Marketing-MarketingPlanTemplate

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Marketing Plan Template for Principles of Marketing Marketing Plan Template Student Name: Course Name/Number: Contents ● Section I: Company Profile ● Section II: Executive Summary ● Section III: Mission Statement ● Section IV: SWOT Analysis ● Section V: Marketing Goals and Objectives ● Section VI: Market Segmentation ● Section VII: Target Market ● Section VIII: Buyer Personas ● Section IX: Positioning ● Section X: Current Market Situation/Situation Analysis ● Section XI: Marketing Strategy: Product ● Section XII: Marketing Strategy: Pricing ● Section XIII: Marketing Strategy: Promotion ● Section XIV: Marketing Strategy: Distribution ● Section XV: Budgeting ● Section XVI: Action Programs ● Section XVII: Controls to Monitor Progress Section I: Company Profile Company name: Industry code from North American Industry Classification System (NAICS): Headquarters (city, state, country): Year founded: Number of employees: Annual revenue (estimate): Link to website: Link to Yahoo! Finance information page (for public companies): Section II: Executive Summary Note: Delete these highlighted instructions before submitting this portion of your Marketing Plan Template. The Executive Summary is a one- or two-page synopsis of your marketing plan. It gives the reader a relatively brief overview of the plan’s main points. It should be written in paragraph form. Think of it as a five-minute elevator speech in which you introduce your marketing plan to readers who don’t have the time (or inclination) to read the entire plan but want an understanding of its contents. For inspiration, look at these marketing plan examples .

Marketing Plan Template for Principles of Marketing Section III: Mission Statement Note: Delete these highlighted instructions before submitting this portion of your Marketing Plan Template. The mission statement essentially sums up in one to three sentences what the company does, who it serves, and what differentiates it from its competitors. If you have selected a public company, you can likely find its mission statement on its website. There is no need to “reinvent the wheel” here. If, however, you have selected a company that does not have a published mission statement, you will need to write one for your marketing plan. Check out these examples of good mission statements . Section IV: SWOT Analysis Note: Delete these highlighted instructions before submitting this portion of your Marketing Plan Template. Complete the table below with descriptive responses and explanations. You can add lines to the table as needed. Remember that strengths are internal assets or resources (tangible or intangible) that are within the company’s control. These may be patents or trademarks that hinder the company’s competitors in participating in the market, a better cost structure than competitors, a talented and innovative staff, or strong brand recognition. Weaknesses are also factors within the company’s internal environment, but these are hindrances to success. For example, these may be things like difficulty in accessing capital or funding, outdated technology or facilities, high turnover among employees, high levels of debt, or weak brand recognition. Threats are external factors (i.e., not within the company’s control) that can negatively impact the business, such as supply chain problems, new competitors, shifts in market requirements, or impending legislation that may hamper ongoing operations. Opportunities are attractive external factors that can be exploited to achieve its objectives. Opportunities can be moving into a new market segment that offers improved profits, competitors who are experiencing quality or delivery problems, or impending legislation that would favorably affect the business. For more information on conducting a SWOT analysis, look at this Investopedia website.

Marketing Plan Template for Principles of Marketing Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats Section V: Marketing Goals and Objectives Note: Delete these highlighted instructions before submitting this portion of your Marketing Plan Template. This section is about setting ambitious but achievable goals and objectives. Remember that goals and objectives are related but different. Consider a road trip analogy: goals are your destination; objectives are the specifics of how you intend to get there. Examples of goals may be increasing revenues, maximizing profits, becoming the industry leader, reducing your carbon footprint, etc. Objectives describe in specificity what needs to be done to achieve the goals and who is responsible for each activity. Make sure that your goals are SMART (i.e., specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound). This HubSpot article may be helpful for you in developing this section. List three marketing goals that you intend to accomplish within the next three to five years. 1. Marketing Goal #1: 2. Marketing Goal #2: 3. Marketing Goal #3: Now convert each of these marketing goals into specific objectives that are easy to measure and evaluate. These objectives should be shorter, i.e., achievable within one year. Marketing Goal #1 Objectives: ● Objective #1: ● Objective #2:

