SAMPLE MARKETING PLANS OUTLINES & IDEAS

The following is designed to provide ideas for developing marketing plans and strategies.
Some parts may not be relevant to every product, service, market or situation. Some of it may
seem quite obvious. Some information may be difficult to get and will do with educated
guesses. A marketing plan can be very similar to a full business plan.
SITUATION OVERVIEW
A. COMPANY NAME
1. Date established

6. Company business philosophy

2. Sales history

7. Current awareness level of company among

3. Number of employees

buying influences

4. Key personnel

8. Current perception of company among buying

5. Chronology of company events

influences

a. mergers
b. acquisitions
c. divestitures
B. PRODUCTS AND/OR SERVICES
1. Product or Service A (Repeat steps below for each product or service applicable)
a. General description

1. purpose

4. sizing

2. features/benefits

5. methods of distribution

3. pricing
b. Advantages & disadvantages over competition
c. Current awareness level among end-users & pipeline influences
d. Current perception among end-users & pipeline influences
e. Sales/share-of-market history
f. Promotion program summary & results
g. Stage of Product Life Cycle
h. Phase of Advertising Spiral
i. Selling process
j. Current market positioning
C. MARKET
1. Product or Service A (Repeat steps below for each product or service applicable)
a. size (customers, sales units, dales value)
b. end user (business to business or consumer)
c. end-user, purchase decision making influences
d. pipeline influences (retailers, dealers, distributors, wholesalers, etc)

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D. COMPETITION
1. Competetive Product or Service X (Repeat for each competitive product or service)
a. General description

1. features, benefits

3. sizes

2. pricing

4. method(s) of distribution

b. Advantages & disadvantages over your product or service

c. Current awareness level among buying influences
d. Current perception among buying influences
e. Sales history/share of market
f. Promotion activities & spending
g. Positioning
h. Most likely strategy for the near future
E. NON-MARKETING CONSIDERATIONS
1. Economic

3. Social

2. Legal

4. Technical

5. Seasonal

MARKETING/SALES GOALS
A. PRODUCT OR SERVICE A (Repeat for each product or service)
1. Total Unit Sales

2. Total Dollar Sales

MARKETING PROBLEMS
A. PRODUCT OR SERVICE A (Repeat for each product or service)
1. Customer awareness
2. Perception of product

a. price; b. positioning; c. quality; d. performance; e. features; f.

operating efficiency; g. ease of use/handling; h. delivery/availability; i. Package; j. technology; k.

innovativeness; l. breadth of product line; m. pre-purchase assistance; n. after-sales service
(repair/maintenance, training); o. Sales force (responsiveness, product/industry knowledge,
professionalism)
3. Increased competitive pressures
4. Limited promotional budget
5. Lack of a strategic marketing communications plan
MARKETING OBJECTIVES
A. PRODUCT OR SERVICE A (Repeat for each product or service)
1. Increase market size
2. Increase market share
3. Maintain market share
4. Increase product usage within existing market

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MARKETING STRATEGY
A. PRODUCT OR SERVICE A (Repeat for each product or service)
1. Pull

2. Push

3. Push/pull

MARKETING TACTICS
A. PRODUCT OR SERVICE A (repeat for each product or service)
1. Conduct Primary Market Research Study to determine
a. current awareness level
b. current perception of product (use list above)
c. importance-ranking of purchase decision making influences
d. importance-ranking of purchase decision making factors
e. how responses differ by
1. demographics

4. reading/viewing/listening habits

2. psychographics

5. business types / situations

3. behavioristics
2. Adopt viable positioning, vis-a-vis competition
3. Improve product
a. add new features

b. improve performance

c. add new sizes

4. Price
a. raise

b. lower

c. maintain

5. Pipeline
a. increase sales force/sales representation
b. open new outlets
c. increase representation with new retailers, dealers, distributors, etc.
6. Redesign package
7. Promotion

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SAMPLE MARKETING PLAN WORKSHEET

I. MARKET ANALYSIS
A. Target Market - Who are the customers?
1. We will be selling primarily to (check all that apply):
Percent of Business
a. Private sector ________
b. Wholesalers ________
c. Retailers ________
d. Government _______
e. Other ________
2. We will be targeting customers by:
a. Product line/services. We will target specific lines ___________________
b. Geographic area? Which areas? ___________________
c. Sales? We will target sales of ___________________
d. Industry? Our target industry is ___________________
e. Other? ___________________
3. How much will our selected market spend on our type of product or service this coming year?
______________________________________________________________________________
B. Competition
1. Who are our competitors?
Name ___________________________________________
Address _________________________________________
Years in Business ___________________
Market Share ___________________
Price/Strategy ___________________
Product/Service ___________________
Features ___________________
(Do for each competitor)
2. How competitive is the market?
High __________ Medium ________ Low __________
3. List below your strengths and weaknesses compared to your competition (consider such areas as
location, size of resources, reputation, services, personnel, etc.):
Strengths
Weaknesses
1.________________________ 1._______________________
2.________________________ 2._______________________
3.________________________ 3._______________________
4.________________________ 4._______________________
C. Environment
1. The following are some important economic factors that will affect our product or service (such as
country growth, industry health, economic trends, taxes, rising energy prices, etc.):
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
2. The following are some important legal factors that will affect our market:
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

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3. The following are some important government factors:

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
4. The following are other environmental factors that will affect our market, but over which we have no
control:
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
II. PRODUCT OR SERVICE ANALYSIS
A. Description
1. Describe here what the product/service is and what it does:
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
B. Comparison
1. What advantages does our product/service have over those of the competition (consider such
things as unique features, patents, expertise, special training, etc.)?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
2. What disadvantages does it have?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
C. Some Considerations
1. Where will you get your materials and supplies?
________________________________________________________________
2. List other considerations:
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
III. MARKETING STRATEGIES - MARKET MIX
A. Image
1. First, what kind of image do we want to have (such as cheap but good, or exclusiveness, or
customer-oriented or highest quality, or convenience, or speed, or ...)?
________________________________________________________________
B. Features
1. List the features we will emphasize:
a. ______________________________________________________
b. ______________________________________________________
c. ______________________________________________________
C. Pricing
1. We will be using the following pricing strategy:
a. Markup on cost ____ What % Markup? ______
b. Suggested price ____
c. Competitive ____
d. Below competition ____
e. Premium price ____
f. Other ____
2. Are our prices in line with our image?

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3. Do our prices cover costs and leave a margin of profit?

YES ___ NO ___

D. Customer Services
1. List the customer services we provide:
a. ____________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________
c. ____________________________________________
2. These are our sales/credit terms:
a. _____________________________________________
b. _____________________________________________
c. _____________________________________________
3. The competition offers the following services:
a. ______________________________________________
b. ______________________________________________
c. ______________________________________________
E. Advertising/Promotion
1. These are the things we wish to say about the business:
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
2. We will use the following advertising/promotion sources:
1. Television ________
2. Radio ________
3. Direct mail ________
4. Personal contacts ________
5. Trade associations ________
6. Newspaper ________
7. Magazines ________
8. Yellow Pages ________
9. Billboard ________
10. Other ___________ ________
3. The following are the reasons why we consider the media we have chosen to be the most effective:
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

[Taken from www.bizmove.com/marketing/m2h.htm]

Other Resources:
Look at the sample plan at http://www.paloalto.com/ (the document is at:
www.paloalto.com/sampleplans/MPP6/enu/Live/InteriorViews-mpp_Live.pdf)
Have a look at some of the sample plans at www.mplans.com
Do a search using Google.com or About.com for marketing plan.

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