XMind

Marketing Plan Template

1. Executive Summary

   1. Introduction

      The introduction provides key information on the company, historic highlights, and other information that sets the context for the how and why of the marketing strategy to follow.

   2. Purpose

      Provide a brief and concise description of what the Marketing Plan contains.

   3. Market Summary

      This section provides a high level summary of the key points detailed in the Situation Analysis section.

   4. Market Opportunity

      Provide an overview of the key decisions, issues and findings, based on research and analysis, which form the basis of the Marketing Plan.

   5. High-level timeline & Key Deliverables

      Briefly address management/stakeholder involvement in approval of the plan, listing key meetings and the decisions to be finalized, as well as major milestones in implementing the tactical/implementation plan. If key decisions such as messages, budget numbers, etc have already been finalized, this is a good place to reiterate them.

2. Situation Analysis

   1. Company Analysis

      Include details of the marketing performance of the company (sales and market share figures), and the financial performance (total profits, gross and net margins, return on capital employed, and cash flow). Give a brief history of the company, and mention the strengths and weaknesses of the business.

   2. Customer Analysis

      Give details of the size of the market, different types of customers, and how the decision process is made.

      1. Market Size

         Include statistics on the size of the market, both in terms of the number customers and the value of the industry as a whole. Attempt to put the above figures into context through providing statistics detailing the growth (or decline) of the market over recent years.

      2. Customer Segmentation

         Divide the customers in the market into different groups based on common characteristics.

      3. Value Drivers

         Identify what each customer segment values when it comes to your industry. How price sensitive is each segment, is quality an important consideration, and how important is convenience or are customers willing to go out of their way to get the right product or service?

      4. Decision Process

         Include details of who actually purchases your product or service and who is responsible for encouraging that purchase. For many products the buyer is not actually the end user, often considered the customer. Similarly, there are a surprisingly high number of products and services for whom the buyer is not the main driver being making the purchase, even though they may be purchasing the product or service for themselves.

      5. Concentration of Customer Base

         Give details of where the various target customers are concentrated. Perhaps they live in similar geographical areas, congregate at certain events, or buy similar items? This should help you identify appropriate marketing channels for each customer segment.

   3. Competitor Analysis

      The current market position, strengths, weaknesses, and market share for each of the competitors in the industry. Use this section to delineate competitors by channel as well as demographics, and identify potential competitors based on trends and SWOT analysis.

      1. Market Share

         Include figures of the market share of each competitor, ideally in both value and quantity terms.

         1. By Demographic Share

            Tie together information about the target markets and the competitive landscape, to answer questions about how your company and your competitors are likely to fare in each target.

         2. By Sales Volume

      2. Product/ Service Characteristics

         For each competitor analyse the characteristics of the product or service. This includes price, quality, distribution, and service. If price and quality are the main points of differentiation in your industry you can map them onto a graph, helping to illustrate the current industry situation and any gaps in the market.

      3. Strengths

         This includes any advantages as a result of the current market position, levels of brand recognition, potential to respond to a threatening new entrant, and any cross-promotional partnerships.

      4. Weaknesses

         This could be anything from weaknesses in the product to poor customer service and reputation issues. Remember to distinguish between companies taking advantage of their dominant position through charging higher prices and those companies that are charging higher prices because their costs determine that they have to. A weakness is only a real weakness if the company cannot instantly adjust its strategy.

   4. Partnerships and Agreements

      Joint ventures, subsidiaries, and any distribution agreements.

   5. PESTLE Analysis

      PESTLE analysis is a useful tool for understanding the industry situation as a whole, and is often used in conjunction with a SWOT analysis to assess the situation of an individual business. PESTLE stands for "Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal and Environmental" factors. The questions to ask you are: -What are the key political factors likely to affect the industry? -What are the important economic factors? -What cultural aspects are most important? -What technological innovations are likely to occur? -What current and impending legislation may affect the industry? -What are the environmental considerations?

