Marketing Plans
Fail to plan… plan to fail
Marketing plans are vital to marketing success.
They help to focus the mind of companies and
marketing teams on the process of marketing, this is
where we come in. There are many approaches to
marketing plans. We focus upon the key stages of the
plan. It is contained under the popular acronym
AOSTC.
- ANALYSIS.
- OBJECTIVES.
- STRATEGIES.
- TACTICS.
- CONTROLS.
Our approach…
Stage One - Situation Analysis and Marketing
Audit
- Marketing environment.
- Laws and regulations.
- Politics.
- The current state of technology.
- Economic conditions.
- Sociocultural aspects.
- Demand trends.
- Media availability.
- Stakeholder interests.
- Marketing plans and campaigns of
competitors.
- Internal factors such as your own experience
and resource availability.
Stage Two - Set marketing objectives.
- SMART objectives.
- Specific - Be precise about what you are
going to achieve.
- Measurable - Quantify you objectives.
- Achievable - Are you attempting too much?
- Realistic - Do you have the resource to make
the objective happen (men, money, machines,
materials, minutes)?
- Timed - State when you will achieve the
objective.
- If you don't make your objective SMART, it
will be too vague and will not be realised.
Remember that the rest of the plan hinges on the
objective. If it is not correct, the plan may
fail.
 Stage Three - Describe your target market
- Which segment? How will we target the
segment? How should we position within the
segment?
- Why this segment and not a different one?
- Define the segment in terms of demographics
and lifestyle. Show how you intend to 'position'
your product or service within that segment.
Stage Four - Marketing Tactics.
- We convert the strategy into the marketing
mix (also known as the 4Ps). These are your
marketing tactics.
- Price Will you cost plus, skim, match the
competition or penetrate the market?
- Place Will you market direct, use agents or
distributors, etc?
- Product Sold individually, as part of a
bundle, in bulk, etc?
- Promotion Which media will we use? …
sponsorship, radio advertising, sales force,
point-of-sale, etc?
Stage Five - Marketing Controls.
- Remember that there is no planning without
control. Control is vital.
- Start-up costs.
- Monthly budgets.
- Sales figure.
- Market share data.
- Consider the cycle of control.
Finally, we write a short summary which is placed
at the front of the plan. This will help others to
get acquainted with the plan without having to spend
time reading it all.
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