Complete Marketing Plan

1. The Challenge. This section should contain a brief description of the product(s)
and/or product line(s) that your company offers. With each description, include goals
that you want to set for each product and product line (sales figures, strategic and
company-wide goals, etc.). Keep the number and complexity of your goals at a
maximum of three per product/product line, and remember that they need to be
concise, measurable, and moderately easy to achieve.
2. Situation Analysis. This section contains a snapshot of your company, your
customer base, and your market at large. It should be divided into six subsections:

Company Analysis:
Long and Short-Term Company-wide goals.
The focus of your company (should fall directly in line with your mission
and vision statements).
o
Analysis of the culture of your company (is your company a fast-paced
shark tank, or a laid-back ping-pong table environment?).
o
Strengths of your company.
o
Weaknesses of your company.
o
Your companys estimated market share.
Customer Analysis:
o
Estimate size of your customer base (i.e. how many people could
potentially purchase any of your products. Anyone is not an answer).
o
Key Demographics of your customer base (age, social class, gender).
o
Value drivers (what about your products and/or services provides true
value to your customer base?).
Competitor Analysis:
o
Market Position (are your competitors fully invested in the market, or do
they only play in specific segments? Are they big or small?).
o
Strengths.
o
Weaknesses.
o
Market shares.
Collaborators: People and companies that are key to continuing what you do.
o
Subsidiaries, joint ventures, distributors, suppliers, etc.
Climate: PEST Analysis.
o
Political and legal environment (are there any specific regulations or laws
governing your products?).
o
Economic environment.
o
Social and cultural environment.
o
Technological environment (are cutting-edge techs integral to your
products? are there any projected updates?).
SWOT Analysis (FODA):
o
Your companys internal strengths (what does your unique structure
and/or unique employee team help you be the best at?).
o
Your companys internal weaknesses (in what areas do your unique
structure and/or unique employee team hold you back?).
o
External opportunities for your company (whats out there that you could
easily take advantage of for your betterment?).
o
External threats to your company (whats out there that can potentially
destroy your business if youre not careful?).
o
o

3. Market Segmentation:

Each market has its own different segments. Understanding the relevant
segments for your product(s) in your market is important, for they allow you to
adjust your marketing mix (the Four Ps discussed lower) to better adapt to the
different needs of each segment.

Segments should be Evaluated by:

o
Criteria Size: The market must be large enough to justify segmenting. If
the market is small, it may make it smaller.
o
Difference: Measurable differences must exist between segments.
o
Money: Anticipated profits must exceed the costs of additional
marketing plans and other changes.
o
Accessible: Each segment must be accessible to your team and the
segment must be able to receive your marketing messages
o
Focus on different benefits: Different segments must need different
benefits.

Inside your marketing plan, listing your segments should follow a clear and
predictable form, like the one listed below:

Name of the chosen segment :

o
Description

Demographics: Breakdown by any combination: age, gender,

income, education, ethnicity, marital status, education, household (or
business), size, length of residence, type of residence or even
profession/Occupation. An example is Firefox who sell coolest
things, aimed at younger male audience. Though, Moshi Monsters
however is targeted to parents with fun, safe and educational space
for younger audience.

Psychographics: This refers to personality and emotions based

on behaviour, linked to purchase choices, including attitudes,
lifestyle, hobbies, risk aversion, personality and leadership traits.
magazines read and TV.

Lifestyle:This refers to Hobbies, recreational pursuits,

entertainment, vacations, and other non-work time pursuits.
Companies such as on and off-line magazine will target those with
specific hobbies i.e. FourFourTwo for football fans.

Belief and Values: Refers to Religious, political, nationalistic and

cultural beliefs and values. The Islamic Bank of Britain offers Sharia
compliant banking which meets specific religious requirements.

Life Stages: Life Stages is the Chronological benchmarking of

peoples lives at different stages. An example is Saga holidays which
are only available for people aged 50+. They claim a large enough
segment to focus on this life stage.

