home » Documentation » Monitoring the implementation of the marketing plan. Marketing Plan: Development Instructions and Detailed Example

Monitoring the implementation of the marketing plan. Marketing Plan: Development Instructions and Detailed Example

marketing plan- document, a fundamental part strategic plan for the development of the company, in which market goals are set and methods for achieving them are indicated.

Strategic Marketing Plan, developed for 3 - 5 years, contains long-term goals and defining marketing strategies with an indication of the resources necessary for their implementation. The strategic marketing plan is updated and revised annually, based on which annual marketing plan.

Operational marketing plan (annual marketing plan) describes the current marketing situation, the objectives of the activity in the market, marketing strategies for the current year. It includes a program of activities, resource, including financial support.

Marketing plan company is the key to planning activities, along with the budget, production plan, sales plan. The annual plan of the enterprise, accordingly, establishes the general goals of the enterprise, however, for working in a competitive environment, marketing - efforts in the market - is the main function of the enterprise. In this regard, the marketing plan dominates in value over other sections of the general annual plan, because:

the targets of the marketing plan have a direct impact on the performance of other sections of the annual plan;
decisions recorded in the marketing plan determine what exactly the company will produce, at what price and where to sell, how to advertise;

The marketing plan serves as a key guide for the work of personnel involved in the firm's marketing activities.

The need for a marketing plan. A marketing plan is like a traveler's itinerary, being both a map and a compass. The marketing plan captures the current position (location) of the enterprise, the vectors of movement, target points, and, most importantly, fixes the actions that the company must take to get to the intended points. To find out why a marketing plan is needed, consider the problems that arise in an enterprise in the absence of a marketing plan, as well as the results that an enterprise receives after developing it.

Problems of not having a marketing plan.

The company develops spontaneously, from success to failure;
Possible schemes, existing development options are constantly in conflict. As a reason - the dispersion of efforts, funds, loss of time;
The target audience is not defined, discrepancies in its estimates from time to time lead to the problems described in the paragraph above;
The company randomly purchases products, tries to diversify the product offer at the moment when concentration on the main product offer is required;

Marketing plan goals.

systematization, formal description of the ideas of the company's leaders, reporting them to employees;
setting marketing goals, ensuring control over their achievement;
concentration and reasonable distribution of the firm's resources.

The process of developing a marketing plan. It is reasonable to propose the following sequential process, as a result of the execution of the points of which marketing plan firms. The process consists of six mandatory steps:

Definition of the mission of the enterprise;
SWOT analysis;
Defining the goals and strategy of the organization as a whole;
Definition of tasks and action programs for their implementation;
Drawing up a marketing plan and monitoring its implementation;
Preparation of a marketing budget.

More detail the points:

At the stage of the mission description, the purpose of all subsequent efforts of the company is determined;
SWOT analysis gives a clear idea of where the company is located (marketing audit or marketing audit) and what it is: analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the enterprise, as well as opportunities and threats coming from the immediate environment of the enterprise (external environment);
The third section is the basis for developing a specific program of marketing activities. This stage of the marketing plan includes forecasting the development of target markets (segments), the dynamics of macro- and microeconomic processes, as well as the resource capabilities of the enterprise. Based on all of the above, the main goals of the activity are formulated, structured in the form of a tree of goals, at the top of which is the global corporate goal.
At the fourth stage, the tasks of the marketing department are determined within the framework of the overall plan of the enterprise, and an action program is developed aimed at solving these tasks. At this stage, the company's strategic directions of action are concretized by planning tactical measures. For each target market segment, appropriate goods (services) of the required quality and quantity, their prices, points of sale and tactics of their promotion to the consumer should be planned.
The fifth stage allows us to get the document itself, with the definition of parameter values, according to which the implementation of the marketing plan will subsequently be controlled, the marketing program (marketing plan) is designed, namely: layout, coordination with all interested parties and approval of the document.
Marketing budget- a section of the marketing plan that reflects the planned values of income, costs and profits. The amount of income is justified by the projected sales volume in value terms. Costs are defined as the sum of all types of costs. The approved budget is the basis for ensuring the production of goods and marketing activities.

