Your Marketing Plan
Sadly, there is always someone in a company (usually the CEO or CMO) that says “Let’s see a marketing plan”.
Why is it sad? Because, what is a marketing plan?
Over the 20 years that I have been in business, I have put together over 100 marketing plans, and each and every one is different. And no, its not because the products were different, it sometimes comes down to:
1) the culture of the business,
2) the budget,
3) the personnel,
4) and many other items (but, way too long to put here).
Most newbies in marketing get their college marketing book and use the template that is provided to put the plan together. I admit it, I did this the first time also.
After about an hour of trying to “make things fit”, I realized that it doesn’t work that way.
Some companies consider Sales to be an integral part of a plan, other companies want the Sales team to be left out.
Some companies want it to be a local launch, others want it to be worldwide.
Some companies require that other divisions be involved, where others let the Marketing team be autonomous with the plan.
And some companies don’t want promotions to be a part of it, or PR, or advertising, or who knows what.
All of these have to be taken into consideration when putting a plan together.
KNOW the person who asks for the plan. Know what they are thinking and what they want.
If you don’t know, ask!!! My first 20 plans were what I thought would be a good plan for a “go to market” strategy, and most had to go through major revisions before the actual presentation was made. All because I didn’t know what the person who asked for the plan wanted.
To end, I will give this brief example. One time, I did a 20 slide Power Point presentation, covering everything, from merchandising the product to how the sales team could “pitch” the product. After I finished, the CMO said “All I wanted was how we will role this out to the Media”, i.e. a Public Relations program.
Make sure that you get a definition of the “plan” before you begin – it will save time and headaches.
