Targeting

Marketing Plan (Guide to the Final Project)

A marketing plan assists you to integrate your total marketing effort. It ensures a systematic approach to developing products and services to meet and satisfy your customers’ needs. A good marketing plan helps you identify your customers and competitors and develop a strategy to make your business stand out. When you are writing a marketing plan, you need to be clear about your objectives and how you'll achieve them. A good marketing plan sets clear, realistic and measurable objectives, includes deadlines, provides a budget and allocates responsibilities. A plan can consist of these elements:

 analysis of your current market

 your business objectives

 key strategies

 steps to achieving your objectives

 proposed budget

 timing

Remember that your marketing plan should remain an ongoing process throughout the life of your business. Marketing planning is an ongoing business activity. As your business changes many of the strategies in your plan will need to evolve to ensure your business is still heading in the right direction. Keeping your plan up to date can help you focus on where you are heading and ensure you are ready when you need it again.

This guide will help you prepare your final project for this course. Each week, you will submit one component of your marketing plan, and then edit them as you prepare the final product in Week 8.

Follow the template as you write your Marketing Plan. This document provides some details

that will explain what should be contained in the actual Marketing Plan.

Title Page

Marketing Plan Summary Your marketing summary should be no longer than a page and should focus on why your business is going to be successful.

The Business

Business Overview What does the business do/sell? Where it is located? How long has it been operating?

Products/Services What products/services are you selling? What is the anticipated demand for your products/services? These answers should briefly summarise your answers under the main products/services section.

Vision Statement The vision statement briefly outlines your future plan for the business. It should state clearly what your overall goals for the business are. To keep it brief you may prefer to use dot points in your summary.

Goals/Objectives What are your short and long term goals? What activities will you undertake to meet them?

Mission Statement What is your business' mission statement (i.e. how will you achieve your vision)?

The Market

Target Market Who are you selling to? Why would they buy your products/services over others? This answer should briefly summarise your answers under the main Market section.

Marketing Strategy How do you plan to enter the market? How do you intend to attract customers? How and why will this work?

The Finances

The Finances Briefly outline your sales forecast. How much money will you need up-front? Where will you obtain these funds? What portion will you be seeking from other sources? How much of your own money are you contributing towards the business? Your answers can be quite brief in the summary. They should give the reader a quick idea of your current financial position. Where you are heading financially and how much you need to get there.

S.W.O.T. analysis

S.W.O.T. Analysis List each of your businesses Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities or Threats (S.W.O.T) For example: Strengths: (e.g. experience in the industry). Weakness: (e.g. location of your business). Opportunity: (e.g. new export opportunity available). Threat: (e.g. new competitor entering the market).

Product/Services

Market Position Where do your products/services fit in the market? Are they high-end, competitive or a low-cost alternative to the products/services offered by your competitors? How does this compare to your competitors?

Unique Selling Position How will your products/services succeed in the market where others may have failed? What gives your products/services a distinctive edge?

Anticipated Demand What is the anticipated quantity of products/services your customers are likely to purchase? For example, how much will an individual customer buy in 6 months or 12 months?

Pricing Strategy Do you have a particular pricing strategy? Why have you chosen this strategy? To help you develop your pricing strategy, you could refer to your customer research, market position, anticipated demand and costs/expenses to get an idea. Whatever strategy you use when setting your price, you will also need to adhere to any relevant fair trading legislation or codes of conduct.

Value to Customer How do your customers value your products/services? Are they a necessity, luxury or something in between?

Growth Potential What is the anticipated percentage growth of the product in the future? What will drive this growth? To help you determine this growth potential, you could refer to your region/industry research to get an idea of any industry/regional growth that could affect your business in a positive way. You could also look up any social trends that may have a positive effect on your business.

Your Customers/Clients

Customer Demographics

Define who your target customers are and how they behave. You can include age, gender, social status, education and attitudes. What are their lifestyles, activities, values, needs, interests or opinions? Where are they located?

Key Customers Identify your key customers. (These can be large consumers of your products or individuals whose satisfaction is key to the success of your business.) How will you target your products/service to them? How will you deliver your product/service to them?

Customer Management How will you maintain a good relationship with your customers? What techniques will you use? How will you keep your customers coming back? Have you introduced customer service standards? Do you follow any particular code of practice?

Your Competitors

Your Competitors How do you rate against your competitors? How can your business improve on what they offer?

Market Research What statistical research have you completed to help you analyse your market? Did you use a survey/questionnaire? If so, you may like to attach a copy of your survey/questionnaire to the back of this plan.

Market Targets Outline your planned sales targets. These targets need to be realistic and achievable. What quantity of your products/services do you plan to sell in a planned timeframe? Are they monthly or yearly targets? For example, you may set yourself a goal of selling 1,000 products in 12 months.

Environmental/Industry Analysis

Detail the results of the market research you have performed. Is the area experiencing population growth? Are there long-term employers in the area? Is the region's economy stable? Are there seasonal variations? What is the size of the market? What recent trends have emerged in the market? What growth potential is available and where do you fit in? How will the market/customers change when you enter the market? What external factors will affect your customers?

Marketing Strategy What is your overall marketing strategy? What steps or activities will you undertake to achieve your goals/objectives? For each marketing activity/milestone: Marketing activity/milestone: Print advertising, online advertising, mail-out, giveaway, media release, event, website, blog/social media, public relations, branding and artwork, or publications and catalogues. Success indicator: What indicator/ measurement result will need to be met before this activity is considered a success?

Advertising & Sales

Price What price have you determined for your products/services? Does this price take into account all your costs including personal, start-up, operational, cash flow and working capital? Have you also allocated a profit margin in your costing? What price will your target market bear? Do your prices take into account any seasonal variation to your suppliers’ costs?

Expected Sales What are your expected sales? When do you hope to achieve these figures? Are there seasonal influences?

Monitoring/Measurement Activities

Monitoring/Measurement Activities

Marketing activity: Print advertising, online advertising, mail- out, giveaway, media release, event, website, blog/social networking, public relations, branding and artwork, or publications and catalogues. Monitoring methods: What tools did you use to measure/monitor the impact of your marketing activities? Review outcomes: What were the results for the promotional period? What were your sales/profit figures? How many new/repeat customers did you receive? How many visitors to your website?

Advertising and Promotional Strategy

What is the promotion/advertising type being used (e.g. Print media advertising, online advertising, SMS, mail-out, giveaway, media release, social media campaign or event)? Why have you decided to use this promotion/advertising type? How and when will you use it? What is your strategy behind this? Who will upkeep your social media presence? How do you expect it will improve your business success? What is the cost of each planned activity? When do you expect to complete each activity?

Social Media Strategy What do you want to achieve/communicate (brand awareness, online sales etc.)? What social media tools do your customers use (e.g. Blogs, Twitter, Facebook etc.)? What strategies can you use to network and communicate effectively with these customers? Who will upkeep your social media presence? Do you have internal staff or would you need to engage an external organisation?

Sales Strategy What sales techniques do you use? What are your strategies behind these techniques? How is this different/better than your competitors?

Sales and Distribution Channels

What channel will you be using (e.g. Shopfront, internet, direct mail, export or wholesale)? Why have you decided to use this channel type? How and when will you use it? What is the strategy behind using this channel type for this particular product/service?