Mohawk College McKeil School of Business

Transcription

1 Group Project: the Marketing Plan Outline CB158 Marketing I Your marketing plan will consist of six key sections: 1. Executive Summary (Mission) 2. Marketing Objectives 3. Situation Analysis/SWOT 4. Target Market 5. Marketing Mix 6. Implementation: Monitors, Controls and Contingencies 1. Executive Summary (Mission) - 10 Marks Although this is the first section, it is always written last. It is a s ummary of all items that follow: i) where the firms is now (e.g., situation), ii) where it intends to be (e.g., goals) ; and iii) how it will get there (e.g., strategy and programs). The plan must be credible to a senior marketing officer who will evaluate, based on one page, whether to give you funds for your programs. As such, it should also detail how much your plan will cost and the contribution you will make to the companies botto m line as a result. 2. Objectives 15 Marks The situation analysis and summary should highlight a number of planning objectives. These will include i) quantity (sales, share, and profit by segment), ii) direction (e.g., increase/decrease), iii) time frame, and iv) rationale. The objectives should be specific and measurable (e.g., increase share from 25% to 30% within one year). Your performance will, in part, be measured by these objectives. One note of "real world" caution: if objectives are too ambitious, you will f ail to meet them and will not make bonus,

2 or worse. In contrast, if objectives look too unambitious, it is unlikely any resources will be forthcoming. This, too, can hurt your performance. 3. Situation Analysis/Strengths Weaknessess Opportunity Threats 15 Marks May consist of the following sections: Overall Category Analysis Here you will review the trends affecting your brand and the category. You should consider: -market trends (current and future size of the market, overall category penetration and usage, chan ges in share, growth rate of population and sales, etc.); -category marketing activity (distribution channels, pricing across channels, how brands in general are marketed); -sales, price, and cost data on products (variable and fixed costs and their impact on pricing); -environmental factors (number of persons getting ill, seasonality issues, inflation, manufacturing and product technology changes, regulatory issues, etc.) Sales Analysis The sales analysis is an assessment of the brand s performance to da te an opportunity to evaluate your historic performance. A sales analysis might reveal, for analysis, that ontario sales are down (indicating, perhaps, a new competitor). You should address questions such as: how well is your brand performing compared to other brands in the company sales costs and profit trends for your products

3 Competitors By analyzing competitors, it is often possible to exploit there weaknesses or anticipate potential problems (e.g., a merger leads to new resources for a competitor). For each key competitor, consider: their share, product attributes, financial resources, production capabilities, marketing programs their strengths and weaknesses relative to your own firm likely future strategies A table contrasting your and competitive products can be insightful. Customers An analysis of customers is perhaps the most important aspect of the marketing plan. One might learn of impending problems such as a shift of sales to the web or opportunities such as new features. Th ings to consider in your analysis of customers include: who are the customers? do they differ? can they be segmented by their needs or purchase behaviors? how do the segments differ? why do customers need the product? how do they choose? are they aware of the brand, how do they perceive it, have they tried it, and are they loyal? where and when do they buy? who influences the buyer? Company An analysis of an organization s ability to market products can also help in assessing the factors impeding or abetting a product s success. For example, a company may have no distribution network or may market products that overlap. Things to consider include:

4 fit of existing and planned products and services to manufacturing capabilities, managerial expertise, distribution channels, marketing capabilities, etc. financial resources Planning Assumptions This section formalizes assumptions that you need to make for purposes of writing the subsequent sections of the marketing plan (e.g., a certain market segment is projected to grow). If the strategy is highly sensitive to these assumptions, then your plan may include more market research. Summary It is important to note that it is not sufficient to merely restate the key situational factors affecting your brands (although that is important). Rather, you need to flush out the implications (this trend could hurt product x) and the opportunities that arise (e.g., a new formulation could be introduced). What was learned from the situation analysis. Which factors have t he greatest impact and why? 4. Target Market 10 Marks Given the objectives, the marketing strategy outlines how the objectives will be achieved. For example, sales might be increased by increasing the awareness (which was found in the situation analysis to be exceedingly low relative to competitors). Another strategy to increase sales might be targeting a new segment that has not yet been captured, or stealing a certain competitor s share. The section outlines the rationale for selecting these strategies. 5. Marketing Mix 15 Marks It is imperative that the marketing programs (the 4P s) be consistent with the objectives and the ensuing strategy along two dimensions. First, if one s strategy is to increase awareness, it is not clear how a price cut will accomplish this. Thus, the marketing program for this strategy should center around promotion. Second, if one s goal is to increase share from 10% to 20%, the marketing program should provide some

5 sense of how this level of share increase will be achieved. The marketing program dis cussion could include: pricing (MSRP, discounts) advertising (media expenditures, message, agency) promotion (trade v. consumer, allowances, etc.) distribution (channels to target, use of wholesalers) salesforce (budget, allocation) product (add products, delete products, change products) service and support market research affordability of these programs likely competitive reaction 6. Implementation: Monitors, Controls, and Contingencies - 15 Marks Plans often go bad. Accordingly, the prudent product manager constantly monitors progress against plan. It is my experience that damage control is best begun early, befo re problems spin out of control. Thus, decide early what figures you will monitor and have back up plans ready in case thing s are not proceeding according to plan. Note, you can also learn from things that went better than plan. Decide whether to monitor: sales information market share net income, etc. List, also, any back-up plans that you might have, or at least a process that you will engage if things do not go according to plan (who should know, what new planning should be done, what information should be gathered, etc.)