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How to create a marketing plan. Business marketing plan. An example of a marketing plan for business development. Download business plan for business

SOSTAC is a widely used tool for marketing and business planning. It is among the most popular marketing models that have stood the test of time.

In this article, you will learn how to develop a marketing plan to promote a company using the SOSTAC model.

Created back in the 1990s by author and speaker PR Smith, the SOSTAC® framework has earned a good reputation among authorities. It is used as a basis by business representatives of various sizes, including start-up entrepreneurs or international organizations around the world.

The SOSTAC marketing plan addresses six key areas, namely:

Stage 1. Analysis of the current situation

The first stage of marketing planning is to analyze the current situation. This is an overview of your project - who you are, what you do and how your online sales happen. External and internal factors that impact your business.

This section is intended to paint a general picture of your project. To do this, consider the following questions:

• Who are your clients today (make a portrait of your target audience and their avatars).
• : What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities or threats to the entire organization?
• Conduct a competitor analysis. Who are your competitors? How do they create competition (eg price, product, customer service, reputation)? What are your key differentiators?
• Make a list of all the customer acquisition channels you use and how successful each one is for your organization. What works well and what doesn't?

Below we will take a closer look at an example of target audience analysis.

The target audience

This section should analyze who your target audience is. This is important to clearly represent your existing customers and understand who you are actually targeting. If you work in competitive environment, think about what your special offer() if you have it?

Customer personalization helps you see your existing customers and understand their motivations for purchasing. Creation will also help you overcome barriers to new clients. To create a series of avatars, collate and analyze your existing CRM system data and order history, and then build a profile picture of your existing customers based on that.

For online trading, information you may want to consider from your CRM system data may include:

• Male/female gender - what is the percentage?
• Age profile - what is the average age and is there scope for developing age group categories?
• Location/Address Data - The percentage of customers living in and outside your region.
• Purchase history. Create a clearer picture of purchase history, average order, brand preference trends, and products ordered by size, for example.
• Payment method for the purchase (for example, credit or debit card upon receipt).
• The route taken for the purchase. There were purchases through search engine, email newsletter, affiliate site, contextual advertising?
• Frequency. How often are purchases made?

Based on these data, we move on to the second stage. We need to turn this data into more personal information that can be relevant to your organization.

Creating Customer Avatars

For example, we have collected data about the target audience and now consider two avatars for a fictitious online t-shirt store:

Avatar A - Sergey:

Sergey is a professional, he is 28 years old, he rents an apartment in Moscow, he is a bachelor with a high level of income. He is very passionate about football. He loves to show his support for the football club by purchasing a new fan's shirt from the online store every year.

It is more convenient for Sergei to place orders online and communicate using social networks, in which he follows latest news in the world of football and launches of football products. Since the World Cup provides an opportunity to introduce a collection of international fans' shirts, this allows Company X to contact Sergey and offer him an international fan's shirt in addition to his favorite club shirt.

Scenario for interaction of avatar A with an online store:

Sergei read last news about the World Cup on your favorite football blog. He noticed that the blog was offering an exclusive promotion - you can order any World Cup T-shirt from company X and save 10% by following the link to www.vash-magazin.ru/worldcup. Sergey follows the link and ends up on the website of company X, which provides him with a selection of T-shirts available to order with an exclusive 10% discount. He selects a T-shirt in his size and completes the purchase using his credit card.

Avatar B - Katya:

Katya is a professional, she is 33 years old, she is in a relationship. Katya loves to keep up with the latest fashion trends, and it is convenient for her to place orders in her favorite online store. Her boyfriend - big fan football, he loves to keep up with football fashion and buy new fan T-shirts with the image of his favorite team. Katya may face the hype surrounding the World Cup. This will encourage her to shop at Company X for her boyfriend. She will purchase merchandise featuring the team they will be supporting during the tournament.

Scenario of interaction between avatar B and an online store:

Katya received email from one of her preferred online stores. This letter includes a marketing promotion for Company X - an advertisement offering to order a World Cup T-shirt using a promotional code. She decides that it will become a great gift for her boyfriend and goes to the site www.vash-magazin.ru. She's not sure which team T-shirt she should order, so she calls customer service. She explains her situation to the sales consultant and places her order for the fan's T-shirt over the phone.

In this way, you represent your clients in detail and can prepare appropriate advertising campaigns. To begin with, you can create 2-3 customer avatars for each group of similar products.

Stage 2. Setting goals

The second stage of your marketing plan system should focus on your goal. Once you have defined your goal, it is important to make it as precise and unambiguous as possible. To do this, the goal must meet the following points:

• Specificity. What specific indicator are you planning to work on within the given goal?
• Measurability. How do you plan to measure effectiveness? Will it be monitored through quantitative or qualitative analysis, for example?
• Reachability. Can you, in principle, achieve such a goal in the foreseeable future?
• Relevant and realistic. In this case, when developing a marketing plan, we mean the possibility of achieving this goal precisely with marketing tools, and not with development, for example.
• Time limit. Have you set a specific time period for the task to be completed?

