The Marketing Plan Handbook by Alexander Chernev outlines a comprehensive, step-by-step approach to crafting a logical and effective marketing plan that will produce results. It outlines the basic principles of writing a marketing plan and puts emphasis on marketing as a value-management process. He states that marketing plans don’t have to be lengthy but needs to contain a need-to-know information and not so much nice-to-know information; he states this is not directly related to the decision at hand. He breaks down the marketing plan in eight parts: Executive Summary, Situation Analysis, Goal, Strategy, Tactics, Implementation, Control and Exhibits. The Executive Summary is a non-ethical statement at the beginning of a plan that is designed to encapsulate the reason for the plan. It should be short and businesslike—and needs to state the goals and proposed action. It consists of an introduction, situation overview, goals, action overview, and conclusion. It will present the product or service being marketed and the primary purpose of the plan. In addition, it will identify the opportunities and/or threats in the company’s performance. It will also outline the strategy, tactics, implementation, and control of the plan. The conclusion will focus on the customers’ needs and identify the collaborators and their strategic goals while providing the competition that provides a similar product or service.
The Situation Analysis is a systematic collection and evaluation of past and present economic, political, social, and technological data that will identify the internal and external forces that may influence the organizations performance and choice of strategies. It will also assess the organizations current and future strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The Goals are then set by involving two steps which are identifying the focus of the company’s actions and defining the benchmarks to be reached.