Marketing plans are detailed strategies of how to go about successfully marketing a product or products and earning a projected amount of return from the effort. A comprehensive marketing plan will consider such important elements as: distribution costs, production costs, advertising expenses and any expense related to identifying and marketing the products to the consumers in the targeted markets.
The marketing plan may focus on strategies related to the upcoming twelve-month period, the next calendar year, or include a span of three to five years into the future.
A truly solid marketing plan goes beyond defining broad goals. Often, the plan is highly detailed by moving past broad objectives to identify specific goals that are met all through the life of the marketing plan. Along with setting these specific goals, an escalation list or a list of action items is also spelled out for each goal. This helps the marketer to not only know what the goal happens to be, but also how to go about achieving the goal.
The development of a proper marketing plan involves information collected from several different sources. Opinions of advertisers on the product line are very important. Corporate executives provide information involving the manufacturing process and costs associated with creating the products. Marketing executives identify consumers who are most likely to buy the product, define the characteristics that apply to this consumer base, and how the product line will meet their current needs and wants.
