Writing a Marketing Strategy and Planning Assignment

Assignment Task

The Marketing Plan – An overview

The written marketing plan clearly states activities that help employees understand and work towards common goals. Writing a marketing plan allows the marketing manager to examine the marketing environment in conjunction with the inner workings of the firm. Synchronizing the external challenges and the internal capabilities of the firm is a considerable challenge. The marketing plan allows the marketing manager to enter the market with an awareness of opportunities and problems. 

Marketing planning involves designing activities relating to marketing objectives and the changing marketing environment. It is the basis for all marketing strategies and decisions. Issues such as product lines, distribution channels, marketing communications and pricing all delineated in the marketing plan. As a written document, it acts as a guidebook for marketing activities. 

Introduction

This section is where you begin with your “actual” Marketing plan with a brief one-page introduction. On this page, which introduces the entire marketing plan, there are usually three paragraphs:

Paragraph

1: Opening interest grabber that uses some interesting factoid–anecdote, statistic, personal experience, etc – to introduce the brand and/or product.

2: Clearly state the broad findings and suggested actions/ideas of the marketing plan.

3: Provides “stage directions” for the Marketing plan itself to pre-organize the reader to comprehend the coming organisation of the Marketing plan.

Internal environmental analysis (business environment)

This section starts by giving the reader insight into the organization, brand and/or product. As part of this section of the Marketing plan, the business mission and vision should be communicated. The industry in which the organization operates should be briefly explained to create an understanding of the position of the organisation as a whole. Where a specific brand/product within the organization will be analyzed as part of the marketing plan, the fit of the product/brand within the organisation should be made clear. The overall goals and objectives of the organization must be understood. This will be important later on to ensure that the objectives of the specific marketing plan as set out in section 2.10 will contribute to the achievement of the overall goals of the organization.

A key purpose of the Internal environmental analysis is to provide “hooks” to which you can connect the rest of the Marketing plan. If done properly this will create a higher level of understanding for the reader about the organisation and industry in which the Marketing plan would aim to add value. 

Marketing Environment

This section of the Marketing plan is still concerned with the internal elements of the organisation but with its main focus on the marketing environment. During this section, the specific product/brand will be analysed further and in more detail. This section must include a critical analysis of the marketing environment in its entirety. Such an analysis will consider, among other things, the 4Ps; Segmentation; Target market and Positioning of the brand/product as is. 

It is important to note that in this section the CURRENT marketing environment is studied and presented. If done successfully this section will start to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation as a result of the critical analyses. These strengths and weaknesses will form part of the SWOT analysis (see section 2.8). SWOT is a summarised version of the internal and external analysis. It is, therefore, crucial that during this discussion section, the information is not just summarised but also discussed and considered as part of a critical analysis of strengths and weaknesses.

External environmental analysis (macro environment)

The next step in the development of a successful marketing plan is to understand the external environment in which the organisation, brand and/or product finds itself. If done successfully this section will assist in identifying potential opportunities and threats. This will be achieved by critically studying Social, Demographic, Economic, Technological, Political, Environmental, Legal factors among others, that pertains to the chosen Brand or product. As a result, this section should not just be a summary of the external environment but a critical analysis in order to assist in the identification of potential opportunities and threats. 

The section should be between 3 to 8 pages long. Chapters in the textbook that can be consulted for this section includes Chapter 2. This section will support section 2.8 SWOT analysis. 

SWOT analysis

The internal and external environmental analysis can be used to assist in compiling the SWOT analysis. This section must be about 1 page long. After the identification of the Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats the potential focus areas for the marketing plan should become clear. If done successfully this section should assist in setting the marketing objectives, strategies and action plans. A more cryptic tabulated format/graphic presentation of the SWOT analysis can be used.

Competitive advantage

In this section of the marketing plan the competitive environment must be analysed. By doing so the potential competitive advantage(s) of the brand/product must be identified. This section should be about 2 to 3 pages long. Chapters in the textbook that can be consulted for this section include Chapter 4. 

Marketing Objectives

In this section, the specific objective(s) for this marketing plan needs to be formulated. It is important to make sure that these objectives will contribute positively and is, therefore, aligned with the overall objectives of the organisation. Avoid setting too many objectives for one marketing plan. All objectives should also be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound) in nature. This section can be half a page long and it is crucial that it is clear how each objective will be measured. 

Marketing strategy, action plans and implementation

This section should show a clear link to section 2.10 Marketing Objectives. For each marketing objective, at least one strategy should be indicated together with the action plans to achieve each strategy. A plan for implementation, including sub-tasks, dates and people responsible for the tasks, should be indicated and explained clearly. This section ultimately illustrates HOW you will go about delivering on the actions that will achieve the objectives. All relevant details proposed in the action plans should be included, for example, designs of websites, advertisements, competitions, billboards, etc. 

The section should be between 4 to 8 pages long. Chapters in the textbook that can be consulted for this section includes Chapter 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 .

Budget

An explanation of the budget must be supplied to indicate the cost of the different actions and items needed to successfully implement the action plans. There should be a clear link between the actions suggested in section 2.11 and the budget presented in this section. To support this section, a table summarizing the budget elements can be used. 

Evaluation and Control

In this section (1 page), the reader should be assured of which controls should be implemented to ensure the sustainable, long-term success of the proposed actions. It is crucial to a successful marketing plan that the changes that will be implemented must be long-lasting in order to achieve the desired results.

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