There are so many components to a business plan no matter what industry you work in. In my opinion all of those components matter, but for the most part its the marketing plan and strategy the keep the business afloat and customers returning. Overall, the objective of a marketing plan is is to make a profit from marketing strategies, therefore; your objectives are financially driven by customer equity (the expected earnings stream of your current and prosective customers). In my last post, I gave you 6 major components of your marketing plan. In this post I will disect each section. Those six are: Executive summary, Situation analysis, Marketing Plan Objectives, Differentiation and Positioning, Marketing Strategy, and finally Implementation and Control.

An Executive Summary provides an overview of key initiatives from assessments, analysis, and and marketing strategy recommendations. Try not to summarize everything in this section, but show it address the needs in the customer market and how it address your competitors.

The Situation Analysis section provides information in 3rd person. In other words, the environment facing your organization, which is an analysis of your company, customers, competitors, and external market (sub-components). Do not analyze these topics in isolation, but in whole, by summarizing these sub-components into a SWOT Analysis. You can also consider this as the marketing strategy planner.

Your MPO or Marketing Plan Objectives are created from the Situation Analysis. This section refers to the precise objectives that this plan is being created to achieve. Your objectives should be S.M.A.R.T= S-specific objectives should specify exactly what should be achieved. M– measurable-there should be a way to measure success. A-achievable-objectives should be something the should be achieved. R-realistic- your objectives should be realistic given the resources available. T– time bound- there should be a specific time where your objectives should be achieved.

DAPP or Differentiation And Positioning Point. Your Differentiation means that your marketing mix is more distinct from and better than what is available from your competitor. This means you must often fine-tune all elements of your marketing mix to the distinctive needs of your target market. Differentiation makes you unique and more obvious to your target market when there is a consistent integrated theme across the 4P’s decision areas. Target consumers will think of your product or service as is in a unique position to meet their needs. Positioning refers to how your potential and current customers think of about proposed or present brands in the market. You need to know what your customers think about your products or services against your competitors. Without this it is hard to differentiate.

The Marketing Strategy is the “big picture” what your business will do in your market. You will need 1, a target market, your fairly group of customers you want to appeal to, and (2) a marketing mix, the controllable variables your company puts together to satisfy this target group.

Finally, IOC or Implementation and Control is after your marketing plan is developed and where you need to know what needs to be done to put the Marketing Plan into operation. Implementation requires cross-funtional coordination of human resources, production capacity, and a marketing information system. Control is the feedback that helps you learn how ongoing plans are working and how to plan for the future. Therefore, you need your marketing and information systems to keep track of sales and cost details day-by-day and week-by-week. And you need to develop systems for gathering information to improve your strategy or implement your marketing plan from another angle.

So, there you have it. This is the basis for putting your marketing plan together, very essential when drafing your business plan. This is an overall view of your plan, which goes more in depth. If you have any questions, please comment. If you like to have a free consultation or you like to have customized plan developed for you, then you can give me a call at 609-232-2568 or email me at james@s-p-e-c-s.com.

Happy Marketing!