Geography: Drill down by Country, region, area, metropolitan or

rural location, population density or even climate. An example is
Neiman Marcus, the upmarket department store chain in the USA
now delivers to the UK.

Behaviour: Refers to the nature of the purchase, brand loyalty,

usage level, benefits sought, distribution channels used, reaction to
marketing factors. In a B2B environment, the benefits sought are
often about how soon can it be delivered? which includes the last
minute segment the planning in advance segment. An example is
Parcelmonkey.co.uk who offer same day, next day and international
parcel deliveries.

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Benefit: Benefit is the use and satisfaction gained by the

consumer. Smythson Stationary offer similar products to other
stationery companies, but their clients want the benefit of their
signature packaging: tissue-lined Nile Blue boxes and tied with navy
ribbon!

Percent of your overall sales this segment accounts for.

What exactly, this segment wants and needs.
How this segment uses your product.
What sort of support this segment needs.
The best ways to advertise to and communicate with this segment.
The price sensitivity of this segment (are they largely price elastic or
price inelastic?).

4. Alternative Marketing Strategies (OPCIONAL): Write down details about any

alternatives that you and your team considered before arriving at your current strategy.
These may include eliminating a particular product or line, changing the price point of a
product or line, etc.

5. Selected Marketing Strategy: Explain the strategy that you and your team have
developed and agreed upon. Why did you choose this strategy? Why do you feel that
its the best possible strategy for the near future? Once thats on paper, put your Four
Ps down for each product. Each product should have its own Four Ps you can
follow the format below:

Product
o
Branding/Brand Name.
o
Intended quality of the product (is it a $1 plastic toy firetruck, or a $30
metal one with real flashing lights and a siren?).
o
Scope of the product line.
o
Warranty.
o
Packaging.

Price
o
List price.

o
Discounts.
o
Bundling.
o
Payment terms.
o
Leasing options (if applicable).
Place (Distribution)
o
Distribution channels (do you sell this product yourself, ship it to retailers
or warehouses, etc).
o
Channel Motivations (what sort of margins should your distributors
expect, if applicable?).
o
Criteria for evaluating your distributors.
o
Locations.
Promotion (Comunicacion)
o
Advertising (what types? how much of each type? what type of
advertising channels TV, print, internet, etc. do you plan to use?).
o
Public Relations.
o
Promotional programs.
o
Budget, including your break-even point.
o
Projected results of this promotional program (impact to customer
loyalty, new customer acquisition, etc.).

6. Value Proposition (Propuesta de Valor)

7. Positioning

Start by looking not at the product but at the position in the market that you
wish to occupy, in relation to competition

Think about how the brand will answer the main consumer questions
o
What will it do for me that others will not?
o
Why should I believe you?

Try to keep it short and make every word count and be as specific as possible
o
Vagueness opens the way to confused executions

Keep the positioning up-do-date

o statement
Give as careful consideration to change as you did to the original

Look for a Key Insight!

o
An Accepted Consumer Belief
The 3Cs of Positioning

Be Crystal clear

Be Consumer-based
o
Be relevant and credible to the consumer
o
Write in consumer language and from consumers view point

Be Competitive
o
Be distinctive
o
Focus on building brand elements into powerful discriminator
o
Be persuasive
o
Be sustainable
8. Insight
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The one to use is the one that offers to be the source of greatest competitive
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No need for insight to change if you have identified the higher-order needs of
consumers

Keep asking why to find the real need behind the obvious insight
Remember, the insight is always the basis for a brands positioning

How to find a key insight?

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9 Golden Rles for Insights

Revealing: the insight uncovers a new or hidden consumer aspiration.

Unrealised: the insight reflects a tension from an unfulfilled aspiration.

