Easy to say, but difficult to do. In practice, developing a marketing plan is somewhat different from simply working through each section of it. This is an independent rather voluminous project in the work of the marketer, which can be written not one week or even a month. The process of its preparation can be given to a specialist not at the first run, it stretches over time and includes several stages. So, how to make a marketing plan in terms of real business?
Stage 1: Accumulation of information and data on external and internal environment of the company. This research process may not necessarily be pronounced and look like a work in a certain period of time, having a beginning and an end. The stage can occur in the background of the normal work process and include the following areas:
Stage 2: Formulation of Strategic Settings. At this stage, as a result of the analysis the strategic priority and the central problem of the company are determined, on the basis of which the target of the marketing plan is formulated, the strategy is selected and the key approaches to achieve the target result within the specified period of time are developed. The completion of this part of the work on the marketing plan can be considered as the coordination of the strategic settings with the management of the company.
Stage 3: Planning. This is one of the most time-consuming stages, especially in the case of a widely diversified portfolio of the company’s market offers. Its complexity consists in the fact, that it is necessary to consider a set of several variants of solutions, calculate the result of implementation of each, compare the existing alternatives and choose the most effective for further implementation. This is due to the fact that the budget limits are most often determined and come down from the top management, which are rarely in excess. Therefore, the task of the marketer is to plan his activities so as to ensure the implementation of the target parameters, even in spite of the budget deficit.
Step 4: Financial Planning. Although the overall budget can be determined in advance, the marketer needs to plan all expenses in detail. During this stage, he should create a table with the amounts of costs and estimated periods, relating them to what kind of marketing activities they belong to.
Step 5: Determine the criteria for adjusting the marketing plan. At this step the marketer should determine parameters to monitor, periodicity of their measurement, acceptable deviation from target values and actions in case of significant difference between actual and planned figures.
Step 6. defense of the marketing plan. Marketing specialist should defend the work done on planning to the company’s management. The marketing plan can be considered completed and ready for execution only if it is accepted without objections from the top management. Otherwise, it needs to be revised to eliminate the comments received.
