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THE MARKETING PLAN

Plan YOUR Future Now

  • You will develop a MARKETING PLAN for a good, service, idea or event of your choice.
  • I would like you to think of this assignment not as a requirement of this course and not for marks, but AN INVESTMENT IN YOUR FUTURE.
  • You will get more value, appreciate and benefit from this assignment much more if you do it on something to do with YOUR VERY OWN FUTURE.

What is a MARKETING PLAN?

  • A marketing plan is a comprehensive document or blueprint that outlines a company's advertising and marketing efforts for the coming year. It describes business activities involved in accomplishing specific marketing objectives within the set time frame.
  • Successful organizations have a marketing plan that is ONGOING. It is constantly being reviewed, updated, and executed.
  • A marketing plan can be done on its own, but is an integral part of a business or venture plan used when starting up an entrepreneurial venture.
  • Just like with a resume, there are many different ways to do a marketing plan… There are a multitude of different circumstances that will determine different plan lengths, sections, and styles used, etc. There isn’t really a right or wrong… just better and worse.
  • I will go through/outline a pretty standard set-up/format for the marketing plan but feel free to discuss any adaptation that you would like to do to fit the needs of your particular situation. If you find a template online or anywhere else that you would like to use, please bring it to my attention and we will adapt…. But please make sure that you see me FIRST to discuss.
  • On my website, I have listed a number of resources that might help you with your plan. You should check some of them out.
  • Some are about the entire marketing plan, some are about sections.
  • Some will work for you, some won’t… you just have to sift through them to find what fits with your application…. And/or take bits and pieces/ideas from each.

TEMPLATES/WORKSHEETS

  • As we work through this project, I am providing you with some templates/worksheets just to get you thinking about information or DRAW OUT the information for your report (marketing plan). This will be your rough work and I may be collecting these or ask to see them at any point. I think you will find this method makes the task easier.
  • *** Depending on the nature of what it is you are choosing to market, the templates/worksheets may work well or may need a little tinkering/adjusting to suit YOUR SPECIFIC PURPOSE. Feel free to discuss this with me so it makes your job easier.

THE MARKETING PLAN

Outline

Title Page

  • Marketing Plan for [Company Name] or [Product Name]
  • Prepared by:
  • Prepared for:
  • Date
  • Course

Section 1: Executive Summary

  • Acts as the introduction to your plan.
  • Even though it comes first in the plan, it is actually completed LAST…after all the other sections are done…. Seriously…. I’m not kidding.
  • As the name implies, this section merely summarizes each of the other sections of your marketing plan-therefore, you can’t summarize until things are done.
  • Your Executive Summary will be helpful in giving yourself and other constituents (e.g., employees, advisors, etc.) an overview of your plan.
  • On a separate page.

Section 2: Target Customers

  • This section describes the customers you are targeting.
  • It defines their demographic profile (e.g., age, gender), psychographic profile (e.g., their interests) and their precise wants and needs as they relate to the good, services, idea or event you offer.
  • Being able to more clearly identify your target customers will help you both pinpoint your advertising (and get a higher return on investment) and better “speak the language” of prospective customers.

Section 3: Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

  • What makes your good, service, idea or event unique?
  • Having a strong unique selling proposition (USP) is of critical importance as it distinguishes your company from competitors.
  • This section requires substantial thought. A great USP will propel you forward; a lack of one will have you spinning your tires.
  • The hallmark of several great companies is their USP. For example, FedEx’s USP of “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight” is well-known and resonates strongly with customers who desire reliability and quick delivery.

Section 4: Product Strategy

  • What specifically are you offering the customer/marketing? Is it a good, a service? An event? An idea?
  • What are the features/benefits associated with your product?
  • Are there different options available?

Section 5: Pricing and Positioning Strategy

  • What will you charge for your product? Why? How have you arrived at this selling price?
  • Detail the positioning you desire and how your pricing will support it. You could illustrate this in a number of ways, including product mapping, spectrum mapping, etc.
  • Your pricing and positioning strategy must be aligned. For example, if you want your company to be known as the premier brand in your industry, having too low a price might dissuade customers from purchasing.

Section 6: Distribution Strategy

  • Your distribution plan details how customers will buy from you. For example, will customers purchase directly from you on your website? Will they buy from distributors or other retailers? And so on.

Section 7: Promotion Strategy

  • One of the most important sections of your marketing plan and details how you will reach new customers.
  • What are the main messages that you want to convey? Which media? Advertising goals?
  • There are numerous promotional tactics, such as television ads, trade show marketing, press releases, online advertising, and event marketing.
  • In this section of your marketing plan, consider each of these alternatives and decide which ones will most effectively allow you to reach your target customers.
  • Your marketing materials are the collateral you use to promote your business to current and prospective customers. Among others, they include your website, print brochures, business cards, and catalogs.
  • Logos, slogans, jingles, etc.
  • Identify which marketing materials you have completed and which you need created or re-done in this section of your plan.
  • Identify offers or special deals you put together to secure more new customers and drive past customers back to you. Offers may include free trials, money-back guarantees, packages (e.g., combining different products and/or services) and discount offers. While your business doesn’t necessarily require offers, using them will generally cause your customer base to grow more rapidly.
  • Social media presence? If so, what will it look like?

