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Marketing

Everyone knows that creating a marketing plan is an important element to the overall success of a company or a new product introduction. But what exactly is a marketing plan and what elements should a comprehensive plan include? Here is an outline for a basic marketing plan for a publishing company.

Section I- Background
Discussion of the recent history of the company, its products and services, staffing etc. Writing this section gives you an historic look at where you've been and what initiatives have been established during the last few years. Some examples of major events would include the hiring of a sales staff, the establishment of a new distribution system, major increase in marketing budget, major new product introductions, newly established joint ventures, creation of company web site, etc.

Section II - Revenue History and Forecast
Chart showing revenues for past 5 years and 2 year projections into the future. Segment by market niche if possible. Add marketing expenditures, expenditures as a percentage of gross sales and pre-tax company profit. This section will give you a good understanding of your company's past performance as it relates to your marketing investments. This section should be as detailed as possible because as you work with the numbers, various strategies will be suggested for the future. An example of this would be the realization that sales to a particular market are growing at a faster rate than other markets and yet has received very little marketing investment. Therefore, a strategy might be to increase the marketing investment in this segment.

Section III- Strategic Issues
Discussion of current business environment, internal and external issues which are or could affect next year's business. This section covers important factors which place limits on the marketing plan or detail opportunities which should be exploited in the coming year -a major new product introduction, new competitor, industry consolidation or...