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Marketing Plan Template for Principles of Marketing Marketing Goal #2 Objectives: ● Objective #1: ● Objective #2: Marketing Goal #3 Objectives: ● Objective #1: ● Objective #2: Section VI: Market Segmentation Note: Delete these highlighted instructions before submitting this portion of your Marketing Plan Template. Market segmentation is the process of dividing a target market into smaller, more precisely defined categories of people or organizations who are likely to respond similarly to a marketing action. This section should address the following in narrative form: ● What specific customer problems or issues does your product or service solve? ● Who are your potential customers? ● Identify the key segments in this market. ● Describe one to three market segments that the product or service serves. ● Identify the market segment(s) upon which the marketing plan focuses and state your reasons for selecting this segment. Be sure to address why you believe this market segment offers growth and profit opportunities for the business. Section VII: Target Market Note: Delete these highlighted instructions before submitting this portion of your Marketing Plan Template. Your target market is that group of customers that has similar needs for your product or service, the money to purchase it, and the willingness and ability to purchase it. You can segment your target market along four key characteristics: demographics (e.g., age, gender, family size, income, ethnicity, etc.), geography (e.g., region, country, climate, city, and population density), psychographics (e.g., social class, lifestyle, personality, etc.), and/or behavior (e.g., purchase occasion, benefits sought, usage frequency, etc.). You may find this website helpful in developing your target market. In this section, you should identify the target market for your product or service and describe why you have selected this target market. You should list all relevant demographic data, as well as lifestyle or behavior information. Section VIII: Buyer Personas Note: Delete these highlighted instructions before submitting this portion of your Marketing Plan Template. Now that you have defined your target market, you need to describe those who will likely purchase your product or service, known as buyer personas. A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your “ideal customer” that helps you understand and relate to the audience to which you want to market your product and/or services. Each persona should be given a name, job or other background details, personality traits, and interests. For example,

Marketing Plan Template for Principles of Marketing if your target market is women in their 20s who live in big cities, like photography, and follow a vegan lifestyle, that persona could look like this: “Arielle is a female in her mid-20s. She lives in Manhattan and spends her weekends exploring the city, taking photographs, and discovering new vegan restaurants to try out with her friends. She has a job at a tech company, is very active on social media, and owns no pets.” You may find it helpful to review this article about buyer personas to help you craft yours. You can also use HubSpot’s Buyer Persona Tools to create personas. In this section, you should identify two or three buyer personas for your product or service and describe each in narrative form. Section IX: Positioning Note: Delete these highlighted instructions before submitting this portion of your Marketing Plan Template. Your positioning strategy defines how you would like your customers to think about your company/product/service. For example, do you want to be perceived as the guaranteed low-cost provider, most reliable, premier brand, etc.? In this section, prepare a position map (sometimes called a perceptual map) for your company/brand. This position map is a diagram that compares your product to the competition. The map is organized on two axes plotting two key product benefits, which aids marketers in identifying market opportunities. The benefits along the two axes could be any number of product features, and here are a few examples to help guide you in developing the map: ● quality vs. price ● functionality vs. price ● healthiness vs. taste ● price vs. performance ● price vs. safety and reliability If you were using quality and price as the determinant attributes, your position map should look something like this:

Marketing Plan Template for Principles of Marketing You may find this website about perceptual maps helpful in developing your position/perceptual map. Section X: Current Market Situation/Situation Analysis Note: Delete these highlighted instructions before submitting this portion of your Marketing Plan Template. This section of your marketing plan should provide the reader with a clear description of the current state of the marketplace, including your target market and the competitive environment. It should include a synopsis of the research into and analysis of your target market, your competitors, challenges in the marketplace, and the company’s competitive differentiators. Some of the key items to address in the plan are as follows: a. Market Description . This isn’t intended to be a comprehensive list, but this section should address things like statistics about the size of your target market, whether it is growing, shrinking, or staying the same, if it is changing, and why it is changing. b. Product Review . The product review section of your marketing plan summarizes the main features of your company’s products, including information about sales, price, and gross margins. c. Competitive Analysis . This section should include a discussion of your top competitors and how they fare in the marketplace vis-à-vis your company’s products and/or services. This typically involves researching major competitors to glean insights into their products or services, sales, marketing tactics, product quality, pricing, market share, and distribution. Section XI: Marketing Strategy: Product Note: Delete these highlighted instructions before submitting this portion of your Marketing Plan Template. In this section of your marketing plan, briefly describe your company/brand and