For example, if we return to our fictitious online t-shirt store, we can create the following goals:

• Goal 1. Engagement: Increase the number of existing customers served through the online store by 50% by July 2017.
• Goal 2. Attraction: increase brand awareness in the period from April 2017 to July 2017, measure the parameter through Google analytics.
• Goal 3: Engagement: Increase email frequency from one email per quarter to one email per week from May 2017 to July 2017.

Stage 3. Strategies for achieving goals

Strategy talks about how you are going to achieve your goals. This is a general idea of ​​achieving goals.

Using an online T-shirt store as an example, we will determine what questions need to be answered in the strategy block of your marketing plan.

Goal 1 is to increase brand awareness between April 2017 and July 2017, measured through Google analytics.

It is necessary to increase the brand presence in certain online channels that target the audience of football fans.

• What is the most cost-effective route to market?
• Are there our key customers in these channels?
• Where can we get more customer attention?

Study your competitors, understand what online marketing tools they do and don't use, and take advantage of first movers.

Goal 2 is to increase the number of existing customers served through an online account by 50% by July 2017.

Analyze your existing customer base and how they interact with your online store.

Goal 3 is to increase the frequency of emails from one email per quarter to one email per week from May 2017 to July 2017.

• How does the company currently interact with subscribers?
• Who are your competitors and how do they send out mailings?

The answers to questions like these will help you determine a strategy for achieving your goals.

Stage 4. Tactics for achieving goals

Tactics contain the specific tools you plan to use to achieve the goals of your marketing plan. When you create your strategy, you will describe each tactic in more detail, as well as specify specific key indicators effectiveness for each tactic.

In the example of a T-shirt store, let's assume that we have chosen three tactics to implement these strategies: SEO, Contextual Advertising and E-mail Marketing.

Tactic 1 - SEO

When analyzing competitors, it was revealed that one of the key disadvantages of company X is the small budget for marketing. However, website search engine optimization does provide the company with a field of competition.

To understand the positive impact SEO can have in increasing brand awareness among the target market, it is necessary to conduct an analysis keywords.

Tactic 2 - Pay per click - contextual advertising

As with SEO, keyword research will give you an idea of ​​how much budget you'll need for PPC advertising. Most of your competitors don't use a lot of search terms in their advertising, so this is where you can benefit. It also helps increase brand awareness.

Tactic 3 – Email Marketing

It is necessary to develop a mailing strategy through email so that your existing customer base receives regular communications. The tactics that will be used will include options for what should be included in the content of the emails to ensure that you get enough clicks to the site and conversions to purchases.
This tactic will involve leveraging your existing customer base and encouraging them to recruit friends and colleagues to join your weekly newsletters.

Stage 5: Actions

The fifth stage of your marketing planning system focuses on how to put your plans into action. The action section covers what must be done in each of the tactics listed in the previous section of the SOSTAC plan to realize its goals.

To achieve the goals above, we have identified three tactics. Now we list examples of actions necessary to implement each tactic.

This is not an exhaustive list, it contains only examples and short description things to consider:

Actions for Tactic 1: SEO

• Keyword analysis. What keywords are we targeting?
• Page optimization. We must optimize site pages for key queries to ensure better ranking in Yandex and Google.
• Content - regular blog posts on the topic of the site.
• Creating a link mass. Create a target group of sites where you could post information about your project with a link to it.

Actions for tactic 2: Contextual advertising

• Keyword analysis. What queries can drive profitable traffic?
• Budget.
• Landing pages. What pages will people land on when they enter certain queries?

Actions for Tactic 3: Email Marketing

• Create email scripts for various actions on the website (subscription, purchase)
• Creating reports to analyze subscriber engagement in the newsletter
• Analysis of mailing profitability

Stage 6. Monitoring the results

The final stage of planning is to ensure that you can review and evaluate your performance in the future based on the goals set in stage two.

Think about which tactics to set that are tied to your goals and set up a weekly or monthly reporting for monitoring to make sure you are on track to achieve your goals.

Alexander Kaptsov

Reading time: 11 minutes

A A

Forming a stable array of buyers, finding your niche in the market, suppressing competitors, forming a plausible reputation is far from full list issues that entrepreneurs have to solve. Without a clear marketing plan, achieve stable demand for products, brand recognition, large number loyal customers is almost impossible. How to correctly draw up this important document for any business?

Company marketing plan - what is it?

A company's marketing plan should be understood as detailing all its actions that are aimed at achieving its optimal position in the market. It does not affect the production and technological aspects of the functioning of the company and only affects the issues of marketing products and making a profit.

What does developing a marketing plan give a company:

• Firstly , determines exactly what part of its funds will have to be spent on marketing activities.
• Secondly , formulate a policy for promoting specific types of goods and services on the market.
• Third , draw up a strategy and tactics for working with the target market, including the procedure for setting prices.
• Fourth , certain goods, sales revenue and profit.

Important point: Since the marketing plan outlines in detail all marketing activities and expected results, it is possible to trace the effectiveness of certain approaches in the company’s activities in the market.

