The Marketing Plan

A marketing strategy sets a target market and a marketing mix. It is the big picture of the company’s operation in a market. A Marketing plan goes further. A marketing plan is a written statement of a marketing strategy and the time-related details for carrying out the strategy. It should detail the following.

1. What marketing mix will be offered, to whom (that is, the target market) and for how long?

2. What company resources (shown as costs) will be needed at what rate (monthly perhaps)?

3. What results are expected (sales and profits or other organizational goals)?

The plan should also include control procedures, to ensure early detection of any problems. This might be something as simple as comparing actual sales against expected sales.