the SIC code to find competitors and industry information on this website. Zapdata: www.zapdata.com Free registration required for industry or company reports Annual Report Service: www.annualreportservice.com Business Wire: www.businesswire.com PR Newswire: www.prnewswire.com U.S. Government Information U.S. Census Bureau: www.census.gov/ Contains current statistics from the United States U.S. Economic Census: www.census.gov/econ/census02/guide/ Fact Finder: factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en Allows you to do queries into the latest US Census Data Export.gov Market Research: www.export.gov/marketresearch.html Bureau of Labor Statistics: stats.bls.gov/ This site includes essential statistical data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. Standard Industry Classification Search: www.osha.gov/pls/imis/sicsearch.html Small Business Development Center: sbdcnet.utsa.edu/SBIC/industry.htm EDGAR: www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml STAT-USA: www.stat-usa.gov INFOMINE: infomine.ucr.edu UofMichigan Statistical Resources: www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stats.html EDGAR: www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml Financial reports of reports submitted to the Security and Exchange Commission. EDGAR-SCAN: edgarscan.pwcglobal.com/servlets/edgarscan United States Patent and Trademark Office: www.uspto.gov/ Able to search on website for patents filed from 1790 to Present Trade Information Gateway to Associations: www.asaecenter.org/Directories/AssociationSearch.cfm Free database that allows you to search for and find trade associations
Trade Show Directory: www.tsnn.com Tradeshow Week Magazine: www.tradeshowweek.com Trade Magazine Search: www.directcontactpr.com/jumpstation/
Other Resources International Monetary Fund: www.imf.org/external/country/index.htm Recent Newspaper Articles: news.google.com/ ESRI: www.esribis.com/ Ability to find out the demographics in a particular zip code Switchboard.com: www.switchboard.com ZIP Code Radius Search: www.zipcodedownload.com This resource list was updated in August 2006. Due to the dynamic nature of the Internet some of these addresses may change in the future. If you find resources that you would like to share with other Marketing Plan Success users, please email customer support and we will review the sites for listing in future editions of the users guide. Business Plan Success and Marketing Plan Success are not affiliated with any of the websites or organizations listed in this directory. While efforts have been made to provide resources that are reliable, we are not responsible for information obtained from these resources.
Note: All detailed instructions are based on Microsoft Office 2003. Other versions of MS Office are similar, but may require slightly different steps. What should I do if I accidentally modified the formulas on the MPS Excel spreadsheet? We recommend downloading and/or starting from a fresh copy of Marketing Plan Success.xls. You may need to save the work that you have already completed in another folder before downloading the product again. We do not provide support for changes made to the formatting of the spreadsheet. Is it possible to create more than one marketing plan using the template? Many of our customers desire to create more than one marketing plan. If you plan on using this product more than once, we recommend always keeping a new, unaltered copy of Marketing Plan Success on a CD. To create a second copy of the marketing plan, create a new folder. Copy the Word and Excel files into this folder. If you need to download the files again, you have access to download the documents on www.marketing-plan-success.com or www.business-plan-success.com for 30 days after the initial purchase. How can I repair the link between the two files if I want to rename them? If you have already renamed Marketing Plan Success.xls, you can repair the link between the two files by opening both the Word template and the Excel template. In the Excel template, select the region you want to appear in the Word template. Next, click in the Word template where you would like the chart or graph to appear. In Words Edit menu, select Paste Special and paste the chart into the Word template. In the options box that opens, select the desired format (usually Excel) and select the radio button next to Paste as Link How can I create graphs for my business plan using Marketing Plan Success? Graphs are included on various worksheets in Marketing Plan Success.xls. If you want to create graphs other than the ones listed, you can do so in Word by clicking on Insert and highlighting Picture. From the dropdown list select Charts and follow the instructions to create a graph. To add a graph to the Word template, copy it in the Excel template and Paste it in the Word template.
What steps do I need to take to download a fresh copy of Marketing Plan Success? For your convenience, we allow you to download a new copy of Marketing Plan Success for 30 days after your purchase. To download a new copy of the template, log onto our website at www.marketing-plan-success.com or www.business-plan-success.com. Your user name is the email address that you used when you setup the account. A password should have been emailed to you. The default password is the last four digits of your credit card number. If you forgot your password, use the Forgot Your Password link on the website.
The Excel spreadsheet I am working on shows ##### in the cells instead of numbers. How can I fix this? This error occurs because of fluctuations in font sizes on machines. Luckily, it is very easy to repair. All you need to do is expand the column width or reduce the font size and the numbers will show up on the spreadsheet. Printing Problems Please refer to your printer manual to troubleshoot printer problems. MPS has been quality tested and all documents should print normally.
What does the unprotected formula with the green arrow message mean on some of the cells on my excel spreadsheet? These messages can be safely ignored. How do I update the Word document if the information entered into the Excel spreadsheet does not show up on the document? Save your word document and then close it. Reopen the file and when you are asked if you want to update the information select yes. If the information does not update you may have a problem with the link. Refer to the instructions on repairing this link for more information. You can also right-click on the chart and select update link in the menu. Who do I contact if I need help writing my marketing plan or I need a customized plan? Marketing Plan Success customer support is available to answer general questions about using the template. We have developed this guide as a resource to help you write your own customized plan. We recommend that you consult the Users Guide for assistance. What restrictions are there on distributing my marketing plan? When you purchased Marketing Plan Success, you agreed to the license agreement, which states that you may distribute unlimited copies of the software internally in your organization. The Excel template and Users Guide may not be distributed outside your organization. The Word template may be distributed outside your organization, provided that it is distributed in a format that cannot be modified (a printed copy or protected PDF file, for example).
