A marketing plan is a written document that summarises what the marketer has learned about the market place and indicates how the firm plans to reach its marketing objectives.

Content of the Marketing Plan:

1. Executive summary and table of contents

 The marketing plan should open with a brief summary of the main goals and recommendation. The executive summary helps senior management to grasp the plan’s major thrust. A table of contents that outlines the rest of the plan and all the supporting rationale and operational details should follow the executive summary.                                                                           (4 Marks)

2. Situation analysis

This section presents relevant background data on sales, cost, the market, competitors and the various forces in the macro environment and seeks answers to such question as how is the market defined, how big is it and how fast is it growing? What are the relevant trends affecting the markets? What is the product offering and what are the critical issues facing the company?

Pertinent historical information can be included to provide context. All this information is used to carry out a SWOT analysis.                                                                                                                                                                                                 (4 Marks)

3. Marketing Strategy

At this point the product manager defines the mission and marketing and financial objectives, as well as those groups and needs that the market offerings are intended to satisfy. The manager then establishes the product lines competitive positioning, which will inform the game plan to accomplish the plan’s objectives. All this is done with inputs from other divisions/departments of the firm. The marketing strategy should be specific about the branding strategy and customer strategy that will be used.                                                                                                                                                                                                             (4 Marks)

4. Financial projections

The projections include a sales forecast, and expense forecast and a break-even analyses. On the revenue side, the projections show the forecast sales volume by month and product category. On the expense side, the projections show the expected cost of marketing, broken down into finer categories. The break-even analysis shows how many units must be sold monthly to offset the monthly fixed-costs and average per- unit variable cost.                                                                                                    (4 Marks)

5. Implementation controls.

This final section outlines the controls for monitoring and adjusting implementation of the plan. The goals and budget are spelt out for each month or quarter for management to review each period’s results and take corrective action as needed.

Some firms include contingency plans outlining the steps management would take in response to specific environmental developments, such as price wars or strikes.                                                                                                                       (4 Marks)