Building an Effective Marketing Plan
A
Building An effective MArketing plAn sent to all individuals in the organization who must implement the plan or who will be affected by it. If the plan is directed to an external audience, such as friends, banks, venture capitalists, or potential investors, for the purpose of raising capital, it has the additional function of being an important sales document. In this case, it contains elements such as the strategic plan/focus, organization, structure, and biographies of key personnel that would rarely appear in an internal marketing plan. Also, the financial information is far more detailed when the plan is used to raise outside capital. The elements of a marketing plan for each of these two audiences are compared in Figure A–1. The kind and complexity of the organization. A small neighborhood restaurant has a somewhat different marketing plan than Nestlé, which serves international markets. The restaurant’s plan would be relatively simple and directed at serving customers in a local market. In Nestlé’s case, because there is a hierarchy of marketing plans, various levels of detail would be used—such as the entire organization, the strategic business unit, or the product/product line. The industry. Both the restaurant serving a local market and Bombardier, selling subway cars and planes globally, analyze competition. Not only are their geographic thrusts far different, but also the complexities of their offerings and, hence, the time periods likely to be covered by their plans differ. A one-year marketing plan may be adequate for the restaurant, but Bombardier may need a five-year planning horizon because product-development cycles for complex, new medical devices may be three or four years.
Appendix
“New ideas are a dime a dozen,” observes Arthur R. Kydd, “and so are new products and new technologies.” Kydd should know. As chief executive officer of St. Croix Venture Partners, he and his firm have provided the seed money and venture capital to launch
Building An effective MArketing plAn sent to all individuals in the organization who must implement the plan or who will be affected by it. If the plan is directed to an external audience, such as friends, banks, venture capitalists, or potential investors, for the purpose of raising capital, it has the additional function of being an important sales document. In this case, it contains elements such as the strategic plan/focus, organization, structure, and biographies of key personnel that would rarely appear in an internal marketing plan. Also, the financial information is far more detailed when the plan is used to raise outside capital. The elements of a marketing plan for each of these two audiences are compared in Figure A–1. The kind and complexity of the organization. A small neighborhood restaurant has a somewhat different marketing plan than Nestlé, which serves international markets. The restaurant’s plan would be relatively simple and directed at serving customers in a local market. In Nestlé’s case, because there is a hierarchy of marketing plans, various levels of detail would be used—such as the entire organization, the strategic business unit, or the product/product line. The industry. Both the restaurant serving a local market and Bombardier, selling subway cars and planes globally, analyze competition. Not only are their geographic thrusts far different, but also the complexities of their offerings and, hence, the time periods likely to be covered by their plans differ. A one-year marketing plan may be adequate for the restaurant, but Bombardier may need a five-year planning horizon because product-development cycles for complex, new medical devices may be three or four years.
Appendix
“New ideas are a dime a dozen,” observes Arthur R. Kydd, “and so are new products and new technologies.” Kydd should know. As chief executive officer of St. Croix Venture Partners, he and his firm have provided the seed money and venture capital to launch