      1. Political

         1. Current taxation policy?

         2. Future taxation policy?

         3. The current and future political support?

         4. Grants, funding and initiatives?

         5. Trade bodies?

         6. Effect of wars or worsening relations with particular countries?

      2. Economic

         1. Overall economic situation?

         2. Strength of consumer spending?

         3. Current and future levels of government spending?

         4. Ease of access to loans?

         5. Current and future level of interest rates, inflation and unemployment?

         6. Specific taxation policies and trends?

         7. Exchange rates?

      3. Sociological

         1. Demographics?

         2. Lifestyle patterns and changes?

         3. Attitudes towards issues such as education, corporate responsibility and the environment?

         4. Social mobility?

         5. Media views and perceptions?

         6. Ethnic and religious differences?

      4. Technological

         1. Relevant current and future technology innovations?

         2. The level of research funding?

         3. The ways in which consumers make purchases?

         4. Intellectual property rights and copyright infringements?

         5. Global communication technological advances?

      5. Legal

         1. Legislation in areas such as employment, competition and health & safety?

         2. Future legislation changes?

         3. Changes in European law?

         4. Trading policies?

         5. Regulatory bodies?

      6. Environmental

         1. The level of pollution created by the product or service?

         2. Recycling considerations?

         3. Attitudes to the environment from the government, media and consumers?

         4. Current and future environmental legislative changes?

   6. SWOT Analysis

      SWOT Analysis is a common and very useful technique for clarifying the internal and external factors that will impact market strategy prior to determining a course of action. The chart lists examples, and depending upon the product, service, or branding goal, the examples may be listed in more than one quadrant. A SWOT analysis should be conducted after the PESTLE analysis, as the external environment impacts on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that the business faces. Analyse each aspect of the SWOT analysis and look at avenues which exploit the strengths of the business and pursue the identified opportunities. Similarly, the threats and weaknesses should be assessed and possible options identified so as the minimize these. These options may include diversification, targeting a different customer segment, or product development.

      1. Strengths

         Think from an internal and external perspective. For example, if all your competitors have a high quality product then having a high quality product is not a strength, it's a necessity.

         1. What is different about your business?

         2. What do you do well?

         3. What unique resources or knowledge do you have?

      2. Weaknesses

         Perception is just as important as the reality here. -Do customers perceive you as having certain weaknesses? -Where do you think you could do better?

         1. What do your competitors have that you don't?

         2. What areas can you improve at?

         3. What weaknesses do people perceive you as having?

      3. Opportunities

         Refer back to your strengths and look at whether you can exploit any opportunities through using them.

         1. What trends present an opportunity to you?

         2. Are there any complementary products which you could look to expand into?

         3. Are there any potentially beneficial technological or legal developments?

      4. Threats

         Threats may often arise as a result of your weaknesses. Assessing your weaknesses will help identify future threats and assess how to minimize them.

         1. What legal and technological developments could threaten your business?

         2. Are any new entrants likely?

         3. What does your competition plan to do?

3. Marketing Strategy

   the heart of the marketing plan, the section on strategy outlines the goals, programs and methods to achieve the goals.

   1. Mission

   2. Marketing Objectives

      There should be a clear sales goal and a projected market share figure should be specified. Sometimes you may also wish to set intermediate goals such as satisfaction score, repurchase rates, and awareness levels.

      1. Demand Creation

         define objectives for indirect demand creation, or “awareness” and/or direct demand creation, or “leads” that are ready to be converted to sales. Demand creation should result in tactical approaches such as PR, and consumer “buzz”.

      2. Sales Revenue

         outline sales revenue objectives in the ways that are most relevant and measurable for your company: objectives by product line, target market, and geographic location

      3. Repeat Business

      4. Brand Awareness

   3. Target Market Segments

      Identify which types of customers your business is going to target. Refer to the segmentation in the Customer Analysis Section and give reasons for why you have chosen to target certain customer segments. Identifying the target markets is critical to all other decisions outlined in the marketing plan. Primary research through surveys, interviews and focus groups provides the key insights needed to identify the target markets, their attributes, purchase rationales, influences, etc. These target markets also serve as the basis of building personas, or customer profiles in developing creative strategies, key messages, and programs. Giving names to the targets is not required, but often helps focus brand and theme issues. Note that in business-to-business marketing, you may also need to identify vertical markets, particular business segments to which you will market your products/services, such as financial services, health care, manufacturing, telecommunications, etc

      1. Demographics

         Describe the specific characteristics of target markets such as disposable income, percentage of income spent on your product/service category, average store visits annually, percentage of online spending, media/new media habits, brand loyalty.

      2. Market Needs

         This section answers the questions as to what the target markets are seeking in products/services, characteristics, price points, etc. that are either not being provided by your competition or are not adequate.

      3. Market Trends

         Describe trends in the target markets that will impact sales of your product or service, such as expanding or contracting levels of disposable income, changes in household size, adoption of new technology or pop culture events, etc.

      4. Market Growth

         Describe the forecasted growth in the target markets, including the key factors impacting growth.