Section 8: SWOT Analysis

  • What are your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?

Section 9: Competitors

  • Who are your top three competitors? What are their SWOTS?

Section 10: Marketing Goals

  • What are the results that you want to achieve from your marketing activities? Use timeframes like in 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year).

Section 11: Financial Plan

  • Financial projections to support the marketing plan.
  • For example, include the promotional expenses you expect to incur and what your expected results will be in terms of new customers, sales and profits. Likewise include your expected results from your new retention strategy. And so on.
  • You may wish to create a small cash-flow statement. Think about all streams of revenue. Think about all the things you would have to spend money on in the initial stages.

THE MARKETING PLAN

Template/Worksheet 1 – Getting Started

  1. Getting Started – Hopefully you will choose something of interest to you to market.
  2. Whether you have an idea for this project or not, list 3-5 interests, passions, hobbies, etc.
  3. Very specifically, what is it you enjoy about these?
  4. Take it one step further and think about how you could market this to someone or turn it into a business venture.
  5. Put it all in the table below.

Passions, Interests, Hobbies, etc. / Number One Thing you Like about This / Think of how this Could be Turned into a Business Venture or Marketed
  1. What are you thinking for a career path? List 2-5 potential careers that you have thought about lately.
  1. Are there any other ideas that have not been touched upon above that might lend themselves to a marketing plan?
  1. After some careful consideration, think about one good, service, event, idea or a business that you would like to market for this project. In order to really benefit from this project, try to select something that you actually are interested in and could realistically be part of your future. Select this and list it here. This will be the basis for your marketing plan. WHY did you select this?

THE MARKETING PLAN

Template/Worksheet 2 – Overview

  1. Provide a brief overview of what you will be marketing for this project. Point form is fine for now, but really think it through. It can be a bit of a brainstorm at this point. Is it a good, a service, an event, an idea, other? Explain.
  1. Do you have any interesting or unique thoughts about this thing you want to market? Be VERY GENERAL for now. Brainstorm. Be crazy, foolish, impractical, wrong, etc. etc.

THE MARKETING PLAN

Template/Worksheet 3 – Target Customers

  1. Brainstorm to identify many possible customer groups.
  2. Now, narrow it down to the ones that you would really like to focus your efforts on.
  3. Use the table below to more specifically identify your target audience.

Target Customer Name or Identifier / Customer Group/Demographic Information / Psychographic Profile (interests) / Needs and Wants

THE MARKETING PLAN

Template/Worksheet 4 – USP

  1. List and explain ALL of the great/unique things about your offering. List them.
  1. Now, narrow it down to 1-3 that really are unique to you and are also tough to duplicate by competitors. List it/them.
  1. Brainstorm ideas or ways that you could possibly base your business around this USP for at least the next year, if not longer. How can you make this the CORE of your offering?

THE MARKETING PLAN

Template/Worksheet 5 – Product Strategy

  1. What EXACTLY is your offering? What are you offering the customer?
  1. What are all the:
  2. Features of your offering?
  1. Associated benefits of those features?
  1. What different options or choices do your consumers have?
  1. How does your product “stack up” against the competition? Ie: are you higher quality, same, worse? More complex, less complex, etc. etc etc.

  1. Complete a product map for your product.
  1. You may also wish to create a spectrum map for your offering.

THE MARKETING PLAN

Template/Worksheet 6 – Pricing and Positioning Strategy

  1. Before we look at pricing your offering, it may be beneficial to position our product… In other words, see where we stack up against the other offerings. Using your product mapping and/or your spectrum mapping from the previous section as a base or benchmark, make some decisions about where your product ranks based on certain criteria such as features and benefits to the user, durability, overall quality, price, etc., etc., etc. In general, is your product(s) low end? High-end?, middle of the road?
  1. What will you charge for your (various) product(s)? Why?
  1. Does your pricing match your positioning? Ie: a higher price for a premium product, a lower price for a lesser product? Compare with competitors. So…in a nutshell, are your pricing and positioning strategy aligned?
  1. Based upon your product positioning, how does your product pricing compare with your competitors? Is this justified? Explain?
  1. Logo – What type of logo best represents your offering? What colours, designs, etc could your logo incorporate?
  1. Slogan – Think of three short slogans that are catchy and represent what you offer. Which is your favourite and why?

THE MARKETING PLAN

Template/Worksheet 7 – Distribution Strategy

  1. How will customers buy from you? List all the means by which they can buy from you.
  1. Will final customers purchase from you or indirectly through a distributor or another reseller?
  1. Will purchases be possible through a website?

