The marketing plan handbook
Marketing planning: new place, new possibilities
Marketing planning today
A good product, brand, commercial, price, website is simply not good enough today. Customers have
better information, more choices and more purchasing power than at any time in the past.
Customers are getting involved in marketing by suggesting products or creating brand-related
material that are meaningful to them. Another trend is the public´s demand for transparency,
insisting that organizations be open and honest about their decisions.
Market and value
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering,
and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large. This
emphasizes the importance of value, the difference between the perceived benefits a customer
receives and the perceived total price the customer pays.
Marketing covers everything the company is and does to consistently provide competitively-superior
value in order to win customers and earn their ongoing loyalty.
The purpose of marketing planning
Marketing planning is the structured process of determining how to provide value to customers, the
organization, and key stakeholders by researching and analyzing the current situation, including
markets and customers; developing and documenting marketing´s objectives, strategies and
programs; and implementing, evaluating and controlling marketing activities to achieve the
objectives. The outcome of this process is the marketing plan.
1. Research and
analyze the current
situation
Marketing plan:
6. plan metrics and - Provide 2. understand the
implementation value markets and
control customers
- Build
relations
hips
3. plan
4. plan direction,
segmentation,
objectives,
targeting,
marketing support
positioning
Contents of a marketing plan
Section Description
Executive summary Reviews the plan´s highlights and objectives.