Types of a company's marketing plan and the purposes of their preparation

There are many criteria for classifying marketing plans, including:

1. Duration of validity – strategic (more than 3 years), tactical (up to 3 years), operational (up to 1 month).
2. Breadth of coverage – plan for turnover, sales, advertising events, market research or integrated (comprehensive plan).
3. Depth of development – detailed or general.
4. Field of activity – plan of goals, pricing policy, product policy, marketing communications, control and audit, finance, warehousing, order formation, supplies (logistics), etc.

A marketing plan is a very serious internal document, which is focused on achieving certain goals:

• Maintaining the company's position in the market.
• Development and implementation of a new product.
• Coverage of new niches and segments (diversification), etc.

Important point: Due to such a wide range of areas for using marketing plans, it seems necessary to draw up a separate document for each goal, since the methods and tools for each goal are different.

It should be remembered that a marketing plan is not an analogue of a business plan. It covers only issues of the company's activities in the market.

Structure and content of the company's marketing plan

A marketing plan is an internal document that is used for decision-making by company management. However, it has a fairly clear structure.

Its preparation may take several months, as it requires:

1. Collecting information about buyers.
2. Studying supply and demand in the market.
3. Definitions competitive advantages.
4. Competitor assessments, etc.

Important point: A marketing plan should be not just a “collection of facts”, but a document containing analysis, recommendations, and alternatives for the company’s further work in the market.

All 3-4 months during which the marketing plan will be formed will be spent like this: 50% of the time will be spent collecting all necessary information, 40% - for analysis and evaluation and only 10% for creating the document itself.

In order not to make mistakes in forming a marketing plan, it is advisable to focus on the structure below:

1. Summary . This section includes a description of the main points outlined in the marketing plan. The goal must be written down here and the ways to achieve it are listed. The expected results of the plan are also stated.

Important point: Paradoxically, the first section of a marketing plan is always written last because it is a summary of the entire marketing plan.

2. Market overview and forecast . This section describes the market (size, growth opportunities, trends, features) and shows the specific behavior of consumers and competing firms in it. Here it is important to indicate how many competitors there are in the selected segment, what share they cover, as well as what are the market growth opportunities.

3. SWOT analysis and competitive advantages . This part analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the company, threats and opportunities for its functioning.

Based on the results of compiling a SWOT analysis, the marketer must determine:

• The main competitive advantage of the company.
• Positioning of the product in relation to consumers (preferably with a forecast for 3-5 years in advance).
• Tactical measures to take advantage of opportunities and reduce the impact of threats.
• A strategy to combat competitors and increase customer loyalty.

4. Purpose and objectives of the marketing plan . A marketing plan should contribute to business development, which is why it contains business goals within the selected planning horizon (one month, one year, three years) and marketing goals for the same period of time. Only after this are tasks compiled marketing activities.

5. Marketing mix (marketing mix). The core of any marketing plan is the so-called marketing mix, which for goods is based on the 5P model, and for services - on the 7P model.

Model 5P. Any marketing event is built on the basis of five components:

• Product (Product) or product policy – ​​logo and corporate identity, appearance And physical properties product, product range, product quality.
• Price (Price) or pricing policy - wholesale and retail prices, the procedure for determining the cost of goods, discounts and promotions, price discrimination.
• Place of sale (Place) or sales policy - sales of goods in markets, in stores, the basics of distribution, display of goods, inventory management and logistics.
• Promotion (Promotional) or promotion policy - promotion strategy, promotional events, PR activities, event marketing, communication channels, media strategy.
• People (People) – motivation and stimulation of staff, corporate culture, working with loyal customers and VIP clients, feedback.

Model 7P is complemented by two more “Ps”, namely:

• Process (Process) – conditions of interaction with the client, service procedure, creation of a favorable atmosphere, speed of service provision, etc.
• Physical environment (physical evidence) – setting, interior, background music, image, etc.

Thus, when developing a marketing plan, each of the above positions is worked out in detail, which allows us to form a comprehensive picture of the company’s functioning in the market.

6. Choice of company behavior in the market . This part of the marketing plan describes the company’s specific actions in the market to achieve its goal and solve identified problems.

7. Event budget . Includes a detailed list of costs for marketing activities, which can be presented in table form.

8. Risk assessment . This part describes the risks that a company may face while implementing its marketing plan.

The main stages of developing a marketing plan: an example of drawing up

Obviously, a marketing plan is a complex and complex document, which is not easy to formulate. However, even a specialist with basic knowledge in the field of marketing can do this. Where should you start?

First of all, you should collect information about the market, the selected segment, competitors, consumers, and then implement the following sequence of actions:

• Stage 1 . Analysis of market trends. Identifying customer requirements for product quality, price, packaging design, and communication channels.
• Stage 2 . Product analysis. Assessment of quality, price, packaging design, communication channels for an existing product.
• Stage 3 . Selecting the target market. Determination of the category of consumers who to a greater extent the proposed product is suitable.
• Stage 4 . Positioning and competitive advantages. Establishing the place of the company’s product in relation to competitors (average in quality, lower in price, etc.) and its advantageous aspects.
• Stage 5 . Creating a strategy. Formation of promotions and special offers for the target audience, the procedure for promoting the brand to the market, etc.
• Stage 6 . Tactical action plan. Actions to achieve the ideal position of a product on the market.