In the marketing literature, there is a description of the process of developing a marketing plan consisting of a larger number of points. Understand that the number of points is not important, it is important to understand that the described set of sequential works allows you to get a document called "marketing plan". The detail of this set of works can indeed be written down and a large number of points that can be formulated in other words.

Structurally, the marketing plan consists of from the following sections of the document:

the main results of activities for the previous period;
analysis and forecast of the development of the economy and the target market;
put forward goals, mainly in quantitative terms, highlighting the main goal;
strategies for the behavior of the enterprise in market segments;
measures of commodity, price, marketing and communication policies, indicating the responsible executors and deadlines;
marketing budget plan (marketing budget).

Number of impressions: 151701

SOSTAC is a widely used marketing and business planning tool. It is among the most popular marketing models that have stood the test of time.

In this article, you will learn how to develop a marketing plan to promote a company using the SOSTAC model.

Created back in the 1990s by writer and speaker PR Smith, the SOSTAC® structure has earned a good reputation among authorities. It is taken as a basis by representatives of businesses of various sizes, including start-up entrepreneurs or international organizations around the world.

The SOSTAC marketing plan covers six key areas, namely:

Stage 1. Analysis of the current situation

The first stage of marketing planning is the analysis of the current situation. This is an overview of your project - who you are, what you do and how your online sales work. External and internal factors affecting your business are also considered.

In this section, you will paint a big picture of your project. To do this, ask the following questions:

Who are your customers today (make a portrait of your target audience and their profiles).
: What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities or threats for the entire organization?
Conduct competitor analysis. Who are your competitors? How do they create competition (eg price, product, customer service, reputation)? What are your key differences?
Make a list of all customer acquisition channels you use and the success of each for your organization. What works well and what doesn't?

Below we will take a closer look at an example of target audience analysis.

The target audience

This section should analyze who makes up your target audience. This is important in order to clearly represent existing customers and understand who you are actually targeting. If you work in a competitive environment, consider what is your unique offer (if you have one)?

Customer personalization helps you see your existing customers and understand their buying motives. Creation will also help you overcome barriers to new clients. To create a series of avatars, match and analyze existing data from your CRM system and order history, and then build a profile picture of your existing customers based on this.

For online trading, the information you may consider from your CRM system may include:

Male/female - what is the percentage?
Age profile - what is the average age and is there room for development of age group categories?
Location/Address Data - Percentage of customers living in and outside of your area.
Purchase history. Gain a clearer picture of purchase history, average order, brand preference trends, and products ordered by size, for example.
Method of payment for the purchase (for example, credit or debit card, upon receipt).
The route traveled for the purchase. Were there purchases through a search engine, email newsletter, affiliate site, contextual advertising?
Frequency. How often are purchases made?

Based on these data, we proceed to the second stage. We need to turn this data into more personal information that may be relevant to your organization.

Creating Customer Avatars

For example, we collected data on the target audience and now consider two avatars for a fictitious online t-shirt store:

Avatar A - Sergey:

Sergey is a professional, 28 years old, he rents an apartment in Moscow, a bachelor with a high income. He is very passionate about football. He likes to show his support for the football club by buying a new fan jersey from the online store every year.

It is more convenient for Sergey to place orders online and communicate using social networks, in which he follows the latest news in the world of football and football product launches. As the World Cup provides an opportunity to present a collection of international fan shirts, it allows company X to get in touch with Sergei and offer him an international fan shirt in addition to his favorite club shirt.

The scenario of interaction between avatar A and the online store:

Sergei read the latest World Cup news on his favorite football blog. He noticed that the blog offers an exclusive promotion - you can order any World Cup t-shirt from company X and save 10% by clicking on the link to www.vash-magazin.ru/worldcup. Sergey follows the link and gets to the site of company X, which provides him with a selection of T-shirts available for order with an exclusive 10% discount. He chooses a t-shirt in his size and completes the purchase using his credit card.

Avatar B - Katya:

Katya is a professional, she is 33 years old, she is in a relationship. Katya loves to keep up with the latest fashion trends, and it is convenient for her to place orders in her favorite online store. Her boyfriend is a big football fan, he likes to keep up with football fashion and buy new fan shirts with the image of his favorite team. Katya may face the hype around the World Cup. This will encourage her to shop at Company X for her boyfriend. She will purchase merchandise with images of the team they will support during the tournament.

