eMarketing Blog

The market plan is described as a ‘map to help you develop your business’ in ‘the marketer’ (March 2007, p38). It is used as a dynamic tool to help identify business opportunities to penetrate, capture and maintain market position ‘not a weighty document’. The parts of a marketing plan can be summarised by:

step 1: set organisation’s mission & company objectives
*What are the company Objectives?

step 2: the marketing audit
*Where are we now?

step 3: Set draft marketing objectives
*How do we get there?

step 4: plans and set marketing budgets
*What are the details?

step 5: monitor and controls the plan
Are we on the right track?

The plan is implemented at the beginning of the fiscal year and monitored; it is subject to change based on a continuous cycle of development, with planning running one way and feedback the other.

So what are the main benefits?

• it clarifies direction
• motivates people
• improves resource efficiency
• provides metrics and controls for examining progress

Planning is defined as ‘the task of setting objectives, specifying how to achieve them, implementing the plan and evaluating the results.’ Boddy (2005, p169). To meet these goals or objectives requires allocating financial and people management resources and evaluating the costs.

By HML for business. Useful links:
http://www.hmlbusiness.com
http://www.hmlmarketing.co.uk/site/marketing-consultancy.htm