4 Role of the Marketing Plan

Marketing Plan

Dissects the overall environment in which the product or service will be used ( the Marketing strategy or how objectives will be met)

Determines marketing objectives, or what is to be accomplished through advertising efforts and

Marketing strategy or how objectives will be met

Employ the use of open-ended questions

Qualitative data

Gathers a representative sample of the target audience, usually ten to twelve people, who will use or try the product in a controlled environment

Focus group

Made up of closed-ended or controlled surveys, where participants must choose their answers from a preselected set of responses

Quantitative data

Informal surveys

Open ended, allowing participants to give their opinions

Primary data

Do not exist and require that original research be gathered from a variety of sources such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, or experiments

Secondary Data

Already available, can be found from external sources like the public library, websites, and the US Census

The ______________ is a section of the marketing plan that looks at a company’s strengths (S) and weaknesses (W) as compared to the competition and any opportunities (O) for & threats (T) to the product or service within the marketplace

Marketing objective

What the company wants to accomplish through its advertising efforts

Marketing strategy

Determines what steps will need to be undertaken to accomplish the stated objectives

Target audience or target market

People research has determined are most likely to buy the product or use the service

Separated into the following market segments:

Demographics

Breaks down personal attributes such as age, sex, income, marital and professional status, occupation, education, number of children

Psychographics

Examines the targets personal attributes that affect lifestyle

Psychographics

Geographics

Defines where the target lives

Behavioristic profiles

Look at why a person buys

Niche Marketing

Concentrating advertising efforts specifically on winning the attention of a small group of mostly affluent consumers loyal to one specific product

Competitive Strategies

Understanding the similarities and differences between a product and its leading competitors

Evaluation

Takes place before the marketing plan is put into effect and again after implementation