The scenario of interaction between avatar B and the online store:

Katya received an email from one of her preferred online stores. This email includes Company X's marketing promotion, an advertisement offering to order a World Cup T-shirt with a promo code. She decides that this will be a great gift for her boyfriend and goes to www.vash-magazin.ru. She's not sure which team jersey to get, so she calls customer service. She explains her situation to a sales consultant and places her order for a fan shirt over the phone.

In this way, you represent your customers in detail and can prepare appropriate advertising campaigns for them. For starters, you can create 2-3 customer avatars for each group of similar products.

Stage 2. Goal setting

The second phase of your marketing plan system should be focused on your goal. Once you have defined your goal, it is important to make it as precise and unambiguous as possible. To do this, the goal must meet the following points:

Concreteness. What indicator do you plan to work on within the framework of a given goal?
Measurability. How do you plan to measure performance? Will it be controlled through quantitative or qualitative analysis, for example?
Reachability. Can you, in principle, achieve such a goal in the foreseeable future?
Relevant and realistic. In this case, when developing a marketing plan, we mean the possibility of achieving this goal with marketing tools, and not development, for example.
Time limit. Have you set a specific period of time when the task should be completed?

For example, if we go back to our fictional online t-shirt store, we can create the following targets:

Goal 1. Engagement: Increase the number of existing customers served through the online store by 50% by July 2017.
Goal 2. Engagement: increase brand awareness between April 2017 and July 2017, measured by Google analytics.
Goal 3: Engagement: Increase email frequency from one email per quarter to one email per week from May 2017 to July 2017.

Stage 3. Strategies for achieving goals

The strategy tells how you are going to achieve your goals. This is a general idea of achieving goals.

Using the example of an online t-shirt store, we will determine what questions need to be answered in the strategy block of your marketing plan.

Goal 1 is to increase brand awareness between April 2017 and July 2017, measured through Google Analytics.

It is necessary to increase the brand presence in certain online channels that are aimed at the audience of football fans.

What is the most cost-effective way to market?
Are our key customers in these channels?
Where can we get more customer attention?

Study your competitors, understand what online marketing tools they are using and what they are not using, and take advantage of the first movers.

Goal 2 is to increase the number of existing customers served with an online account by 50% by July 2017.

Analyze your existing customer base and how they interact with your online store.

Goal 3 is to increase email frequency from one email per quarter to one email per week from May 2017 to July 2017.

How does the company currently interact with subscribers?
Who are your competitors and how do they send mailings?

The answers to these questions will help you determine a strategy to achieve your goals.

Stage 4. Tactics for achieving goals

Tactics contain those specific tools that you plan to use to achieve the goals of your marketing plan. As you draw up your strategy, you will describe each of the tactics in more detail, as well as specify specific KPIs for each tactic.

In the example of a t-shirt store, let's assume that we have chosen three tactics for implementing these strategies: SEO, PPC, and Email Marketing.

Tactic 1 - SEO

When analyzing competitors, it was revealed that one of the key disadvantages of company X is a small marketing budget. However, search engine optimization of the site does provide the company with a field for competition.

To understand the positive impact SEO can have in terms of increasing brand awareness among the target market, it is necessary to conduct a keyword analysis.

Tactic 2 - Pay per click - contextual advertising

As with SEO, keyword research will give you an idea of how much budget you need for contextual advertising. Most of the competing companies do not use a lot of queries in advertising, so here you can benefit. It also helps increase brand awareness.

Tactic 3 - Email Marketing

It is necessary to develop an email marketing strategy so that the existing customer base receives regular messages. The tactics that will be used will include options for what should be included in the content of the emails so that you get enough clicks to the site and conversions to purchases.
This tactic will be to use the existing customer base and encourage them to refer friends, colleagues to join the weekly newsletters.

Stage 5: Actions

The fifth stage of your marketing planning system focuses on how to bring your plans to life. The action section covers what needs to be done in each of the tactics listed in the previous section of the SOSTAC plan in order to realize its goals.

