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Life's what happens while we're making other plans.
-- John Lennon
What should your client organization do to integrate the Web into its marketing?
This marketing plan material will look only at the online aspects, assuming complementary offline marketing. Core question: What will it take in the future to maximize the organization's online presence as an asset?
an alternative plan - QuickMBA's Marketing Plan Outline
don't confuse project planning with strategic planning
don't confuse tactics with strategy
The orchestra starts playing and some son of a bitch climbs
out of the orchestra pit with a bayonet and starts chasing you around the stage.
And the choreography goes right out the window.
-- Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, first Gulf War
Battle management is like putting your canoe in a mountain
stream and saying, "I'm not just going to manage my canoe, I'm going to manage
the stream."
-- Gen. Paul Van Riper, second Gulf War
... a flexible, opportunistic plan
-- Gen. Wesley Clark, retired, on CNN, April 2003
You should be able to re-work much of your business plan from MBA 600 into this marketing plan. The suggested outline sections are numbered. Pick and choose from them. My comments are boxed:
My comments
Some of this information, we don't have the time or resources to collect, so we're going to have to stipulate it. That means, we're going to pick something probable or at least probably to replace what we need but don't have. Your plans are going to start showing up on search engines, and you'll no doubt get queries, which is why I strongly recommend that Sam use words other than "Dave Matthews".
You should note clearly on your online materials that they are for class purposes only. You should also clearly mark what you stipulate lest you mislead anyone.
Who are your markets?
You should stipulate with as much specificity as possible.
2.1.1 Market Demographics
2.1.2 Market Needs
2.1.3 Market Trends
2.1.4 Market Growth
Wal-Mart
Jumps Into Online Music Fray With Low-Price Service
Wall Street Journal, November 13, 2003 (sub req'd)
Wal-Mart Stores is launching an online music store featuring prices that are geared to undercut its competitors, according to people close to the deal. The retail giant is partnering with Geneva Media, which last January purchased Liquid Audio's digital-music fulfillment business. The Walmart.com music store will have about 200,000 songs available in its library, and will seek to differentiate itself by offering titles and categories not well-represented other online music ventures' collections. For instance, the Walmart.com music selection is expected to be heavy on the country and Western genre. Wal-Mart will face plenty of competition in a market that is expected to account for $1.4 billion, or 11%, of the music industry's $12.8 billion in sales within three years, according to Forrester Research, which predicts that by 2008, 33% of music sales will come from downloads. Currently, Wal-Mart accounts for about 20% of U.S. music sales.
Don't pull punches. Beat your critic to the punch.
Who would be in the center with you? These are your direct competitors.
Direct competitors are other companies that share your NAICS code. Summarize them here. Indirect competitors are other companies or activities that would be alternative choices for your customers.
Emphasize the competitive advantages.
If you succeed, it will be because ...
If you fail (when you fail), it will be because ... (the four most common)
lack of sufficient
capitalization
inability to retain
customers (repeat customers)
bad information, often
market size and willingness to purchase / switch
inexperience (bad management)
Note that "bad original business idea" is not on this list.
How has this market been served in the past?
aka LEPEST-C
Legal, Environmental, Political, Economic, Societal and Technical. When the C is added it stands for Competition. Sometimes the first E for Environmental is not included.
the organizational mission
Get out the trash compactor: in 250 words or fewer, explain what you do, your competitive advantage, how you acquire customers, where you position yourself with your competitors, why you will succeed, how you want to be known, what your core values are, why you are credible, etc. etc. etc.
Several measurable indicators, with the emphasis on measurable as in countable.
Think through both disaster and success scenarios. What will happen if you don't make your numbers? What will happen if you exceed them?
Several bottom-line numbers indicating financial health, growth, and consequences of reaching the above marketing objectives.
Ballpark numbers summarizing info in section 2.1 above
the 5th P
Among your competitors ... ?
what do you want to be
known for or as?
how good do you want
to be?
how big do you want to
be?
how much diversity of
products and services do you want to have?
is there a flagship
product / service for which you want to be known?
How can you afford all
of this?
aka coarse to fine strategy - learn more
Product | Place | Price | Promotion
Growing Up Digital
and The Alliance for Converging Technologies
by Don Tapscott
The four "p"s of marketing are dead. Rather than products, customers value experiences. Rather than place, they will create relationships in the marketspace or the clicks-and-bricks interface – the "marketface." Prices can no longer be defined by sellers with the new price-discovery mechanisms. And promotion is being replaced by the forging of interactive relationships.
What do you need to learn more about in the next year or so? What will it let you do better, cheaper, faster?
While a complete marketing plan ready for scrutiny by investors or loan officers must include finance and control information, for the purposes of this MBA 604 project, you can skimp here as well as on section 5.0 Controls below.
The half dozen web sites below are all affiliated with each other. How are they making money? By selling CD's? By collecting the information you enter, tracking it with cookies, and generating sales leads? By providing you with a lot of free information and being there (and charging) when you need help using it? By waiting for lightning to strike, that is, for someone to drop a dynamite plan into their lap?
Bplans.com - click on Sample Business Plans - Start the Wizard, which takes you to PlanWizard.com. Please register with any syntactically correct email address. In other words, it doesn't have to be yours.
Marketing Plan Pro - 7 Simple Steps to a Complete Marketing Plan
This sample marketing plan has been made available to users
of Marketing Plan Pro(tm), marketing plan software published by Palo Alto
Software. It is based on a real marketing plan of an existing company. Names and
numbers have been changed, and substantial portions of text may have been
omitted to preserve confidential information.
You are welcome to use this plan as a starting point to create your own, but you
do not have permission to reproduce, publish, distribute, or even copy this plan
as it exists here.
Requests for reprints, academic use, and other dissemination of this sample plan
should be addressed to the marketing department of Palo Alto Software.
sample plan (.pdf)
Marketing Strategy and Planning,
Inc.
Mixing and matching the resources available on these sites, please fashion an outline
of a marketing plan appropriate to your project. Student plans from Spring 2000
at Ricci Green's Show and Tell
Theater. Note that the outline for the not-for-profit church has some
different sub-topics than the outline for the well-established collision shop.
Both those outlines differ slightly from the outline for the flower baskets.
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