Steps To Starting A Small Business
How to Prepare a Marketing Plan
The final result of marketing strategy planning is an action plan for moving your products and/or services to the final consumers. Elements of the marketing plan include the following:
Describe the product or service, highlighting unique or innovative features. Identify status of patent, trademark, or other legal protection.
This is a comprehensive analysis of the environment in which you propose to do business. Sections include:
I: The Market
Describe the type of consumer you are aiming your product or service at, the total number of these consumers in your market area and the number you expect to become customers. Outline the potential growth in the market for your product or service, and your projected growth in the market share. Market share may be based on total dollar sales or on unit sales.
II: Competitive Environment
Identify and describe your primary and secondary competitors. Primary competitors will sell products or services which may substitute directly for your own. Secondary competitors will market products or services which may displace yours indirectly. For example, Pepsi might include non-carbonated drinks fruit juice, mineral water or milk. Compare your own proposed operation to your competitors’, and describe the relative ease or difficulty in entering the industry.
III: Technological Environment
Describe the role of technology in your business and estimate how quickly it might become obsolete. How will technological advancements in other industries affect your business, and will you be able to adapt to change?
IV: Socio-Political Environment
How responsive will your firm be to emerging trends in legislation and changing consumer attitudes? Describe your plan for maintaining awareness of new laws and regulations which will affect your business.
Examine your business and the environment around you carefully. Identify weaknesses in your business plan or operation and threats from the environment, and then document your ability to respond to these. Also identify strengths in your firm and opportunities presented to it, and describe how you might exploit these.
Set precise, quantifiable and realistic objectives for your business. Instead of suggesting, for instance, that you will increase market share every year, state an objective. (For example: to capture 5% of the total market by number of units sold in year one, 7% in year two, and 10% in subsequent years.)
Take into account the results of the SWOT section, and select a marketing strategy to achieve your objectives. There are many marketing strategies to choose from, such as new market penetration and expanding market share. Ask a regional consultant of ENL for a basic text on marketing to decide which strategy best fits your situation.
The basic four elements of the marketing mix are product, price, place and promotion. An action plan describes how you will manipulate each of these areas in implementing your marketing strategy. It is best to consult a marketing text for more detail on this process. For example, if your strategy includes increasing market penetration, action items may include lowering price and increasing promotion. The action plan should answer this simple question: What will you do tomorrow?