Making the Marketing Plan Part of the Business Plan
There is no one way to write a business plan . It seems that there are as many suggested outlines as there are people who give suggested outlines. However, here is a typical basic outline:
Title Page
Executive Summary
A. The Company
B. The Product/Service
C. Marketing
D. Operations
E. Management Team
F. Financial Plan (Including Pro Forma Income Statement, Balance Sheet)
The Marketing Plan
A. The Product/Service. This part should just be an introduction of the Product/Service, describing in some detail "What It Is", "How It Works", and "What It Is For". However, don't go into a great deal of depth on the overall product and positioning strategy.
B. Market Analysis.
1. Customer Analysis. Describe the market (potential customers) of your product/service. Estimate the size of the market and do a segmentation analysis in which you identify possible segments to target. For the segment(s) you intend to target, describe their characteristics, discuss their needs and/or wants, and describe the nature of their buying decision process.
2. Competitor Analysis. Identify different potential competitors. For the two or three prime competitors, talk about their current marketing strategy, including products, prices, distribution and promotion. Identify their strengths and weaknesses, as well as their likely response to your entry into the market and any specific actions that you may make.
3. Environmental Analysis. Talk about any environmental factors that may influence demand and supply of your product. Are there factors that will influence your marketing strategy? This includes economic, political/regulatory, technological and social/cultural factors that may influence the demand and/or supply or your product, as well as the specific elements of your marketing strategy.
C. SWOT Analysis. (SWOT=Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) Discuss your business's strengths and weakness relative to the competitors and identify both opportunities and threats.
D. Marketing Objectives. Give two or three key marketing-related goals, such as goals for sales, customer satisfaction, etc. The goals should be specific and measurable.
E. Marketing Strategy.
1. Targeting Strategy. In the customer analysis section, you should have already identified and described different market segments. In this section, give a broad statement of which customers you intend to target.
2. Positioning Strategy. Describe in broad terms how you intend to position your product/service in the minds of your customers. You should really focus on how you will clearly differentiate your product/service from those of competitors. At the end of this section, introduce your business's Unique Selling Proposition or Customer Value Proposition.
3. The Marketing Mix. Describe in fairly broad terms how you intend to compete by describing what you will do with each element of the Marketing Mix. This should include:
a. Product/Service. You have already described the product/service. Here your emphasis will be on how you plan to differentiate your product/service, what your product mix will be, and how you may plan on developing new products to meet customer demands.
b. Pricing. You should give a broad positioning statement on pricing, but if you can, give more specific prices for specific products as well. Show how these prices take into consideration various factors that could influence price, such as customer demands, competitor prices, and your overall positioning strategy. Make sure that you show how you will make a profit. This will require giving an estimate of the costs of providing your product/service. Don't get too much into the financial details here. You can save that for later. However, you need to be able to justify your prices.
c. Distribution. How do you intend to deliver your product/service to customers. Explain why this (these) is (are) the best alternative(s).
d. Promotion. Discuss your basic strategy for Advertising, Sales Promotions, Sales, and Public Relations. How are you going to communicate with customers and convince them to buy?
e. Customer Service. Explain your customer service at various stages of the consumer decision process, particularly the post-purchase stage. Talk about how you intend to handle complaints.
F. Marketing Implementation (NOTE: This could be incorporated into an overall business implementation schedule that includes a timetable for finance, operations, etc.).
1. Marketing Organization. Selling Methods and Sales Support. Here I am specifically interested in how you will organize your selling effort. How will you organize your sales staff? What type of sales support will you give them?
2. Activities and Responsibilities. What specific activities will the marketing department direct? Who will be responsible for which different elements of the marketing mix, including the sales staff.
3. Implementation Timetable.
G. Evaluation and Control.
1. Performance Standards. How will you measure your performance?
2. Monitoring procedures. How will you monitor performance? (e.g., through marketing research, through customer feedback cards, sales records, etc.)
Advice
Bro. Huff's Last Words of Advice (NOTE: This is not part of your business plan: just advice for writing the business plan)
1. This is obviously a major portion of the Business Plan. It is really where you describe your basic strategy and convince the potential investor that you have a great idea that will meet the needs of a clearly identified group of customers better than competitors. It also shows the investor that you have clearly thought how you intend to compete, and that you have clearly done your homework.
2. In writing the Marketing Plan, be concise but thorough.
3. Have confidence in yourselves. Clearly show why your product/service has a distinct advantage. Avoid having that advantage be based too much on price. You will be tempted to think that your main advantage is that you have very low labor costs and people in the area will be willing to buy from you out of charity. Don't yield to that temptation. Price competitively, but with the clear intention of making a profit.
4. Tell a clear and engaging story. Don t get too worried about including every possible fact or getting everything exactly right. Your main responsibility is to give your audience a really clear idea of what you are trying to do and how you intend on doing it. Investors will be asking the following types of questions:
a. Is there an obvious opportunity here?
b. Do I understand what this business is about?
c. Has the management team done its homework? Do they understand the possible threats and challenges, as well as the opportunities and possibilities?
d. Is the marketing strategy based on a sound marketing analysis?
e. Does this business clearly provide a need in the market? Is the product or service clearly unique and clearly better than existing alternatives?