To achieve the goals above, we have identified three tactics. Now we list examples of actions required to implement each tactic.

This is not an exhaustive list, it only contains examples and a brief description of what to consider:

Tactic 1: SEO

Keyword analysis. What keywords are we targeting?
Page optimization. We must optimize the site pages for key queries in order to provide better rankings in Yandex and Google.
Content - regular blog posts on the topic of the site.
Building a link mass. Make a target group of sites where you could post information about your project with a link to it.

Actions for tactics 2: Contextual advertising

Keyword analysis. What queries can drive profitable traffic?
Budget.
Landing pages. What pages will people land on when they enter certain queries?

Tactic Action 3: Email Marketing

Create email scripts for various actions on the site (subscription, purchase)
Creation of reporting to analyze the involvement of subscribers in the mailing list
Analysis of the profitability of mailings

Stage 6. Control of results

The final stage of planning is to provide an opportunity to analyze and evaluate your performance in the future based on the goals set in the second stage.

Think about what to set for tactics that are tied to your goals and set up weekly or monthly monitoring reports to make sure you are on track to achieve your goals.

We offer a ready-made checklist with which you can draw up a ready-made marketing plan from scratch. The article details the structure and lists the main sections and marketing plan. We will tell you in what sequence it is more convenient to draw up a marketing plan, which elements of a marketing plan are mandatory, and which components can sometimes be missed. We believe that our checklist is suitable for protecting the promotion strategy of any product, because it is an exhaustive list of important information on the basis of which key strategic decisions are made.

The marketing plan has a fairly clear and logical structure, and its development is not a one-day process. You will need a lot of time to collect detailed information about consumers, to study the features and conditions of the market, to determine the competitive advantages of the product, and much more. Get ready to process and summarize many different facts, consider more than one alternative for business development. Don't be afraid to take the time to analyze different strategy options.

On average, drawing up a high-quality marketing plan can take (depending on the size of the business and the number of product groups in the company's portfolio) from 1-3 months. And if you deal with marketing planning at the same time as solving current issues, then put at least 2-4 months into this process. You will spend 50% of this time gathering information, 40% analyzing and considering alternatives, and only 10% writing the marketing plan itself.

The structure of a standard marketing plan includes 8 elements and is as follows:

What is an Executive Summary

"Executive Summary" - a summary or summary of the key areas of the marketing plan. In this section of the marketing plan, they try to set out the main conclusions, recommendations and goals of the company for the next few years. This section is the last one you complete, but when you present your marketing plan, you start with this section.

The practice of laying out the key takeaways at the start of any presentation helps set the guide to the right format for the presentation, allows you to evaluate the main strategy without detailed study of the facts, and prepare questions. In this section of the marketing plan, it is very common to also include content, presentation duration, presentation format, and preferred form of feedback.

Situational analysis and conclusions

The situational analysis section is designed to quickly get a complete picture of the market, its size, trends and features. Such an analysis helps to explain the choice of certain actions in the marketing strategy of the product. The main components of a situational analysis are:

Analysis of the company's internal environment and resources, including an assessment of the level of achievement of current goals and objectives
Analysis of consumer behavior in the market, assessment of the reasons for the purchase and refusal of the company's product
Analysis of the external factors of the company, the behavior of competitors and key market trends

You can read more about an example of a situational or business analysis of a company in our article:

SWOT analysis and competitive advantages

Any situational analysis ends with a compilation, describing the strengths and weaknesses of the company, key opportunities and threats for sales and profit growth. Based on the results of the SWOT analysis, the following is formed:

main product of the company
indicating the development vector of product positioning for 3-5 years
tactical action plan for the use and development of opportunities
tactical action plan to minimize identified threats
main

Definition of marketing goals and objectives

The first step in any marketing strategy is to set performance targets for the coming year. There are two types of goals that should be recorded in a marketing plan: business goals and marketing goals. Business goals relate to issues such as the position of the product in the market (share or place among competitors), the level of sales, profits and profitability. Marketing objectives consider such issues as attracting new customers, retaining current customers, increasing the frequency and duration of use of the product.

