Description Executive Summary: Presents a brief summary of the main goals and recommendations of th ...
Description Executive Summary: Presents a brief summary of the main goals and recommendations of the plan for management review, helping top management to find the plan’s major points quickly. Current Marketing Situation: Describes the target market and the company’s position in it, including information about the market, product performance, competition, and distribution. This section includes: ? A market description that defines the market and major segments, then review customer needs and factors in the marketing environment that may affect customer purchasing ? A product review that shows sales, prices, and gross margins of the major products in the product line ? A review of competition, which identifies major competitors and assesses their market positions and strategies for product quality, pricing, distribution, and promotion ? A review of distribution that evaluates recent sales trends and other developments in major distribution channels Threats and Opportunities Analysis: The SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) assesses major threats and opportunities that the product might face, helping management to anticipate important positive or negative developments that might have an impact on the firm and its strategies. You’ll want to highlight and explain each issue within the SWOT. Objectives and Issues: States the marketing objectives that the company would like to attain during the plan’s term and discusses key issues that will affect their attainment. For example, if the goal is to achieve a 15 percent market share, this poses a key issue: How can market share be increased? Marketing Strategy: Outlines the broad marketing logic by which the business unit hopes to achieve its marketing objectives and the specifics of target markets, positioning, and marketing expenditure levels. It outlines specifics strategies for each marketing mix elements and explains how each response to the threats, opportunities, and critical issues spelled out earlier in the plan. Action Programs: Spells out how marketing strategies will be turned into specific action programs that answer the following questions: What will be done? When will it be done? Who is responsible for doing it? And how much will it cost? This is one of the most important components as it is your true test of implementation of your innovative plan. Budgets: Details a supporting marketing budget that is essentially a projected profit-and-loss statement. It shows expected revenues (forecasted number of units sold and the average net price) and expected costs (of production, distribution, and marketing). The difference is the projected profit. Once approved by higher management, the budget is the basis for materials buying, production scheduling, personnel planning, and marketing operations. Controls: Outlines the controls that will be used to monitor progress and allow higher management to review implementation results and spot products that are not meeting their goals.
