A sample marketing plan leisurely made for my internship portfolio. The company is Executive Decisions IMC Firm (EDIMCF), it is a below-the-line marketing firm based in the Philippines.

2. This marketing plan will focus on Executive Decisions’ (ED) core strength in its IMC
arsenal – events planning and management. ED itself is an IMC or below-the-line
marketing firm but that does not necessarily mean that ED will rely on below-the-line
marketing for its promotional efforts, ED also needs above-the-line marketing to
generate brand awareness and capture more leads.
This marketing plan will solve ED’s above-the-line promotional problem by proposing an
online promotional strategy.
Established in 1998, Executive Decisions (ED) is an integrated marketing
communications firm founded by Mr Vicente S. Reyes that provides either holistic or
specific marketing services to clients belonging to different business sectors. ED’s
current roster of clients consists of different entities from various industries such as
pharmaceuticals, entertainment, consumer goods, agribusiness and animal health,
manufacturing.
Executive Decisions has several sub-business units among them are: ED Outpost (film
production), ED Art House (graphics and video works), Flair (talents), TEAMPLAY
(below-the-line manpower like bouncers and promo girls), and WE Boracay (Boracay’s
first local event management and production firm).
The IMC industry, focusing on event planning and management predicts a 44% job
growth rate up to 2020 as more and more industries like business, labor, and political
organizations seek the expertise help of these event planners and managers.1
The event planning and management industry is highly fragmented, with the majority of
events planners/managers controlling less than 1% of the market. Since the industry
largely provides a discretionary service, it is mainly driven by corporate profit, per capita
disposable income and the unemployment rate. The economic recession (2007-2009)
hit the industry hard, with many corporations and consumers holding fewer, smaller
events. However, the industry can expect to roar back to life with the improving
economy in the five years to 2017.2

3. There are three (3) main competitors of ED: EMPRO or Events Management Provider,
Events @ Work, and Saga Events. These competitors offer events management and
IMC services as well.
ED EMPRO EVENTS @ WORK SAGA
FACTORS
Firm’s years of
existence.
16 8 15 15
Firm’s affiliations to
associations.
✓ ✓
Broad client base
(past and present).
✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Manages social
events (e.g. baptisms
and weddings).
Aesthetically pleasing
website.
✓
Possession of a
company blog.
✓
Updated website
content (including blog
content).
✓ ✓
Possession of social
media profiles.
✓ ✓
Updated social media
profiles.
✓
The main primary target market of ED are large organizations/businesses whilst its
secondary target market are small to medium enterprises (SMEs) with both looking to
boost their marketing campaigns with the use of IMC.

4. The main marketing problem of Executive Decisions (ED) is that it lacks promotional
efforts, both offline and online. There is an opportunity loss to acquire new clients that
not only increases their profits, but also improves the experience and portfolio of ED.
There are a lot of organizations looking to outsource their IMC efforts, that’s why they
look for IMC firms with the right expertise. ED has this expertise, history, track records,
affiliations, and such but the problem is that these organizations can’t discover ED
because of the lack of promotional efforts.
Finding the solution to this problem also prepares ED to secure a stronger client base in
the upcoming ASEAN integration 2015.
Solving this marketing problem will serve ED in two ways: one is via the given example
above, which is acquiring new clients while the other is to obtain high-quality employees
by promoting ED’s employment opportunities.
The objective of the marketing plan is to start a promotional campaign to drive ten (10)
new clients in the small to medium enterprises category and five (5) new clients in the
corporation category. The promotional campaign will focus on online integration that
starts on August up to December 2014.

5. Opportunities Threats
1. ASEAN integration
presents new
opportunities.
2. Positive economic outlook
in the Philippines that may
trigger client spending.
3. The growing market for
social events (baptisms,
marriages, and funerals).
4. New technologies such as
online hard drives (Google
Drive, Dropbox) and
collaboration software
(Basecamp) to take
advantage on.
1. ASEAN integration
presents threats,
competition-wise as
international IMC firms
also look to penetrate the
Philippine market.
2. Rising political tensions
and instability in the
Philippines that can
degrade the international
image of the Philippines
and therefore ED’s image
on foreign companies.
3. Climate change (e.g.
unexpected rains) that
ruins outdoor event plans.
Strengths SO ST
1. Executive Decisions
(ED) is a strong and
trusted brand since the
firm is 16 years in the
industry already.
2. ED has a strong base
of known loyal clients.
3. ED is a member of
different associations
including the Philippine
Marketing Association
(PMA) and the
Advertising Suppliers
Association of the
Philippines (ASAP).
4. ED’s growth is evident
in the recent
- (S1,S2,S3,O1) Use ED’s
history, track records, and
affiliations as a selling
point to gain new clients in
the neighbouring ASEAN
countries.
- (S4, S6, O1) ED should
consider acquiring foreign
international firms (or
partnering with them) to
serve as their local
foothold in the country
using the ASEAN
integration as the
gateway.
- (S5,O3) Venture out in the
social events industry and
- (S1,S2,S3, T1, T2) ED
should use its history,
track record, and
affiliations to maintain its
image, positioning, and
market share in the
ASEAN and international
environments.
- (S4, S7, T3) ED should
include in their growth
plan a construction of a
solely-owned indoor
events place when there
is uncertainty in the
weather.

6. construction of a four-
storey building (debt
free) that will be ED’s
new house.
5. ED has a number of
young employees that
will serve as the
business’ core
members for the next
generation.
6. ED has a lot of
subsidiary business
units specifically
catering to different
IMC needs, including a
Boracay-based events
and production
company.
7. ED has a visionary
managing director at
the helm, PMA’s IPP
and director for foreign
affairs, Mr Vincente S.
Reyes.
delegate the task of
managing social events to
ED’s young employees so
they will gain enough
experience to step into
bigger shoed of managing
corporate events.
- (S6, O4) Leverage on the
new technological
advancements for
collaboration and better
communications from the
main firm to the sub-
business unit (SBU), vice
versa and SBU to SBU.
- (S4,S7,O2) ED should
take advantage of the
economic prosperity that
the Philippines is
experiencing by continue
growing and adapting,
come a time when there is
an economic depression.
ED will be armed and
ready.
Weaknesses WO WT
1. ED suffers from
high employee
turnover.
2. ED lacks
experienced
employees, a result
of high employee
turnover.
3. ED lacks
promotional efforts
- (W5, W6, O1) ED should
start thinking of promoting
internationally to obtain
international clients ahead
of the ASEAN integration
2015. It should start with
an updated website that
builds a brand persona by
being a thought leader in
the industry.
- (W1, T1) ED should
protect their valued
employees against piracy,
especially when the
ASEAN integration is fast
approaching where
experienced employees in
the industry is highly
valued.
- (W7, T3) ED can update

7. for employee hiring,
relies on referrals
too often.
4. ED lacks a clear
organizational plan.
5. ED has no assigned
middle managers
that can ease the
managing director’s
workload when it
comes to checking
of proposals,
signing of forms,
etc.
6. ED lacks of
promotional efforts
for new client
acquisition, relies
on networking too
often.
7. ED has an un-
updated website
(updated last 2012).
8. ED is experiencing
an unorganized file
keeping system that
leads to losses of
documents and
such.
- (W2, W3, O1) ED could
take advantage of the
ASEAN integration to
promote employment
opportunities to gain
foreign experienced
employees in the IMC
niche.
- (W5, O4) ED can use
online collaboration
software like Basecamp
and assigning a few
middle managers who can
check an employee’s work
which can drive
productivity in the
organization.
- (W5, O3) ED’s managing
director could delegate
social events to the middle
managers.
- (W8, O4) ED can use
online hard drives to
database contracts,
documents, receipts, etc.
in the online cloud.
its website with a CSR
theme in mind: promoting
the usage of green
products and recycling, in
which ED practices both.

8. There are three (3) Alternative Courses of Action (ACA) presented in this marketing
plan:
Offline Promotion: Create a full-page print ad that runs every third week of the month
for the newspaper Business World and every month for the magazine Entrepreneur.
PROS CONS
Targeted demographics: these print
publications are read by entrepreneurs,
top management, and business minded
persons who may have special interest in
hiring ED for their IMC campaigns.
Expensive to run and unproductive: might
create brand awareness but not
conversions.
Cluttered advertising landscape: it may be
harder for a potential customer to find or
read about ED’s service because with the
other ads alongside it.3
Online Promotion: Update the Executive Decisions (ED) website with a visually-
appealing parallax design, a blog so ED can establish itself as a thought leader in its
industry in the cyberspace, and a careers page where applicants can view available
jobs at ED and subsequently send their resumes.
PROS CONS
Affordable and sustainable: With starting
quality web development rates of Php
15,000, it is wise for ED to invest in a
sustainable company website that can last
for decades.
Requires time to handle: Creating content
like blog posts, infographics, and videos to
develop a brand persona and establishing
the thought leadership status requires a lot
of devoted time.
Constant exposure: a website works 24
hours a day, 7 days a week.4
Requires time to have continuous traffic:
Before having continuous traffic can arrive
at your website, it requires intensive
promotions in online advertising and social
media.