Protection of the marketing strategy

The presentation of the marketing strategy is the main section of the organization's marketing plan. At this stage of the presentation of the marketing plan, it is important to say about the following elements of the marketing strategy:

Without this section, the marketing plan will not be complete and not a single manager will approve the developed programs for the development of the product and its promotion to the market. The section begins with a presentation of the business model or P&L, which shows projected sales growth from the programs, required program budget, net income, and return on sales. The subsequent steps in this section are comments and clarifications on the P&L model:

Budget structure with division into main cost items
Overview of the main sources of sales growth and their correlation with budget items
Assumptions used in the construction of the model in the field of cost growth, inflation and price level

What are the main marketing plans

Various planning approaches are possible. Traditional planning usually involves dividing plans according to the time period for which they are designed. Including short-term, medium-term or long-term plans. However, there is no universal definition of planning periods.

Medium- and long-term plans are known as "strategic" because they look at business strategies for a long period. Short-term plans are often referred to as "business plans" or "corporate" because they provide guidance for day-to-day activities. The application of a specific plan depends on the scope and objectives of the company, the markets served, the need to plan for future product releases.

Long-range planning is designed to assess general business and economic trends over many years. The company's strategy is aimed at increasing the corresponding long-term objectives of the organization, which is important for the defense industry, pharmaceuticals and aerospace, where the development of new products reaches 5-10 years. Long-term planning in these industries covers 10-20 years. But the timing of the development of most companies is not so significant, with a long-term planning orientation of more than 5-7 years.

Medium-term planning is more practical, designed for a period of not more than 2-5 years (usually three years). Such planning is more tied to life, since it refers to the near future, the probability of reflection in terms of reality is higher. At the heart of a medium-term "strategic" marketing plan, strategies are similar to long-term ones. However, major decisions need to be implemented in a shorter time frame. Such decisions include the need for capital investment, the introduction of new products, the availability and use of resources and personnel.

Short-term planning (and budgeting), as a rule, is focused on a period of up to 1 year, involving the development of business or corporate plans and associated budgets. It is expected that these plans will consider the near future and the details of what the company plans to undertake over a period of 12 months. Short-term plans are considered the most detailed. They can be adjusted if necessary.

How to Make a 1 Page Marketing Plan: The Allan Dib Technique

Fast and easy write a marketing plan, even if you are a marketing pro, you can with the help of the e-zine article "Commercial Director".

Why You Need a Marketing Plan

Lack of a marketing plan leads to the following problems:

there is a spontaneous development of the company without a specific plan of action;
there is a constant conflict of possible schemes, existing development options; there is a dispersion of means, efforts, time;
the target audience is not defined, which periodically leads to the above problems;
chaotic purchases of products, attempts to diversify the product offer at a time when you need to concentrate on the main product offer.

The marketing plan accomplishes the following goals:

systematize, formally describe the ideas of the leaders of the organization, conveying them to employees;
concentration of company resources with their reasonable distribution;
set marketing goals, providing control in achieving them.

What sections are included in the marketing plan

grocery plan;
sales plan - increasing sales efficiency;
advertising and sales promotion plan;
research and development of new products;
distribution channel operation plan;
price plan, including price changes in the future;
marketing research plan;
plan for the operation of the physical distribution system;
marketing organization plan.

Structure and content of the marketing plan

Executive Summary (Summary) – This initial section of the marketing plan provides a brief summary of the main recommendations and goals in the plan. This section allows management to quickly understand the focus of this plan. This section is usually followed by a table of contents for the plan.

Current marketing situation - this section describes the target market, the position of the organization in it. These sections include:

market description;
product overview;
competition;
distribution.

Hazards and Opportunities - This section lists the main opportunities and dangers for the product on the market. An assessment of the potential harm of each hazard is expected.

Marketing goals - this section characterizes the direction of the drawn up plan, initially formulating the desired results of activities in specific markets.

Marketing strategies are the main directions of marketing activity. By following them, organizations strive to achieve marketing goals. The marketing strategy includes specific strategies for operating in target markets, the marketing mix used, relevant marketing costs. In the strategies that are developed for each market segment, it is necessary to consider new and manufactured products, prices, promotion of products, bringing products to consumers, it is necessary to indicate how the strategy reacts to the opportunities and dangers of the market.