It is advisable to give a simplified example of creating a marketing plan for a company selling freshly squeezed juices through five specialized points located in different parts cities.

Stage 1. Analysis of market trends

1. Buyers want to purchase juices that are squeezed from fruits and vegetables in their presence and sold in containers that are convenient for drinking ( paper cups and plastic bottles).
2. Sales are carried out in recreational areas and near large offices.
3. The price may be higher than the cost of draft carbonated drinks and coffee, but cheaper than fresh juices offered by cafes and restaurants in the city.

Stage 2. Product analysis

1. The company produces fruit juices in plastic bottles and on tap.
2. All five sales points are located in places with large crowds of people, including near recreation areas.
3. The price of juices is similar to the cost of fresh juices in cafes and restaurants in the city.

Stage 3. Selecting a target market

1. Taking into account the properties of the product and its price, the main target audience will be working representatives of the middle class who monitor their health.

Stage 4. Positioning and competitive advantages

1. The company will offer customers a product of excellent quality and high value.
2. Natural ingredients, ease of drinking, proximity to the consumer are the main competitive advantages of the company.

Stage 5. Creating a strategy

1. Targeting an array of regular customers.
2. Retaining the audience during the cold season.

Stage 6. Tactical action plan

1. Formation of a cumulative points system for clients and a system of seasonal discounts.
2. Offer for juice delivery to plastic container around town.
3. Expansion of the assortment through the sale of dietary cookies and bars.

The above template should be considered as a kind of basis for drawing up a marketing plan. In fact, having such information in hand, the marketer can only distribute it into the appropriate sections.

Problems with the effectiveness of applying an organization's marketing plan

Many marketers ask a completely logical question: why do marketing plans drawn up according to all the rules not work and do not bring the desired effect?

The fact is that often quite neat and meaningful documents include such shortcomings as:

• Using information from one source . When creating a marketing plan, you should use information from industry surveys, expert assessments, statistical bulletins, customer surveys, competitor reports, etc.
• Overgeneralization . The document should be based on data, rather than endlessly pouring water and writing speculative assumptions unsupported by information.
• Lack of flexibility . Despite its detail, the marketing plan must be flexible so that any of its parameters can be adjusted as the market situation changes.
• Lack of connection with company strategy . If the company’s overall strategy is to sell goods to middle-aged people, and marketing activities are aimed at teenagers and young people, the marketing plan will not bring the expected effect.
• Inconsistency . If the marketing plan first considers the means of carrying out promotional activities and only then analyzes the product and customers, then the goals set will not be achieved.

Important point: The finished marketing plan should be checked again for the presence of the above problems.

A properly drawn up marketing plan is half the success of a company in the market. With its help, you can form a clear, structured, consistent picture of the company’s occupation of a certain position in the industry and in a separate segment. It allows you to create a list of effective tactical marketing activities that will help achieve the company's goals.

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What are the main marketing plans?

Possible different approaches to planning. Traditional planning typically involves dividing plans based on the time period for which they are intended. Including short-term, medium-term or long-term plans. However, there is no universal definition of planning periods.

Mid- and long-term plans are known as “strategic” plans because they look at business strategies over the long term. Short-term plans are often called “business plans” or “corporate plans” because they provide guidance for day-to-day activities. The application of a specific plan depends on the scope of activity and objectives of the company, the markets served, and the need to plan product release for the future.

Long-range planning is designed to assess overall business and economic trends over many years. The company's strategy is aimed at growing the relevant long-term objectives of the organization, which is important for the areas of the defense industry, pharmaceuticals and astronautics, where the development time for new products reaches 5-10 years. Long-term planning in these industries covers 10-20 years. But the development timeline for most companies is not that significant, with long-term planning targeting more than 5-7 years.

Medium-term planning is more practical, designed for a period of no more than 2-5 years (usually three years). Such planning is more tied to life, since it relates to the near future, and the likelihood of being reflected in reality in terms of reality is higher. The medium-term “strategic” marketing plan is based on strategies similar to the long-term ones. However, it is necessary to implement major decisions over more short time. Such decisions include the need for capital investment, the introduction of new products, the availability and application of resources and personnel.

Short-term planning (and budgeting), as a rule, is focused on a period of up to 1 year, involving the development of business or corporate plans and associated budgets. These plans are expected to look at the immediate future and details what the company plans to do over a 12 month period. Short term plans are considered the most detailed. They can undergo appropriate adjustments if necessary.

How to Write a 1 Page Marketing Plan: The Allan Deeb Technique

Fast and easy write a marketing plan, even if you are a pro in marketing, you can use the article in the electronic magazine “Commercial Director”.

Why do you need a marketing plan?

Lack of a marketing plan leads to the following problems:

• spontaneous development of the company occurs without a specific plan of action;
• there is a constant conflict of possible schemes, existing options development; there is a dispersion of funds, efforts, time;
• the target audience is not defined, which periodically leads to the above problems;
• chaotic purchases of products, attempts to diversify the product offer at a time when you need to concentrate on the main product offer.

The marketing plan achieves the following goals:

• systematize, formally describe the ideas of the organization’s leaders, conveying them to employees;
• concentration of company resources with their reasonable distribution;
• set marketing goals, ensuring control in their achievement.

What sections are included in the marketing plan?

• grocery plan;
• sales plan – increasing sales efficiency;
• advertising and sales promotion plan;
• research and development of new products;
• distribution channel operation plan;
• price plan, including future price changes;
• marketing research plan;
• physical distribution system operating plan;
• marketing organization plan.

Structure and content of the marketing plan

Executive Summary (Executive Summary) – This initial section of the marketing plan provides a brief summary of the plan's major recommendations and objectives. This section allows management to quickly understand the focus of the plan. This section is usually followed by a table of contents for the plan.

Current marketing situation - this section describes the target market and the organization’s position in it. These sections include:

• market description;
• product review;
• competition;
• distribution.

Threats and Opportunities – This section outlines the main opportunities and threats for the product in the market. The potential harm of each hazard is expected to be assessed.

Marketing goals - this section characterizes the focus of the plan, initially formulating the desired results of activity in specific markets.

Marketing strategies are the main directions of marketing activities. Following them, organizations strive to achieve marketing goals. The marketing strategy includes specific strategies for operating in target markets, the marketing mix used, appropriate marketing costs. In the strategies that are developed for each market segment, it is necessary to consider new and manufactured products, prices, promotion of products, bringing products to consumers, it is necessary to indicate how the strategy responds to market opportunities and threats.

An action plan is a detailed program showing what needs to be done, when and by whom the accepted tasks should be carried out, how much it will cost, what decisions need to be coordinated in order to fulfill the marketing plan.

The program, as a rule, briefly characterizes the goals to achieve which the program's activities are oriented. Consequently, the program is a set of specific activities that must be carried out by marketing and other services of the organization to achieve the goals of the marketing plan. The course will help you achieve them faster."

Marketing budget – this section reflects the projected amounts of income, profits and costs. The amount of income is justified from a forecast position on sales and prices. Costs are determined as the sum of production, marketing and distribution costs. At the same time, marketing costs must be described in detail in this budget.

Section “Control” - it reflects the methods and procedures for control that are required when assessing the level of success of the plan. For this purpose, criteria (standards) are established, on the basis of which progress in the implementation of marketing plans is measured.

Stages of developing a marketing plan

Stage 1. Determining the initial goals of the company’s development and activities.

Stage 2. Analysis of marketing activities. It is divided into three parts:

1) Analysis external environment marketing:

• analysis of the economic and business external environment - the state of the economy, socio-cultural conditions, financial policy, technological conditions, socio-economic conditions in the company;
• market environment: general state market; its development; distribution channels, communications, state of the industry;
• competitor environment.

2) A detailed analysis of marketing activities involves analysis sales volume, market share, profit, marketing organization, marketing procedures, analysis of all elements of the marketing mix, control of marketing activities.

3) Analysis of the marketing system involves analysis of marketing goals, marketing strategy, responsibilities and rights of managers in the field of marketing, information system, planning and control system, interaction with other management functions, as well as conducting profitability analysis, analysis according to the cost-effectiveness criterion.

Stage 3. Formulation of assumptions, hypotheses regarding certain factors external to the company that may have an impact on its activities. It is worth classifying and presenting assumptions explicitly. The classification of assumptions can be carried out in the following areas - the organization itself, the specific industry and the country of operation.

Stage 4. Setting marketing goals. Defining and organizing goals – important aspect activities in the field of marketing. Almost any planning and management document on marketing now contains in one of its initial sections, at a minimum, a simple verbal list of goals, in obtaining which no special approaches or methods are used. But to strengthen the focus on final results in planning and management activities, with the intensification of the use of special management methods, the increasing need to increase the quality of individual management goals, special approaches and methods must be used to build a system of goals.

Marketing has the following goals:

1. Satisfy consumer needs.
2. Provide yourself with a competitive advantage.
3. Increase your sales level.
4. Receive a certain profit.
5. Increase market share.

The core of marketing goals should be the specifics of the product or the need for it. If possible, goals should be focused not on consumer groups, but on their needs. After all, buyers are a fickle group.

Stage 5. Alternative strategies are developed that are aimed at achieving marketing goals. These strategies are detailed in relation to the elements of the marketing mix.

You can formulate pricing strategies like this:

• setting product prices according to market position;
• carrying out different pricing policies, depending on the markets;
• development of a pricing policy, taking into account the pricing policies of its competitors.

In the area of ​​product promotion, strategies can be noted that characterize communications with consumers, means and methods of organizing the actions of sales department employees in new markets.

The strategy for bringing the product to consumers includes:

• channels used to bring the product to the consumer;
• level of after-sales customer service;
• activities aimed at achieving delivery costs;
• sales in small batches or wholesale.

After these stages of marketing planning are completed, you need to once again ensure the ability to achieve your goals and strategies using various evaluation criteria, including sales volume, market share, resource expenditures, profit margins and other estimates of planned results and the ability to achieve them.

Stage 6. The set of marketing strategies, goals and activities to achieve is a strategic marketing plan, which at the next planning stage should be translated into working planning documents. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out operational scheduling.

Stage 7. At the stage of operational calendar planning or development of detailed action plans, specification of marketing strategies in detailed plans, programs in the context of each of the 4 elements of the marketing mix.

We are talking about developing action plans for each division of the organization, aimed at achieving specified goals based on selected strategies. It is necessary to contain answers to the questions - what, who, where and when, how and with what resources should be done to implement marketing programs and plans.

As a rule, development is also underway written instructions on drawing up action plans, which are accompanied by forms and samples to fill out.

Stage 8. Marketing budget is developed. Its compilation helps in correctly determining priorities between strategies and goals of marketing activities, in making decisions on resource allocation, and in exercising effective control.

The budget is usually developed using a profit-based planning approach.

In this case, the marketing budget is developed in the following sequence: forecast estimates of market capacity, market share, price, sales income, variable and fixed costs are determined; calculated gross profit covering all costs, including marketing costs, and ensuring a given target profit.

Variables and fixed costs, as well as the value of the target profit. This is how marketing costs are determined. They are detailed by individual elements of the marketing mix.

• Marketing and sales: how to establish effective interaction

There are always problems with budget calculations

Roman Tkachev,

promotion project manager trademark MDV, group of companies "AYAK"

Marketing expenses are not always perceived as an investment in attracting or retaining customers. Some view marketing spending as a fashion statement rather than an investment to improve profit margins. The reason is that the marketing department is often unable to present an assessment of its activities in the form of a mathematical model to management for review.

Determining the size of the marketing budget is a question strategic planning in the work of the company. Consequently, the budget includes not only an assessment of promotion and advertising costs, but also costs for market research, development of external brand attributes, management of relationships with consumers, indication of sales channels, BTL and other relevant activities.

It is worth considering that marketing planning is intended to determine the organization’s position at the current moment, areas of activity, and means of achieving its goals. The marketing plan is central from the standpoint of conducting activities to generate a certain income. It provides the basis for all other activities of the organization.

You don't need to invent a wheel to create a marketing plan.

Anton Uskov,

General Director of PR agency Media_Act, Moscow

A company does not have to reinvent the wheel to plan its marketing policy. If you don't know how to create a marketing plan, it's best to seek professional advice.

The most effective and simple option is to put yourself in the shoes of a potential buyer or client, discarding your habits and preferences, and stopping using cliches and templates.

How is the execution of a marketing plan monitored?

In order to control the operation of the enterprise as a whole, it is necessary to develop a multi-level management calculation procedure, with the formulation of a development strategy, supported by a set of tactical measures. It is the solution of the last task in the activities of marketing and commercial services that the marketing plan is focused on.

The manager ensures control over the results of the activities of his subordinate units:

• according to criteria in the marketing plan;
• according to management accounting indicators;
• on the performance of the unit.

Analysis of the implementation of the marketing plan also involves a comparison of the actual development of the situation and the planned or expected indicators for the reporting period. If the actual state is considered unsatisfactory, appropriate changes must be made. Sometimes it is necessary to revise the plans due to the influence of uncontrollable factors.

Marketing plan analysis can be carried out using 3 methods:

1. Marketing cost analysis;
2. Implementation analysis;
3. Marketing audit.

As part of the analysis of marketing costs, the effectiveness of various marketing factors is assessed. It is necessary to find out which costs are effective and which are not, and make the necessary adjustments. Sales performance analysis is a detailed examination of sales results to evaluate the appropriateness of a particular strategy.

A marketing audit is a systematic objective and critical assessment, review of the main goals and policies of the organization's marketing functions in the implementation of this policy, with the achievement of the goals. Marketing audit involves 6 stages:

1. It is determined who will conduct the audit.
2. The frequency of the audit is determined.
3. Forms for the audit are being developed.
4. An audit is carried out directly.
5. Presenting results to the management of the organization, making decisions.

A prerequisite in this direction is the dependence of salary on the performance of duties. The share of real payments, depending on the results, should be quite significant (at least a third of the employee’s total earnings).

• How to determine a marketing budget: calculation methods and expert advice

Information about authors and companies

PR agency Media_Act specializes in conducting advertising and PR campaigns in the regions. Has branches in almost all major cities countries. Among the main clients: investment holding Finam, Japanese tire manufacturer Yokohama, distributor roofing materials"Diana-Trade", MTS. The agency has affiliated companies engaged in the provision of advertising, production and printing services.