Important: the insight pertains to something the consumer really cares about

Engaging: the insight is something the consumer can relate to firsthand

Familiar: the insight relates to a situation that occurs in everyday life

Frequent: the insight reflects a situation that occurs often

Credible: the insight is something the consumer believes has a possible

solution

Inspiring: the insight has the power to change a consumers mind and
behaviou

Consistent: the insight fits with the brand strategy

9. Short and Long-Term Projections. This section should include forecasts of
revenues and expenses, your break-even analysis, and any changes or adjustments
that you predict youll need to make in the future.

Tips and examples

Top 5 21st Century marketing Strtategies

These marketing campaigns capture the imaginations of a generation and the unique
feel of a particular time, and they speak to their audience in a way few other marketing
campaigns ever do. They are, in short, brilliant. The 20th century saw its fair share of
memorable marketing campaigns. The 21st century is shaping up to be no different.
Here are the 5 most effective marketing pitches of the 21st century so far.
1. The Whopper Sacrifice Campaign
This is a classic study in how to create an effective marketing strategy. It's also a good
lesson in how to use an app for marketing. Launched in 2009, the concept was simple:
Use the Burger King Sacrifice app to un-friend 10 people on Facebook, and you get a
coupon for a free Whopper. The catch was that, unlike a regular Facebook un-friend,
which is totally anonymous and the person you un-friend never knows you did it, the
Burger King app would actually send a message to the person you un-friended, letting
them know that you did it and why. The campaign only lasted 10 days until Facebook
shut it down due to privacy violations. However, 20,000 people deleted 10 friends for a
free Whopper during that time, proving that a free Whopper is more important than
friendship to a lot of people out there!
2. The Old Spice "Man You Can Smell" Campaign
People are still talking about this marketing strategy, which was first seen in a 2010
Super Bowl ad. It showed how the most successful marketing pitches use intrigue,
humor, and sometimes sex appeal to draw in their audience. The ad was so popular
that the character appeared in 180 more commercials and online videos, and even
gained a celebrity following led by such big names as Ellen DeGeneres and Demi

Moore. It also resulted in a 107 percent increase in Old Spice products within the first
30 days after the launch of the campaign.
3. The True Blood Debut Campaign
Now about to enter its seventh and final season, HBO's True Blood is one of its most
successful programs ever. This is due in no small part to its integrated marketing plan,
which was nothing short of genius. The way HBO marketed the first season was like
nothing ever done with a television program previously. The network used the actual
mail (not just e-mail) to send horror bloggers vials of a strange red liquid accompanied
by messages written in a supposedly dead language (it was actually a made-up
language). Once bloggers decoded the language, it led them to a website that was
supposed to be for "vampires only." The site was called BloodCopy. It had videos of
"genuine" vampires talking about whether or not they should reveal their existence to
the human public.

This website was accompanied by posters placed in metropolitan areas that advertised
a drink called True Blood and a website where you could buy it. The True Blood website
featured ads that supported equal rights for vampires. None of it ever mentioned the
TV show. This ad campaign created a backstory to the beverage that was the
namesake of the show and generated curiosity and buzz among potential viewers who
tuned in in droves for the premiere.
4. The Elf Yourself Campaign
It's a simple concept. You upload pictures of you and your friends and family onto a
website, and the website puts their faces on dancing animated elves. You see a lot of
that kind of thing nowadays, and there's even a whole website called JibJab devoted to
just that kind of thing. However, in 2006, it was a revolutionary concept. It essentially
allowed people to star in their "own" commercial. The remarkable thing is that the
campaign is still going all these years later. The original video has had over six billion
shares and people are still using it to create dancing elves out of themselves and their
loved ones.
5. The 2008 Presidential Campaign
Barack Obama demonstrated the importance of a social media strategy in politics for
the first time in 2008 when he dominated YouTube and Facebook with videos of himself
in action, behind the scenes photos, and calls to action to his followers, all punctuated
by the catching slogan, "Yes, We Can!" It's still a catchphrase today, and it helped him
win two terms as president. What could be more successful than that in a marketing
campaign? This campaign was social marketing at its best.