THE MARKETING PLAN

Template/Worksheet 8 – Promotion Strategy

  1. List three CREATIVE ways you can reach NEW customers.
  1. What are/is the main message that you wish to convey through your advertising/promotion?
  1. What medium/media will you use? Why?
  1. What is/are your advertising goal(s)?
  1. What sales promotions will/could you use effectively? List 3-5.
  1. How could you use “publicity” to introduce your brand to new customers?
  1. What other marketing materials do you have to promote your offering? – brochure, business cards, website, catalogue, flyer, other, etc. Which of these are done, need to be done, need to be redone?
  1. Any other offers that will generate NEW customers and drive repeat business from EXISTING/PAST customers? Id: free trials, money-back guarantees, packages (ie: combining different products/services, discounts, etc.
  1. Do you have a social media presence? Will you? Describe it.

THE MARKETING PLAN

Template/Worksheet 9 – SWOT Analysis

  1. Complete this chart. Point form is fine, but be thorough. Doing a good job of this may determine directions to go and directions not to go.

INTERNAL / Strengths
Weaknesses
EXTERNAL / Opportunities
Threats

THE MARKETING PLAN

Template/Worksheet 10 – Competition

  1. Who do you feel are your top 3-5 direct customers? What are some of their SWOTS, USP’s, etc.?
  1. Who are your main indirect competitors? What are some of their SWOTS, USP’s, etc.?

THE MARKETING PLAN

Template/Worksheet 11 – Marketing Goals

  1. The marketing plan is usually written for the year moving forward. If applicable, use the table below to help identify marketing goals within that time frame. Feel free to adapt timeframes to suite your situation. Remember to use SMART goals. (Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timely).

Time Frame / Marketing Goals
1 month
3 months
6 months
9 months
1 year

THE MARKETING PLAN

Template/Worksheet 12 – Financial Plan

This section could get pretty crazy with all kinds of cash-flow statements, etc., etc. Having said that, we will keep this part pretty simple for this course. I would just like you to think about all the things that you would/could/might have to spend money on to execute this marketing plan for the next month. Fill out the chart to help you. Just estimate approximate costs, but think it out a bit before jotting down a number. For instance, don’t just say a website would cost $30 a month. If you have no computer skills, will you also need a website administrator?

Expense / Main Cost and all Related Costs
TOTAL EXPENSES

THE MARKETING PLAN

Final Submission

Please submit the following (IN ORDER) for your Marketing Plan assignment:

  1. Title Page
  2. Table of Contents – should have page number i
  3. Executive Summary - should have Roman numeral ii
  4. Your report – in a logical order, WITH WELL LAID OUT SECTIONS, SECTION HEADINGS, PAGE NUMBERS, ETC.
  5. Appendix – all the additional information that supports your marketing plan such as advertisements, marketing research items, etc.
  6. A blank page at the end – looks pro!
  7. Slip this page into the package (near the end).

Optional:

  1. Advertising items
  2. Marketing research items
  3. Other

Things you must have:

  1. Sections with titles, headings, etc.
  2. Page numbers
  3. Nothing is to be written in pen – everything must be typed.
  4. Bound in a nice package (an envelope, a folder, etc etc).

How to Attain a Great Project and a Great Mark:

  1. Be thorough – think laterally, vertically, and really just think through all aspects of this project.
  2. Use the templates given to draw out all information
  3. Use class time well.
  4. Great layout/great organization
  5. Titles, headings
  6. Page numbers
  7. Spacing between sections
  8. A professional binding system
  9. Proofread for all things – content, spelling, grammar, punctuation etc.
  10. Take pride in your work.
  11. Make it personal – this project could be an investment in YOU!
  12. Hand in on time.

Evaluation for the Marketing Plan

Name: ______Marketing Plan Product: ______

Criteria / <16 / 16-21 / 22-27 / 28-30
Content Quality - thoroughness and completeness. Project builds on the content of the course and contents of a marketing plan. Inclusion of supporting documents. Creativity, uniqueness, original thought. / Unacceptable level of content provided. Not tied in to the class material. No real plan or strategy for that plan laid out.Unacceptable level of creativity and originality. Minimal ties to course content. Little depth of thought. / Satisfactory. Some areas covered and explained. Some areas of plan and the strategy were left out. Some ties to course content, but could be stronger. Satisfactory levels of creativity and originality. / Good. Most areas of the marketing plan, goals and strategy were explained. Well tied into the class material. Ties in to course content. Good levels of creativity and originality. / Excellent. All areas of the marketing plan, marketing goals and the strategy were covered and explained. All components made logical connections to each other. Excellent. Ties in very well to course content. Great creativity and originality. Well thought out. / /30
Criteria / <11 / 11-14 / 15-17 / 18-20
Quality – overall layout, effort, look, style, spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. / Unacceptable spelling, grammar, and punctuation OR language use. An extremely poorly formatted report. / Satisfactory spelling, grammar, and punctuation OR language use. Some errors or suggestions for improvement. A satisfactorily formatted report. A satisfactory looking project. / Good spelling, grammar, and punctuation OR language use. A few small errors or suggestions for improvement. Overall it looks great. / Excellent spelling, grammar, and punctuation OR language use. A well formatted report. Report looks professional. Amazing. / /20
TOTAL:/50

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