Action Program - a detailed program showing what needs to be done, when and by whom the accepted tasks should be carried out, how much it will cost, what decisions need to be coordinated in order to fulfill the marketing plan.

The program, as a rule, briefly characterizes the goals for the achievement of which the activities of the program are oriented. Therefore, the program is a set of specific activities that must be carried out by the marketing and other services of the organization in order to achieve the goals of the marketing plan. The course will help you reach them faster."

Marketing budget - this section reflects projected revenues, profits and costs. The amount of income from the forecast position on sales and prices is substantiated. Costs are determined as the sum of production, marketing and distribution costs. At the same time, marketing costs will have to be detailed in this budget.

Section "Control" - it reflects the methods and procedures for control, which are required in assessing the level of success of the plan. For this purpose, criteria (standards) are established, on the basis of which the progress of the implementation of marketing plans is measured.

Stages of developing a marketing plan

Stage 1. Determination of the initial goals of the development and activities of the company.

Stage 2. Analysis of marketing activities. It is divided into three parts:

1) Analysis of the external marketing environment:

analysis of the economic and business environment - the state of the economy, socio-cultural conditions, financial policy, technological conditions, socio-economic conditions in the company;
market environment: general state of the market; its development; distribution channels, communications, the state of the industry;
competitor environment.

2) A detailed analysis of marketing activities involves the analysis sales volume, market share, profit, marketing organization, marketing procedures, analysis of all elements of the marketing mix, control of marketing activities.

3) The analysis of the marketing system involves the analysis of marketing goals, marketing strategy, duties and rights of managers in the field of marketing, information system, planning and control system, interaction with other management functions, as well as analyzing profitability, analysis according to the "cost-effectiveness" criterion.

Stage 3. Formulation of assumptions, hypotheses regarding certain factors external to the company that may have an impact on its activities. It is worth classifying and presenting assumptions explicitly. Classification of assumptions can be made in the following areas - the organization itself, a specific industry and the country of operation.

Stage 4. Setting marketing goals. Defining and organizing goals is an important aspect of marketing activities. Almost any planning and management document on marketing now contains in one of its initial sections at least a simple verbal list of goals, upon receipt of which no special approaches and methods are used. But in order to strengthen the focus on final results in planning and management activities, with the intensification of the use of special management methods, the need to increase the quality of individual management to build a system of goals, it is necessary to apply special approaches and methods.

Marketing has the following goals:

Satisfy the needs of consumers.
Provide yourself with a competitive advantage.
Raise the level of sales.
Get some profit.
Increase market share.

The core of marketing goals should be the specifics of the product or the need for it. If possible, goals should be focused not on consumer groups, but on their needs. After all, buyers are a fickle group.

Stage 5. Alternative strategies are developed that are aimed at achieving marketing goals. These strategies are detailed in relation to the elements of the marketing mix.

You can create strategies in the field of pricing in the following way:

setting the price of products according to the market position;
conducting a different pricing policy, depending on the markets;
development of a pricing policy, taking into account the pricing policy of its competitors.

In the field of product promotion, strategies can be noted that characterize communications with consumers, means and methods of organizing the actions of sales department employees in new markets.

The strategy in the field of bringing the product to consumers includes:

channels used to bring the product to the consumer;
level of after-sales customer service;
activities aimed at achieving delivery costs;
sales in small lots or wholesale.

After these stages of marketing planning are completed, you need to re-confirm the ability to achieve your goals and strategies using various evaluation criteria, including sales, market share, resource costs, profit margins and other estimates of the planned results and the ability to achieve them.

Stage 6. The set of marketing strategies, goals and activities to achieve is a strategic marketing plan, which at the next planning stage should be brought to working planning documents. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out operational-calendar planning.

Stage 7. At the stage of operational calendar planning or development of detailed action plans, it is required to specify marketing strategies into detailed plans, programs in the context of each of the 4 elements of the marketing complex.

We are talking about the development of action plans for each unit of the organization, aimed at achieving the specified goals based on the selected strategies. It is necessary that they contain answers to questions - what, who, where and when, how and with what resources should be done to implement marketing programs and plans.