   4. Differential Advantage

      Explain what makes your company's proposition different to those of competitors, presenting details of why target customers will choose to purchase your product or service.

   5. Marketing Mix

      The marketing mix is the set of decisions that a business must make in order to implement its marketing strategy and achieve its objectives. Traditionally the marketing mix has been comprised of the 4 P's (Product, Price, Promotion and Place (Distribution)). However, today two additional decisions tend to be added - Service and Staff.

      1. Product

         Provide descriptions of the product service offerings, grouped and categorized in ways that align with your target market goals.

         1. Product Variety?

         2. Product Sizes?

         3. Product Quality?

         4. Brand name?

         5. Packaging?

         6. Presentation?

      2. Price

         Describe the pricing strategy, and consider providing the rationale for choosing one strategy over another. Traditional strategies include cost-plus, target return, value-based, and various psychological pricing strategies.

         1. List Price?

         2. Quantity Discounts?

         3. Special Offers?

         4. Geographical Pricing?

         5. Payment Terms?

         6. Credit Options?

      3. Promotion

         1. Advertising?

         2. Public Relations?

         3. Promotions?

      4. Place (Distribution)

         Outline the channels your company uses to deliver the product/service to your customers and cost, time and other factors that impact each channel.

         1. Channel Section?

         2. Market Coverage?

         3. Dealer Support?

      5. Service

         1. Pre-sale Services?

         2. Point-of-purchase Services?

         3. After-sales Support?

      6. Staff

         1. Staff Requirements?

         2. Salaries and Bonuses?

         3. Staff Motivation?

   6. Positioning & Messages

      1. Unique Selling Proposition

         The Unique Selling Proposition or USP, is the “thing” that sets your company apart from your competition and provides a benefit to the customer. It serves as the foundation for the messages to your target audiences.

      2. Key Differentiators

         Key differentiators support the USP and messaging

      3. Target Messages

         the following components of the creative strategy are usually completed as decision-making activities with separate documents or reports. They determine the creative content for the detail marketing program tactics.

         1. Creative Brief

         2. Customer personas

         3. User Experience Goals

   7. Strategy Pyramids

      Identify strategy, tactics (media, message, channels), and programs for each product/target market. These can be detailed in text and illustrated with a pyramid such as the example below.

      1. Strategy

         1. Mission

      2. Tactics

         1. Message

         2. Channels

      3. Programs

4. Implementation

   Specify all the details of implementation, including when decisions will be taken and tasks completed, who is responsible for each decision and task, and what the various costs will be.

   1. Work Breakdown Schedule

   2. Tractical Timeline

      consider using project management tools such as MS Project to develop a timeline that addresses resources, as well as milestones and tasks.

   3. Success Factors

      Explain any key factors that must be addressed in order to achieve marketing objectives, such as IT implementations, completion of new sourcing agreements, rebranding efforts, recruitment of qualified personnel, etc.

   4. Critical Issues

      Identify any constraints or issues that could adversely or positively impact successful implementation of marketing programs. These could include a wide array of possibilities, such as pending tax increases or new regulations, legal actions, organizational changes, timely operational or infrastructure changes, etc.

5. Financials, Budgets, and Forecasts

   The final stage of a marketing plan is to draw up the budget. Include details of the revenues, expenditures, profits and cash flows over the planning period.

   1. Financial Objectives

      Projected future profits, return on investment and cash flow should all be forecasted. Breaking the above figures down into efficiency denominators such as gross margin, return on sales, and stock turnover is also useful.

      1. ROI

      2. Sales Revenue

      3. Expense Containment/ Reduction

   2. Breakeven Analysis

      The following break-even analysis provides estimated monthly fixed costs that take into account bricks and mortar, and online retail channels.

   3. Sales Forecast

      1. Monthly Sales forecast for one year

      2. Yearly Sales forecast for three years

   4. Expese Forecast

      The marketing expenses will be higher relative to other months when planned store openings are ramping up. The expenses will also spike toward the end of the year during the winter holiday season.

      1. Marketing Expense Budget

6. Controls

   1. Metrics

      Define the relevant metrics to be used to measure marketing activities, some examples are listed below

      1. Conversion rates?

         1. Visit to registration rate?

         2. Registration to trial rate?

         3. Trial to transaction rate?

      2. Average transaction size?

      3. Transactions per customer?

      4. Months per subscriber?

      5. Abandon rate?

      6. Returns rate?

   2. Contingency Planning

      1. Identified risks and risk mitigation

      2. Worst case scenarios