Writing A Marketing Plan: Part I

The first thing you should do when forming a marketing plan isdefine the structure in which it will be presented. The structureof the plan should allow the presentation of strategic informationin a logical and progressive manner. This structure should beprepared in a written outline detailing the progression of topicsand how they will appear in the marketing plan.

The structure of a marketing plan will usually vary according tothe business, its product or service, and the objectives of themarketing plan. Generally, however, each marketing plan willinclude the following information:

Executive summary

Product description

Market analysis

Competitive analysis

Product development

Operations

Goals & objectives

Marketing tactics

Financial projections

Summary

Keep in mind that the outline illustrated above is just anexample. Go through and determine just what topics will beappropriate for your own marketing plan. You'll find that someof the items listed above will not be relevant to what you areproposing, or will require a different approach in order to definethem in your marketing plan.

To determine just what you do need to include in your marketingplan, let's take a look at each topic and its significance tothe overall plan.

Executive Summary

The first item listed in the outline is the executivesummary of the marketing plan. The executive summary is a briefsynopsis of the entire marketing plan. It provides the reader withthe following information:

*A short description of your product or service

*Why it is different from your competitors' products orservices

*Your objectives and goals

*The competitive advantage your product or service has over yourcompetitors' products or services

*The amount of expansion capital needed to meet yourobjectives

*Financial results (i.e. return on investment, sales, profits,market share, etc.) and strategies that will be utilized to reachyour objectives.

A solid, hard-hitting executive summary is an important elementof a marketing plan, especially if you are trying to raise capitalto fund the product. It provides busy investors and lenders with aquick glance of your proposed idea. It can be a few paragraphslong, but should be no longer than a page and a half. The idea isto present a well-thought-out and succinct executive summary thatwill grab the reader's attention within the few minutesallotted to review the plan. It must convey the impression that youare a responsible individual who can get things done, and that yourplan has potential and a good chance for success.

Although the executive summary is usually prepared after theplan has been drafted, we are including it at the beginning of thissection because that is where it will be placed in the presentationof the marketing plan. You want to prepare your executive summaryafter the plan has been completed because it is impossible tosummarize a plan if you haven't formed it yet.

An executive summary is developed by reading through yourmarketing plan after it is completed and extracting the informationyou feel is key to the success of your proposal, such as size ofthe market, growth forecasts, relative competition, and yourobjectives. Start your summary with an attention-grabbing statementthat describes your market, product, and any unmet customer needs.Follow this up with the specific thrust of your marketing strategy.What are you trying to accomplish?

For instance, suppose you're in the business ofmanufacturing disposable diapers. It's a huge market withseveral major players and many minor ones including private-labelmanufacturers and direct marketing companies. This doesn't eventake into account peripheral competitors like diaper services andcloth diaper manufacturers. Through your research, you've comeacross a little-exploited gap in the market, and based on thatinformation have developed a biodegradable disposable diaper. Youwant to act fast and place this product on the market to developproduct brand association with your company before your competitorslaunch themselves into this market segment.

Given this situation, your executive summary might look like thefollowing:

Sample ExecutiveSummary

With over 1.6 million pounds of non-degradable disposablediapers finding their way into garbage dumps across America, manyAmericans are turning toward a more environmentally safe diaper fortheir babies to avoid the continued build-up of non-degradablediapers. Americans spend approximately $2.7 billion dollars peryear for disposable diapers, but that number has been shrinking dueto the encroachment of cloth diapers and delivery services with anestimated $400 million in sales each year.

Needless to say, the disposable diaper market is a huge,billion-dollar industry. These products are especially attractiveto dual-income families and single parents who don't have thetime to wash cloth diapers and don't want to spend the extramoney for a diaper delivery service. Competitors in the market allboast the same type of product with absorbent pads, surrounded by asnug-fitting plastic diaper that is secured using tape connectors.There is some product differentiation in packaging, non-allergenicclaims, and pad size ranging from ultra-thin to thick, but otherthan that there is very little difference between products. Despitethe popularity of disposable diapers, however, many consumers areturning away from disposable diapers because they are notbiodegradable.

Given this gap in the market, Bio-Diapers has been developed toprovide ecology-minded consumers with an environmentally safedisposable diaper. This new line of biodegradable disposablediapers will feature all the elements that are popular among usersof disposable diapers, but will include that added benefit --biodegradability. The revolutionary new advancement in thedisposable diaper market will attract consumers who are concernedabout the environment as well as those consumers using clothdiapers and diaper services because the disposable diaperscurrently on the market are non-degradable.

Bio-Diapers will be available for babies ranging from newbornsall the way up to 30 pounds and over. We will offer them in avariety of colorful designs and pad sizes. Our marketing objectivesand strategies are highlighted in the following pages. Weanticipate placing Bio-Diapers on the market by the summer of1995.

As you can see, the executive summary for Bio-Diapers is not along, drawn-out account listing all the profit projections,strategies, tactics, etc. That is for the plan itself. It doesprovide a descriptive summary that grabs the reviewer'sattention and creates the curiosity necessary to impel the readerto the next section of the marketing plan.

In part II of our Marketing Plan series, we'll becovering the Product Description. Tips are updated daily at5:00a.m. PST.