As a rule, written instructions for drawing up action plans are also being developed, which are accompanied by forms and sample filling.

Stage 8. A marketing budget is being developed. Its compilation helps in the correct prioritization between the strategies and goals of marketing activities, in making decisions on the allocation of resources, in exercising effective control.

The budget is usually developed using a profit-based planning approach.

In this case, the marketing budget is developed in the following sequence: predictive estimates of market capacity, market share, price, sales revenue, variable and fixed costs are determined; the gross profit is calculated, covering all costs, including marketing costs, and providing a given value of the target profit.

Then, variable and fixed costs, as well as the value of the target profit, are subtracted from the gross profit. In this way, marketing costs are determined. They are detailed by individual elements of the marketing mix.

Marketing and sales: how to establish effective interaction

Budgeting is always a problem.

Roman Tkachev,

project manager for the promotion of the MDV trademark, the group of companies "AYAK"

Marketing expenses are not always perceived as an investment in customer acquisition or retention. Some view marketing spending as a fashion statement rather than an investment to increase profit margins. The reason is that the marketing department is often unable to present a system for evaluating its performance in the form of a mathematical model to management.

Determining the size of the marketing budget is a matter of strategic planning in the company's work. Therefore, the budget includes not only an estimate of the costs of promotion and advertising, but also costs for market research, the development of external brand attributes, with customer relationship management, distribution channels, BTL and other related activities.

It is worth considering that marketing planning is intended to determine the position of the organization at the current moment, areas of activity, means of achieving its goals. The marketing plan is central from the standpoint of conducting activities to receive a certain income. It is the basis for all other activities of the organization.

You don't need to reinvent the wheel to create a marketing plan

Anton Uskov,

General Director of PR agency Media_Act, Moscow

Companies do not have to reinvent the wheel to plan their marketing policy. If you do not know how to write a marketing plan, it is better to turn to the advice of professionals.

The most effective and simple option is to put yourself in the place of a potential buyer or client, discarding your habits and addictions, ceasing to use stamps and templates.

How is the implementation of the marketing plan carried out?

To control the work of the enterprise as a whole, it is necessary to develop a multi-level procedure for management calculation, with the formulation of a development strategy, supported by a set of tactical measures. It is on the solution of the last task in the activities of marketing and commercial services that the marketing plan is oriented.

The head provides control over the results in the activities of his subordinate units:

according to the criteria in the marketing plan;
in terms of management accounting;
on the performance of the department.

An analysis of the implementation of the marketing plan also involves a comparison of the actual development of the situation and the planned or expected indicators for the reporting period. If the actual state is recognized as unsatisfactory, it is necessary to make appropriate changes. Sometimes it is necessary to revise the relevant plans due to the influence of uncontrollable factors.

Analysis of the marketing plan can be carried out by 3 methods:

Analysis of marketing costs;
Implementation analysis;
Marketing revision.

As part of the analysis of marketing costs, an assessment of the effectiveness of various marketing factors is given. It is necessary to find out which costs are effective and which are not, and make the necessary adjustments. Sales performance analysis is a detailed study of sales performance to assess the correctness of a particular strategy.

A marketing audit is a systematized, objective and critical assessment, a review of the main goals and policies of the organization's marketing functions in the implementation of this policy, with the achievement of the set goals. Marketing audit involves 6 stages:

It is determined by whom the audit will be carried out.
The frequency of the revision is determined.
Forms for revision are being developed.
The revision is carried out immediately.
Presentation of the results to the management of the organization, decision-making.

A prerequisite in this direction is the dependence of wages on the performance of duties. The share of real payments, depending on the results, should be quite significant (at least one third of the employee's total earnings).

How to Determine Your Marketing Budget: Calculation Methods and Expert Advice

Information about authors and companies

PR agency Media_Act specializes in advertising and PR campaigns in the regions. It has branches in almost all major cities of the country. Among the main clients are the Finam investment holding, the Japanese tire manufacturer Yokohama, the distributor of roofing materials Diana-Trade, and MTS. The agency has subsidiaries engaged in the provision of advertising production and printing services.