Roman Tkachev, project manager for promoting the MDV brand, AYAK group of companies. Graduated from Altai State University (specialist in the field international relations, orientalist) and Yanshan University (PRC) ( Chinese, international marketing). Involved in the development and implementation of a supply planning system and an accounting and analysis system commercial offers by MDV brand.

Group of companies "AYAK"- founded in 1996. Distributor of world famous manufacturers of air conditioning equipment. It has about 50 regional representative offices, more than 2000 dealer companies in the Russian Federation and the CIS countries. Official website - www.jac.ru

We offer a ready-made checklist with which you can create a ready-made marketing plan from scratch. The article details the structure and lists the main sections of the marketing plan. We will tell you in what order it is most convenient to draw up a marketing plan, which elements of a marketing plan are mandatory, and which components can sometimes be missed. We are confident that our checklist will be suitable for protecting the promotion strategy of any product, because it is an exhaustive list of important information on the basis of which key strategic decisions are made.

A marketing plan has a fairly clear and logically structured structure, and its development is not a one-day process. You will need a lot of time to collect detailed information about consumers, to study the characteristics and conditions of the market, to determine the competitive advantages of a product and much more. Get ready to process and summarize many different facts and consider more than one alternative for business development. Don't be afraid to take the time to analyze different options strategies.

On average, drawing up a high-quality marketing plan can take (depending on the size of the business and the number of product groups in the company’s portfolio) from 1-3 months. And if you engage in marketing planning simultaneously with solving current issues, then lay it on this process at least 2-4 months. 50% of this time will be spent collecting information, 40% on analysis and consideration of alternatives, and only 10% on drawing up the marketing plan itself.

The structure of a standard marketing plan includes 8 elements and is as follows:

What is "Executive Summary"

"Executive Summary" - resume or summary key areas of the marketing plan. This section of the marketing plan attempts to outline the main conclusions, recommendations and goals of the company for the next few years. You fill out this section last, but when presenting your marketing plan, you start with this section.

The practice of laying out the key takeaways at the beginning of any presentation helps align management with the presentation format required, allowing them to evaluate the underlying strategy and prepare questions without detailed examination of the facts. This section of the marketing plan often includes the content, duration of the presentation, presentation format, and preferred form of feedback.

Situational analysis and conclusions

The situational analysis section is designed to quickly get a complete picture of the market, its size, trends and features. Such an analysis helps explain the choice of certain actions in the marketing strategy of a product. The main components of a situational analysis are:

• Analysis internal environment and company resources, including assessment of the level of achievement of current goals and objectives
• Analysis of consumer behavior in the market, assessment of the reasons for purchasing and rejecting the company’s product
• Analysis external factors company, competitor behavior and key market trends

A more detailed example of a situational or business analysis of a company can be found in our article:

SWOT analysis and competitive advantages

Any situational analysis ends with a compilation, describing the company’s strengths and weaknesses, key opportunities and threats to sales and profit growth. Based on the results of the SWOT analysis, the following is formed:

• the main product of the company
• indicating the development vector of product positioning for 3-5 years
• tactical action plan for the use and development of capabilities
• tactical action plan to minimize identified threats
• main

Defining marketing goals and objectives

The first step of any marketing strategy: setting performance targets for the coming year. The marketing plan should contain 2 types of goals: business goals and marketing goals. Business goals relate to issues such as the position of the product in the market (share or place among competitors), sales levels, profits and profitability. Marketing goals consider issues such as attracting new customers, retaining current customers, increasing the frequency and duration of product use.

Protecting your marketing strategy

Marketing strategy presentation is a core section of an organization's marketing plan. On at this stage When presenting a marketing plan, it is important to talk about the following elements of a marketing strategy:

Without this section, the marketing plan will not be complete and not a single manager will approve the developed programs for product development and its promotion to the market. The section begins with a presentation of the business model or P&L, which shows the projected sales growth from the programs, the required budget for the programs, net income and return on sales. The subsequent stages of this section are comments and explanations on the P&L model:

• Budget structure divided into main cost items
• Review of the main sources of sales growth and correlating them with budget items
• Assumptions used to build the model in the areas of cost growth, inflation and price levels

The marketing plan is a very important section. To write it, the team creating the project needs to conduct marketing research, the results of which should be presented in this paragraph. Before starting a study, it is necessary to define its objectives.

In most cases, marketing is carried out for the following purposes:

1. Analysis of the needs of potential clients and possible demand, taking into account the cost of services and the solvency of the consumer. Analysis of the market in which the organization or enterprise will operate, the conditions necessary to promote the project. Using the obtained data to create an effective production or organizational program.
2. Analysis of risks and positive conditions that can lead to an increase or, on the contrary, a decrease in demand for manufactured products or services provided;
3. Determining the level of quality of products or services, assessing them in the context of real competition, searching for ways to improve performance;
4. Identification and ways of using specific sales systems and ways to increase demand: determining pricing policies and strategies for promoting a product or service;
5. Determining the effectiveness of the marketing strategy as a whole and assessing the feasibility of implementing the above tasks.

