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As Branding and marketing professionals, we have an in-depth
understanding of the importance of a marketing plan. However,
not everyone recognizes the benefits of investing in a strategic
marketing plan prior to launching strategies and tactics that
seem intuitive at the time. The following few paragraphs attempt
to impart our understanding of a well-written plan's importance
by first defining some of key elements of the role of marketing
in most organizations.
Defines Focus: Your strategic marketing plan gives the company,
and everyone in it, a benchmark to measure all marketing
activities against. A well-developed strategic marketing plan
not only gives you a structured strategic and tactical outline,
but also defines your target audience, messages, goals, and
objectives, in a way that allows flexibility. A structured plan
provides a benchmark to measure all marketing activities and
ensure that the investment they require meet the needs and goals
of the marketing plan - preventing you from spending on wasted
efforts. It helps staff understand goals and become
customer-focused. It also empowers them to make decisions on
their own that are consistent with the company's objectives.
Tracks Costs / Measures Value: A marketing plan provides a
step-by-step guide to what you are spending money on and when.
It enables you to budget marketing expenses--helping you keep
control of your expenditures, manage your cash flow, track sales
to marketing expense ratio, and measure success of your
marketing efforts. It also ensures that product development
dollars are not wasted.
Charts Success: A marketing plan helps you chart your
destination point. It becomes a guide through unfamiliar
territory.
Captures Thinking on Paper: The finance department isn't allowed
to run a company by keeping numbers in their heads. It should be
no different with marketing. Your written document lays out your
game plan. If people leave, if new people arrive, if memories
falter, the information in the written marketing plan stays
intact.
Reflects the BIGPicture: In the daily routine of putting out
fires, it's hard to turn your attention to the big picture,
especially those parts that aren't directly related to the daily
operations. Writing your marketing plan helps in determining
your current business status and provides a roadmap for business
goals.
Becomes a Document to Build On: Creating your very first
strategic marketing plan is a time and resource consuming
endeavor, but well worth the effort. Once the plan is complete,
you just need to make minor adjustments and tweaks to it; you
won't have to re-create it from scratch. It will serve as a
template and benchmark for you to work from as you define your
objectives and strategies for future years. It becomes a living
document for measuring sales success, customer retention,
product development, and sales initiatives.
Where Do You Start?
The best place to start is to evaluate where you are now. How
are you positioned in the market? How do your customers see you?
What are your strengths/weaknesses, and what are some emerging
market threats and opportunities?
Typically the strategic marketing plan is done in sequential
phases--each part of the plan builds off of the phase before it.
Your strategic marketing plan also needs the help of most
everyone; it cannot be completed without the assistance of many
people within the company: finance, operations, sales,
management, and marketing.
Your Strategic Marketing Plan Should Include Include:
Phase 1
Situation Analysis: Defines the market dynamics and identifies
client's position in the market as it currently exists and will
summarize the current situation from an internal and external
perspective.
Industry Overview: Defines the current market situation and
explores market trends and product consumption.
Competitive Profile: Identifies key players in the market and
defines their positions, strategies and initiatives. This
section is designed to give the client a clear understanding of
the competitive dynamics of the marketplace and will provide you
with valuable information for developing your future strategies
and target markets.
Customer Profile: Provides an analysis of each of the potential
target markets, regarding their use of the product and the
factors affecting their buying process. This information is
gathered using a variety of research tactics and may include you
contacting a number of organizations within each category to
gather facts about the buying process.
S. W. O. T. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats):
Provides client with an in-depth view of the strengths and
weaknesses of his or her organization, both from an internal and
external perspective. It also defines potential opportunities
and threats. This section is critical because it provides an
objective summary of both perceptions and issues that will
affect the success of future marketing efforts.
Target markets: Key target markets will be identified given the
competitive situation, growth potential and product offering of
the client. These markets will provide the best opportunity to
develop strong brand awareness and will maximize the potential
for both market share and revenue growth.
Phase 2
Key Objectives: Once all of the information is gathered during
Phase I of the plan, you will work as a group to define the key
objectives that will be instrumental in developing future
strategies and tactics.
Positioning: After reviewing the industry, competitive
information, company objectives, you will then define the new
positioning in the marketplace. It will tie directly to the
company 's strengths and will reinforce its objectives and
strategies.
Summary: A summarization of all relevant factors and information
will be completed prior to developing strategies and tactics.
Phase 3 Strategies: You will then develop marketing and
communication strategies that support the positioning and key
objectives. These strategies will address channels of
distribution, as well as define key corporate sales messaging.
Tactics: A list of marketing and communication initiatives that
support and reinforce the company's positioning, objectives and
strategies will be developed. You will identify and produce the
marketing support tools that provide the largest return on
investment and ones that will substantially increase a client's
brand recognition and market share.
The Strategic Marketing Plan is a comprehensive effort that will
allow a company to direct its resources toward achieving a
common goal. It has been our experience that a Marcom plan plays
a vital role in developing accurate messaging and provides a
forum for consistently delivering those messages to your
marketplace. It is the one document that ensures that every
dollar spent on your efforts reinforces the corporate
objectives, identity, image and corporate branding.
About the author:
Scott White is President of Brand Identity Guru
a leading Corporate
Branding consulting and market research firm located in
Boston, Massachusetts.
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