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Marketing Plan Template for Principles of Marketing address the questions below in narrative form. You may also find this article about product strategy helpful in developing this section of your marketing plan. ● This section of the marketing plan is the “road map” that you’ll use to develop your product(s) or features(s), including all tasks needed to achieve the objectives set forth in the marketing plan. The product strategy outlines how the product(s) or service(s) will benefit the business, how it will solve customer problems or address customer needs, and the impact that it will make on customers and the business. You will want to address questions regarding the product life cycle and in which stage of the life cycle is the product or service currently. ● How well does the product or service deliver on what the target market values or needs? ● Set forth any recommendations you have for improving the product or service to better fit your target market’s values and needs. Describe any improvements to the product or service that would help the company’s offering compete more effectively. Section XII: Marketing Strategy: Pricing Note: Delete these highlighted instructions before submitting this portion of your Marketing Plan Template. This section of your marketing plan should address at a minimum the following questions in narrative form regarding the pricing strategy of your company/brand/offering. You may also find it helpful to review this website for additional information about pricing strategy . ● How is your product or service priced today? ● How does this pricing compare to competitors? ● How sensitive are customers in your target market to changes in price? ● Which approach to pricing is optimum for your product or service (e.g., competition- based pricing, cost-plus pricing, dynamic pricing, penetration pricing, price skimming, etc.)? Section XIII: Marketing Strategy: Promotion Note: Delete these highlighted instructions before submitting this portion of your Marketing Plan Template. Your promotion strategy sets forth the tactics you intend to implement in your marketing plan in order to increase demand for your product(s) or service(s). List the methods you will use to gain awareness and interest in your product from those in your target audience. Methods of reaching potential consumers abound—company websites, social media networks, trade shows, radio/television/website advertising. You’ll want to list the advantages and disadvantages of each method and indicate why and how much it will cost to employ the method(s) you have selected. Be sure to address promotion strategies such as advertising and public relations.

Marketing Plan Template for Principles of Marketing Section XIV: Marketing Strategy: Distribution Note: Delete these highlighted instructions before submitting this portion of your Marketing Plan Template. Your distribution strategy describes how customers in your target market will purchase from you. Will they buy directly from your website, from a storefront, or through distributors or retailers? What are the costs involved in this type of distribution, and why do you believe your distribution strategy will enable you to get the right product into the hands of the right consumer at the right time? This section of your marketing plan should address at a minimum the following in narrative form regarding the distribution strategy of your company/brand/offering. You may also find it helpful to review this article about distribution strategy for additional information. ● What is your current distribution strategy (i.e., exclusive, selective, intensive)? ● Will customers buy directly from your website, from a storefront, or through distributors or retailers? ● What costs are involved in this type of distribution? ● Why do you believe this distribution strategy will enable you to effectively get your product to the customer? ● In which geographical areas will your offering be available? Section XV: Budget Note: Delete these highlighted instructions before submitting this portion of your Marketing Plan Template. Using the table below, list the marketing budget and resources required to execute your marketing campaign. You will want to estimate costs such as labor, materials, online media tools or development, advertising, public relations services, etc. You may add additional rows to the table as needed. You may find this article about creating a marketing plan budget helpful in developing this section. Item Purpose Cost Estimate Section XVI: Action Programs Note: Delete these highlighted instructions before submitting this portion of your Marketing Plan Template. The marketing strategies outlined in the plan should now be translated into specific action programs that indicate what is to be done, when it is to be done, by whom it will be done, and the cost involved. The action program should list when activities will be started, reviewed, and completed. Think of this section as your to-do list and use the table below to outline those activities. The actions to be taken should be listed in the order they need to take place as well as the due date so that the plan is successful. You can make the assumption that

Marketing Plan Template for Principles of Marketing the marketing campaign must be completed within 6-12 months for the purposes of setting due dates. You may add additional rows to the table as needed. Action Item Purpose Due Date Section XVII: Controls to Monitor Progress Note: Delete these highlighted instructions before submitting this portion of your Marketing Plan Template. This section will outline the control methods that will be utilized to monitor the action programs outlined in the plan. You may wish to review the section of this textbook on marketing metrics to determine which metrics you will use. You may find this article about marketing plan controls helpful in developing this section of your marketing plan.

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Marketing Plan Template for Principles of Marketing This file is copyright 2023, Rice University. All Rights Reserved. This OpenStax ancillary resource is © Rice University under a CC-BY 4.0 International license; it may be reproduced or modified but must be attributed to OpenStax, Rice University and any changes must be noted.

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