The main task of anyone marketing research is to determine the existing demand for products or services, and obtain necessary information to formulate production and sales plans. So, in the process of the work carried out, the target group or groups whose need for your service or product will be unsatisfied must be identified, which will ensure demand for your project, and therefore financial stability.

Typically, a marketing plan is carried out in several general stages:

1. Market research
2. Definition of strategy
3. Competition Analysis
4. Price policy
5. Factors influencing pricing strategy
6. Marketing strategy

Now for each step in more detail.

Market research

The market and the product produced or service provided are examined, and the following characteristics are determined:

• Market segments;
• Consumer needs;
• Product routes to the customer;
• Level of competitiveness of a product or service;
• Product life cycle;
• Ways to improve product quality;
• Legal basis of production;
• The ability to copy the production scheme or provision of services by competitors.

Definition of key strategy.

There are many marketing strategies, and the project manager's job is to choose the most appropriate one. The most effective strategies are:

• Minimizing costs - allows you to set the most low prices on the market, which automatically ensures demand at the start of a business;
• Differentiation - when a product or service differs from all existing offerings, which sets the business apart from its competitors;
• Targeting a specific segment - takes into account all possible factors (social, demographic, etc.), determines the target audience with the possibility of its further increase.

Analysis of the competitive environment

• Identification of the main competitors and leaders of a particular market, collection of data on all similar enterprises, their structure, financial condition, state, sales volume, main advantages and disadvantages of their business model;
• Carrying out comparative analysis products or services of competitors and your company to identify the main factors affecting quality, price, service and sales.

In addition, it is necessary to identify the possibility of the main competitors entering the market of your enterprise, the obstacles to this, as well as the difficulty of copying your products. The information can be presented in a table.

Price policy

It is the most important factor determining the success of an enterprise.

There are several main pricing strategies:

• High prices and better quality - this option is relevant if there is demand for the product and the company is able to produce goods of the required quality;
• Low price and low quality - allows you to satisfy the widest demand social groups and sell large volumes of goods;
• High price and low quality is an option that can only be profitable for monopolists;
• Low price and high quality- sales, special promotions, taking over market positions.

Choosing one of the above strategies does not mean that the company must follow it all the time. The strategy may change depending on the market situation, the need for development and expansion, etc.

Identification of factors that can influence the pricing policy of the organization

• What systems of discounts and benefits can be introduced for wholesale buyers and regular customers?
• How long will it take to go through a standard cycle from production to purchase of products?;
• How will the client pay for the product or service?
• How to protect yourself from debts and encourage consumers to pay on time (discounts for prepayment, fines for late payments)?;
• What systems of promotions, discounts, and special offers can be created for regular customers who purchase goods for large amounts?

Definition of marketing strategy.

To write this paragraph, you need to answer the following question: “By what means will the promotion of the organization, its services or products be ensured?” This could be the media: television, radio, newspapers, or online advertising: mailings, advertising in search engines, in social networks etc.

The choice of one of the above advertising methods will depend on many factors: your financial capabilities, the efficiency of using certain resources, and market geography.

Additionally, you also need to mention the following:

• How much will the selected advertising campaigns cost?
• How do you plan to attract and retain customers with the help of additional discounts, discounts, promotions, special prices;
• What is your competitive advantage;
• Weaknesses in your marketing and sales system.

Thus, in this section of the business plan you need to justify in detail the feasibility of your proposal, show that your products will be or are already in demand, and also that you know exactly how to promote goods or services.

Example of a marketing plan in a clothing store business plan

It is planned that clothes manufactured at the “Beautiful Clothes” factory will be sold in the chain’s branded stores. Seasonal collections for adults will be sold, therefore the target audience is one of the most large groups population - men and women from 16 to 50 years old. The goods sold are competitive, since all clothing lines are made from domestic materials purchased from wholesale suppliers, which allows you to reduce the price, but maintain high standards quality. Another advantage of this project is the impossibility of competitors using this scheme, since “Beautiful Clothes” stores will sell products of their own, established production.

The key strategy is to minimize costs. “Beautiful clothes” will sell clothes made from domestic materials in its own production; transportation costs are also minimal. This will allow you to set low prices, which, in turn, will automatically expand your target audience.

The main competitors of the store in Voronezh are the Brands, Odezhka and FiCo stores. Their main advantages are the presence of well-known brands, but there are also disadvantages in their concept. Thus, Brands and FiCo sell clothing good quality in the same way high prices. "Odezhka", in turn, sells cheap clothes of low quality. “Beautiful clothes” will be able to give consumers the opportunity to buy quality items at reasonable prices, which gives it a clear advantage over the above competitors.

It is also planned to create a system of discounts, conduct seasonal promotions, as well as sell clothing from past collections at reduced prices. There are no wholesale purchases.

To promote the store the following will be used:

• Advertising on social networks: Instagram, Voronezh groups on VKontakte;
• Advertising in local media: newspapers and TV channels;
• Flyer distribution;
• Placement of advertising banners.