9. Can serve as a landing page for online
advertising campaigns: Running online ad
campaigns and linking those banner ads to
your website can increase leads.
Online Promotion: Run and online advertising campaign using the Google AdWords
and Facebook advertising platforms.
PROS CONS
Targeted demographics: online advertising
gives you the ability to geo-target your
ads, ensuring that they are only viewed,
and clicked, by your intended geographic
and niche audience. This allows you to
create localized messages that appear on
national sites.
Cluttered advertising landscape: again, it
may be harder for a potential customer to
find or read about ED’s service because
with the other ads alongside it.
Affordable: compared to newspaper
placements or TV spots, online banners
are still relatively inexpensive.
Testing: online advertising gives you the
ability to test creative campaigns and fine
tune messaging at an instant. This can
help increase effectiveness of the
campaign and enhance results.
The recommended ACA are both online promotion campaigns because: (1) the pros
outweigh the cons, (2) it is more affordable, (3) it is more productive, and (4) it is more
sustainable.
Because this marketing plan will focus on the firm’s promotional efforts, only a
promotional strategy is provided:

10.  Expand – Expand ED’s current client acquisition tactics by using above-the-line
promotional strategies.
 Digitalize – Rather than going print and media, ED will utilize the affordable,
productive, and sustainable power of online advertising.
The subsequent table are the specific action programs embedded in Gantt charts
followed by the budgeting plan.
Activities 2014
August September October November December
1) Scouting for potential web
developers who can provide
quality services at an affordable
price.
2) Meeting with selected web
developer for the front-end
design of the updated website.
Begin construction.
3) Development of the new
website with a new catchy
domain name: “edimcf.com”.
4) Development of an insightful
infographic about the IMC
industry today (growth, potential
revenues, etc.).
5) Publication of the website
and the developed infographic
as a first blog post. Promotion
of the website on advertising
platforms Google AdWords and
Facebook.
6) Development and publication
of the second blog post entitled
“How IMC changed the
marketing landscape”.
Continuous promotion on
advertising platforms Google
AdWords and Facebook.
7) Development and publication
of the third blog posts entitled
“IMC in the coming years: Bold
predictions”. Continuous
promotion on advertising

11. platforms Google AdWords and
Facebook.
8) Development and publication
of the fourth and last blog post
of the year entitled “Humble
beginnings: A short video
interview with Executive
Decisions’ managing director”. It
is a video capturing Mr. Vince
S. Reyes’ story on starting-up
ED. Included in the blog post is
a text transcript of the video.
Continuous promotion on
advertising platforms Google
AdWords and Facebook.
A sample navigation bar that can be used on the updated website.
Activities 2014
August September October November December
1) Development of one (1)
banner ad for the Google
AdWords advertising platform:
to drive traffic to the website.
2) Development of a graphic
and copy for the Facebook
advertising platform that will
drive traffic to the website’s
blog.
3) Launch of the Google
AdWords and Facebook ad
campaigns alongside with the
publication of the new ED
website.

12. USD ($) is the currency used for the budgeting because some of the products/services
that will be availed are on a fixed USD ($) denomination.
BUDGETING (ESTIMATED BUDGET)
PARTICULARS AMOUNT TOTAL AMOUNT
Updating of the
website
Hosting plan (5
years)
$200
Domain name (5
years)
$51.45
Themes and plugins $50
Web developer fees $250
$551.45
Online advertising
campaign
Google AdWords
budget
$1000
Facebook Ads
budget
$1000

13. Campaign manager
fees
$150
$2150
Total $2701.45
1: Christina Dunham (July 08, 2013) Fun Facts about the Meeting and Event Planner
Industry. Retrieved from: http://froomzblog.com/2013/07/08/fun-facts-about-the-
meeting-event-planner-industry/
2: IBISWorld (September 2013) Party and Event Planners in the US: Market Research
Report. Retrieved from: http://www.ibisworld.com/industry/party-event-planners.html
3: Elle Smith (N/A) What are the Advertising Pros and Cons of Using Print Media.
Retrieved: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advertising-pros-cons-using-print-media-
41670.html
4: Mind Fire Communications (August 9, 2010) The Pros and Cons of Online
Advertising. Retrieved: http://www.mindfirecomm.com/news-detail.html?id=48