Roman Tkachev, project manager for the promotion of the MDV trademark, AJAK group of companies. Graduated from Altai State University (specialist in international relations, orientalist) and Yanshan University (PRC) (Chinese language, international marketing). He was engaged in the development and implementation of a supply planning system and a system for accounting and analyzing commercial offers for the MDV brand.

Group of companies "AYAK"- Founded in 1996. Distributor of well-known global manufacturers of air conditioning equipment. It has about 50 regional offices, more than 2,000 dealer companies in the Russian Federation and the CIS countries. Official website - www.jac.ru

A company's marketing plan is a blueprint that outlines its overall marketing strategy for the coming year. It must indicate for whom you are positioning your products, how you will sell it to the target category of buyers, what techniques you will use to attract new customers and increase sales. The purpose of a marketing plan is to outline in detail how to market your products and services to your target market.

Steps

Part 1

Conducting a situational analysis

Consider the goals of your company. The purpose of a situational analysis is to understand the current marketing situation your company is in. Based on this understanding, you can think through and implement the necessary changes in the business. Start by addressing the company's mission and goals (if your company doesn't already have these, they need to be defined first) and see if your current marketing plan is helping you achieve those goals.

For example, your company performs snow removal and other related winter activities. You have set yourself the goal of increasing revenue by 10% through the conclusion of new contracts. Do you have a marketing plan that describes how you can attract additional contracts? If a plan exists, is it effective?

Examine your current marketing strengths and weaknesses. How is your company currently attractive to customers? What makes competing companies attractive to customers? It is very likely that it is your strengths that attract buyers to you. Knowing your strengths gives you an important marketing advantage.

Gather information about external opportunities and threats to your company. They will be external characteristics of the company, depending on competition, fluctuations in market factors, as well as on customers and buyers. The goal is to identify the various factors that can affect the business. This will then allow you to adjust your marketing plan accordingly.

Designate responsible persons. When preparing your marketing plan, you will need to assign individuals responsible for specific aspects of your company's market promotion. Think about which employees will be best able to perform specific functions of the marketing policy, and determine their responsibilities. You will also need to consider a system for evaluating the success of these job responsibilities.

Announce your marketing goals. What do you want to achieve with your marketing plan? Do you see the end goal as expanding your customer base, informing existing customers about new services and quality improvements, expanding into other regions or demographics, or something entirely different? It is your goals that will form the basis for preparing the plan.

Develop marketing strategies to achieve your goals. Once you have clearly defined your marketing goals and perspectives, you will need to consider specific actions to achieve them. There are many different types of marketing strategies, but the most common ones are listed below.

Approve the budget. You may have great ideas to promote your business and expand your customer base, but with a limited budget, you may need to partially rethink your strategy. The budget should be realistic and reflect both the current state of the business and its potential growth in the future.

Part 4

Marketing plan preparation

Start with an explanatory note. This section of the marketing plan should include basic information about your products or services, as well as a summary of the overall content of the entire document in one or two paragraphs of text. The priority preparation of an explanatory note will allow you to subsequently expand and describe in more detail certain points in the main text of the document.

Know that the prepared marketing plan is extremely useful to give for familiarization both to the direct employees of your company and its consultants.

Describe the target market. The second section of the marketing plan will address the results of your research and describe the company's target market. The text should not be written in complex language, indicating simple key points will be enough. You can start by describing the demographics of your market (including the age, gender, location, and industry of your customers, if applicable), and then move on to identifying your customers' top preferences for your products or services.
List your goals. This section should not exceed one page of text. It must indicate the marketing goals of the company for the coming year. Remember that the goals you set must satisfy five qualities: be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely.

Be sure to include in your marketing plan the needs and ideas for each department in your company (and even an employee, if appropriate). It is also very important that the marketing plan is linked and well integrated with the business plan and mission of the company, its public image and core values.
Include in your marketing plan any tables, graphs, etc. that you need to create in the process of collecting important information. In addition, it will be useful to include tables explaining its key provisions in the plan.

Warnings

Revise the marketing plan at least once a year to check the success of the strategies used and to redo those parts of the plan that were unsuccessful.
Many of the critical factors in a marketing plan are dynamic. If they change over time, the marketing plan needs to be revised.