Components and Design of the Marketing Plan

1. Strategic Marketing Planning 2: The Marketing Plan
Marketing Management [MKTG 315] Lecture 3
With Texts Based on Kotler & Keller (2012), Ferrell & Hartline (2011), Belch & Belch (2004)
Lartey Jared Offei
Entrepreneurship Training Institute [E.T.I]
Corresponding E-mail:
joffei@vvu.edu.gh
Facebook||Twitter: @offeijared
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Scholar

2. • Overview of the Marketing Plan
• Characteristics of a Good Marketing Plan
• Components / Structure of the Marketing Plan
• Purpose and Significance of the Marketing Plan
- What are the functional and strategic roles of marketing
plans?
- What are the components of a good marketing plan?
- How does a marketing plan differ from a business plan?
- How do organizations develop budgets for plans?
Lecture Outline/Questions

3. • The cornerstone of marketing thought and practice during
the late 20th century was the marketing concept.
• This has been focused on customer orientation and putting
the needs of customers first.
• Today, this shift in thinking has led to the growth of
marketing research that focus on customer needs and
systems for meeting these needs. When all is done, an
overall plan is designed to guide creation, communication
and delivery of superior customer value. This is what we call
the marketing plan.
• The marketing plan is an action document or handbook for
marketing implementation, evaluation and control. As it
provides a detailed formulation of the actions necessary to
carry out a marketing program.
Overview

4. • With that in mind, it is important to note that the marketing
plan is not the same as a business plan.
• Business plans, although they typically contain a marketing
plan, encompass other issues as ownership, operations,
financial strategy, feasibility results, human resource and
risk management.
• Moving forward, a marketing plan requires a great deal of
information from many different sources. Given that
circumstance, maintaining a holistic view (big picture) while
keeping an eye on the details is a skill marketing managers
need to acquire.
• Marketing plans can be developed for specific products,
brands, target markets and industries. Likewise, it may
focus on a specific element of marketing such a promotional
or product development plan.
Overview

5. • Regardless of the specific outline used to develop a
marketing plan, we should keep in mind that a good
marketing plan is:
Characteristics of a Good Marketing Plan
Comprehensiv
e
Flexible
Consistent
Logical

6. • Comprehensive: Having a comprehensive marketing plan
is essential to ensure that there are no omissions of
important information, and that each component receives
pertinent consideration.
• Flexible: Although comprehensiveness is essential,
flexibility should not be sacrificed. Variables should be
flexible enough to be modified to fit the unique needs of the
situation. Considering the dynamism and competitive nature
of the marketing environment, using an overly rigid
marketing plan may be detrimental to the implementation
process.
Characteristics of a Good Marketing Plan

7. • Consistent: Consistency between the marketing plan and
other functional area plans, strategic, and business unit
plans is an important consideration. Maintaining
consistency will ensure that executives and employees
outside of marketing understand the marketing planning
process and how it links to their separate activities to deliver
superior customer value.
• Logical: The plan must ultimately sell itself to top managers
and hence, it must flow in a logical manner. An illogical plan
could force top managers to reject or underfund the
marketing plan.
• Research on ShawBell Consulting vrs GBC Case.
Characteristics of a Good Marketing Plan

8. Components / Structure of the Marketing Plan
Executive Summary
Situation Analysis
SWOT Analysis
Marketing Goals / Objectives
Marketing Strategy
Marketing Implementation
Evaluation & Control

9. • The executive summary is a synopsis of the overall marketing
plan which conveys the main thrust of the marketing strategy and
its execution.
• The purpose of the executive summary is also to provide an
overview for the reader to quickly identify key concerns relating to
his/her role.
• It is therefore essential that such an overview should capture the
objectives, sales projections, costs, timeframe and performance
evaluation measures.
• Individuals both within and outside the firm may also read the
executive summary for reasons other than marketing planning or
implementation.
• Although the ES is the first component of a marketing plan, it
should always be the last component written as it is easier after
the entire plan has been outlined.
Executive Summary [Synopsis]

10. • The next section of the marketing plan is the situation
analysis; which highlights pertinent information obtained
about three key environments:
- Internal environment [ availability of human resource,
capacity of equipment's & technology, internal politics,
financial resources, existing products, current marketing
objectives & performance etc.]
- External environment [ competitive, economic, social,
political, legal and technological forces that exert direct or
indirect influence on the firms marketing activities]
- Customer environment [ needs of target market, anticipated
changes in needs, how current products meet needs]
Situation Analysis

11. • Often, a clear and comprehensive situation analysis is one
of the most difficult parts of developing a marketing plan.
• Usually, a firm’s marketing information system provides
information for a situation analysis, or primary or secondary
research may be used to obtain information externally.
• Either way, the challenge is often having too much data to
analyze rather than having too little.
Situation Analysis

12. • A SWOT analysis is the subsequent section and it
complements the situation analysis.
• This analysis has perhaps gained much acceptance for its
simple framework that reveals a firms strategic position
when planning.
• A better view of the SWOT analysis may be obtained by
categorizing its components as internal [strengths &
weaknesses] and external [opportunities and threats].
• It also reflects certain advantages or disadvantages related
to the firm in its bid to satisfy the needs of its target market.
It should be analyzed relative to market needs and
competition.
• If collated carefully it reflects where the firm does well and
where improvements are needed.
• Strengths and weaknesses are the internal issues unique to
the firm conducting the analysis.
SWOT Analysis [Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities,
Threats]

