Marketing Plan
Some organisations choose to not produce a marketing plan; however, it is an important part of the overall business planning process and is as vital as financial, operational and human resource planning. If an organisation decides not to write a marketing plan they may end up missing major opportunities. The marketing plan consists of a number of elements. It looks at the current position of the organisation with respect to the business environment and helps marketers build an analysis of the opportunities and threats that may affect their organisation.
Once the current position has been established the next step in the marketing plan is to decide what the organisation needs to achieve. One important consideration is to ensure the organisation’s core competencies and capabilities can support the implementation of the marketing plan. It is also key to make sure there are sufficient resources in terms of people, time and money to support the new strategy. It is all about putting marketing planning into context and making sure it links into the planning hierarchy. This means ensuring the corporate vision and corporate objectives are being fulfilled through the actions in the marketing plan.
A marketing plan can be a short document, it doesn’t need to be an epic or take a long time to write. As long as there is a good assessment of the current environment, SMART objectives and a realistic strategy that creates sustainable competitive advantage followed by a detailed action plan, it will work.
Maintaining a marketing plan is an ongoing process; the marketing plan is a working document – and once it has been written once, it only really needs updating on a regular basis; which, if you are close to your market, should be a straightforward task.
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Marketing Plan
Some organisations choose to not produce a marketing plan; however, it is an important part of the overall business planning process and is as vital as financial, operational and human resource planning. If an organisation decides not to write a marketing plan they may end up missing major opportunities. The marketing plan consists of a number of elements. It looks at the current position of the organisation with respect to the business environment and helps marketers build an analysis of the opportunities and threats that may affect their organisation.
Once the current position has been established the next step in the marketing plan is to decide what the organisation needs to achieve. One important consideration is to ensure the organisation’s core competencies and capabilities can support the implementation of the marketing plan. It is also key to make sure there are sufficient resources in terms of people, time and money to support the new strategy. It is all about putting marketing planning into context and making sure it links into the planning hierarchy. This means ensuring the corporate vision and corporate objectives are being fulfilled through the actions in the marketing plan.
A marketing plan can be a short document, it doesn’t need to be an epic or take a long time to write. As long as there is a good assessment of the current environment, SMART objectives and a realistic strategy that creates sustainable competitive advantage followed by a detailed action plan, it will work.
Maintaining a marketing plan is an ongoing process; the marketing plan is a working document – and once it has been written once, it only really needs updating on a regular basis; which, if you are close to your market, should be a straightforward task.
Topic Index: