The Marketing Plan: An Overview

Abstract

This note presents a simple outline for operating a marketing plan.

Excerpt

UVA-M-0613

The Marketing Plan: An Overview

For several reasons, every Darden graduate should know how to write a marketing plan. First, some graduates will take marketing positions in which they will be required to write marketing plans for specific products or services. Second, those graduates who assume other functional positions will find that their jobs are affected by the marketing plans that others write. For example, the plant manager will find that his operations are affected by the marketing plans of his colleagues. If the plant manager plans to produce 100,000 widgets, he needs to find out sooner rather than later whether or not his marketing colleagues plan on selling 100,000 widgets.

Third, any competitive analysis involves understanding the marketing plans of current and potential competitors. Fourth, investors must evaluate the marketing plans of companies that are possible investment candidates. Finally, many Darden graduates aspire to start their own business. In most cases, they will have to write a marketing plan that will convince others to invest in their start-up venture.

For all of these reasons, we believe that Darden graduates should feel comfortable with the various elements of a marketing plan. We hope that you will develop this comfort over the course of your first year at Darden. For our first class, we offer the following simple summary of a marketing plan. Any marketing plan consists of five key elements: a statement of goals and objectives, a marketing strategy, a set of marketing mix decisions, financial projections, and arrangements for monitoring the plan's implementation. Each of these elements is defined briefly below.

Goals and Objectives

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Keywords: marketing planning, marketing strategy