13. • Opportunities and threats are external issues that exist
independently of the firm conducting the analysis.
• At the conclusion of the SWOT analysis, the focus of the
marketing plan shifts to address the strategic and
competitive advantages to be leveraged in the strategy.
SWOT Analysis
Strength Opportunities
Weaknesses Threats

14. • Marketing goals and objectives are formal statements of the
desired and expected outcomes resulting from the
marketing plan.
• Goals are broad simple statements of what will be
accomplished through the marketing strategy.
• The major function of goals is to guide the development of
objectives and direction for resource allocation.
• Marketing objectives are more specific and their quantitative
nature makes them easier to implement and measure
precisely.
• This phase of the marketing plan also defines the
parameters by which the firm will measure actual
performance in the evaluation and control phase.
• It is important to remember that neither goals nor objectives
can be developed without a clearly defined mission
statement.
Marketing Goals / Objectives

15. Practical Illustration for Tesla Motors:
Mission: To accelerate the world’s transition to renewable
energy.
Goal: To penetrate the EU market with solar powered roofs by
2020 and create a reputation for affordable and renewable
energy solutions.
Marketing objectives:
1. Achieve a sales target for solar roofs worth $675,000.00 in
Germany and Netherlands respectively between May and
December, 2017.
2. Establish 14 customer support centers across east
Germany by June 2018 to provide superior after-sales
support for clients.
Marketing Goals / Objectives

16. • This section of the marketing plan outlines how the firm
would achieve its marketing objectives.
• Marketing strategies involve selecting and analyzing target
markets, creating and maintaining an appropriate marketing
program (product, price, place, promotion) to satisfy the
needs of the target market.
• Product – higher quality and target customer needs.
• Price – should be equal to quality and establish value.
• Distribution – efficient and convenient.
• Promotion – effective in communicating with target markets
and fostering customer relationships.
• Above all, these strategies should be sustainable.
Marketing Strategy

17. Practical Illustration for Tesla Motors:
Product – Efficient, artistic and renewable solar powered roofs
that allow for customer customization in various colours.
Compatible only with Tesla invertors and batteries.
Price – Affordable and cheaper than the price of an average
traditional roofing sheet.
Distribution – Can be pre-ordered online with customization
option or standardized. Home delivery within 2 weeks from
order, or a 25% refund in sales price if delivery date is unmet.
Promotion – Present product as revolutionary, recyclable and
green. Crowd source ad campaign from delighted customers.
Marketing Strategy

18. • The implementation section of the marketing plan describes
how the marketing plan will be executed.
• Without a good plan for implementation, the success of the
marketing strategy is seriously jeopardized.
• You should remember that, the implementation phase
hinges on gaining the support of employees.
• Employees implement marketing strategies, not
organizations.
Marketing Implementation

19. • Several questions related to marketing strategy need to be
answered.
1. What specific marketing activities will be undertaken?
2. How will these activities be performed?
3. When will these activities be performed?
4. Who is responsible for the completion of these activities?
5. How will the completion of planned activities be monitored?
6. How much will these activities cost?
Marketing Implementation

20. • The size of a firm’s marketing budget can vary from a few
thousand Cedis to more than a million.
• Budget decisions are very critical to marketing
implementation,.
• Since no organization has an unlimited budget for marketing
activities, set objectives must be considered as the budget
is developed.
• Top-down budgeting and bottom-up budgeting are two
broad approaches available to organizations.
• There is no fixed method by which firms may develop
budgets.
Marketing Implementation [Budget]

21. Top-down approach:
• A top-down approach to budgeting will typically characterize
top management setting the spending limits and a marketing
budget set to stay within the spending limit.
• This approach can be achieved through an:
• Affordable method
• Arbitrary allocation
• Percentage of sales
• Competitive parity
Marketing Implementation [Budget]

22. Bottom-up or Build-up approach:
• The flaws associated with the top-down methods is their
judgmental and predetermined allocations often not linked to
objectives and strategies designed.
• Unlike a top-down approach, a bottom-up method is
rationed to go hand in hand with established objectives.
• It determines the objectives, strategies to achieve them and
estimated cost of strategies.
• This approach also views setting the budget as an
interactive process by consulting functional managers for
inputs.
• Class activity: critique the available budget choices.
Marketing Implementation [Budget]

23. • The final section of the marketing plan details how the
results of the marketing program would be evaluated and
controlled.
• This involves establishing performance standards,
assessing actual performance by comparing it with desired
standards and taking corrective action if necessary.
• If it should be determined that the marketing plan has not
lived up to expectations, the firm can use a number of tools
to pinpoint potential causes for the discrepancies. One of
this is the marketing audit.
• A marketing audit is a systemic evaluation of the firm’s
marketing objective, strategy and performance.
Evaluation & Control

24. • It explains both the present and future situations of the
organization.
• Within the firm, it describes specific actions that are to take
place so that the responsibility for each action can be
assigned and implemented.
• It identifies the resources that will be needed to carry out the
planned marketing programs.
• It provides the firm an opportunity to systematically plan and
implement activities to satisfy the needs of target markets.
Purpose and Significance of the Marketing Plan

25. Marketing Insight
Photo Credit: Google Images
Tesla – Accelerating the world’s transition to renewable energy