We hope you are satisfied with the Marketing Plan Success templates from Business Plan Success. At Business Plan Success we are committed to helping marketers and business owners write plan that will help them reach their goals. As a service to you, we have provided a section in this guide for troubleshooting and frequently asked questions. If your question or concern is not included in this section, please contact our customer service department. If this product does not meet you needs please refer to our refund policy on the website. We offer prompt e-mail support to customers who need assistance with our product. Our Marketing Plan Success support team can be reached at this address: support-mps@marketing-plan-success.com Marketing Plan Success 631 N Stephanie Street, #543 Henderson, NV 89014
Effective: August 1, 2006 User Notice This is a contract. By making a purchase or downloading Marketing Plan Success (the Product) from Business Plan Success or Marketing Plan Success you accept all terms and conditions outlined in this agreement. Please read this agreement carefully before using this product. Upon your acceptance of this agreement, we grant you a nonexclusive right to use the data, provided you agree to the following: Use of Product You may download Marketing Plan Success from http://www.business-plan-success.com/ or http://www.marketing-plan-success.com/ and store it on a hard disk or other storage device. You may make unlimited copies of this data for your personal use, provided that this agreement accompanies every copy made. The Excel templates may not be distributed outside your business or organization in any form. The Users Guide may not be distributed outside your business or organization in any form. The Word template may be distributed outside your organization provided that it is distributed in such a way that it cannot be modified by the recipient (i.e. in a printed hard copy or protected .DOC or .PDF file). The sample marketing plan may not be distributed outside your organization in any form. Copyright and Trademark Rights The data on this website is owned by Business Plan Success. The structure, organization and code related to this data are also owned by this company. This product is protected by United States Copyright Law and International Treaty provisions. You may use trademarks only to comply with this agreement. Use of the trademark does not give you any rights of ownership in that trademark. Except as stated above, this agreement does not grant you any intellectual property rights in the data. Restrictions You are free to modify and/or adapt any data provided for your own use, reproduction, as well as unlimited use within your organization. This data is licensed and distributed by the Business Plan Success. Redistribution or reselling is permitted only within the parameters outlined in this license agreement or with the express written permission from Business Plan Success. No Warranty This product is being delivered to you as is and the Company makes no warranty as to its use or performance. The company does not and can not warrant the performance or results you may obtain by using the data or documentation. The Company makes no warranties, expressed or implied, as to noninfringement of third party rights, merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. In no event will the company be liable to you for any consequential, incidental, or special damages, including any lost profits or lost savings, even if a company representative has been advised of the possibility of such damages, or for any claim by any third party. Some states or jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation or incidental, consequential, or special damages, or the exclusion of the implied warranties or limitations on how long an implied warranty may last, so the above limitations may not apply to you. Support The Company will provide reasonable support to assist you with downloading and accessing the product for 30 days after its purchase. Reasonable support will be determined by the Company. Under no circumstances will the Company be under any obligation to provide a hard-copy of the product, upgrades, enhancements, modifications, or other support, including, without limitation, phone support. Software By accepting this agreement, you acknowledge that you are downloading a collection of documents collectively known as the Data. You also acknowledge that your computer has the necessary software to open and view these documents. These requirements are described on our website product page. The Company is under no obligation to support software necessary to view these documents. Limited support may be available upon request. Governing Law and General Provisions This Agreement will be governed by the laws of the State of Utah, U.S.A., excluding the application of its conflicts of law rules. This Agreement will not be governed by the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, the application of which is expressly excluded. If any part of this Agreement is found void and unenforceable, it will not affect the validity of the balance of the Agreement, which shall remain valid and enforceable according to its terms. You agree that the Software will not be shipped, transferred or exported into any country or used in any manner prohibited by the United States Export Administration Act or any other export laws, restrictions or regulations. This Agreement shall automatically terminate upon failure by you to comply with its terms. This Agreement may only be modified in writing signed by an authorized officer of the Company. Notice to Government End Users The Software and Documentation are "Commercial Items," as that term is defined at 48 C.F.R. 2.101, consisting of "Commercial Computer Software" and "Commercial Computer Software Documentation," as such terms are used in 48 C.F.R. 12.212 or 48 C.F.R. 227.7202, as applicable. Consistent with 48 C.F.R. 12.212 or 48 C.F.R. 227.7202-1 through 227.7202-4, as applicable, the Commercial Computer Software and Commercial Computer Software Documentation are being licensed to U.S. Government end users (A) only as Commercial Items and (B) with only those rights as are granted to all other end users pursuant to the terms and conditions herein. Other Unpublished rights reserved under the copyright laws of the United States. Business Plan Success is a trademark of Business Plan Success. Marketing Plan Success is a trademark of Business Plan Success
Marketing Plan Success 2.0 Users Guide 2001-2006, Business Plan Success, All Rights Reserved This document is protected by U.S. and International Copyright Law This document may not be resold or distributed in any form except as outlined in the license agreement. Further information on Marketing Plan Success is available at http://www.marketing-plan-success.com/ and http://www.business-plan-success.com/.

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38 - Marketing Plan Success Users Guide

39 - Marketing Plan Success Users Guide

40 - Marketing Plan Success Users Guide

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