Publisher's Synopsis
Here is everything you need to know for a disciplined, comprehensive "real world" marketing plan to help your company thrive and grow. This essential must-have information for anyone planning marketing programs in any size organization and any industry-consumer goods, service, retailing, business to business and public sector. Thousands of practitioner, teaching, and consulting hours have gone into preparing this new edition of NTC's popular marketing plan guide. The marketing background section of this new edition has been expanded and revised, providing more and easier ways to access information with which to write the marketing plan that follows. New chapters on locking target market and marketing objectives to sales, setting communication goals, executing the plan, and market research and testing add even more valuable and detailed insight into the planning process. The second edition also offers 50% more information-data, ideas, worksheets, and strategic thinking. How to Write a Successful Marketing Plan gives you a proven, easy-to-follow, step-by-step, interlocking process for developing your marketing plan. It details what information you need to prepare you plan and provides a 10 step method that lets you write a plan that quantitatively locks all elements of the plan to deliver the sales objectives. It includes actual worksheets, flowcharts, outlines, and formats to help you gather and apply the information you need to make the right strategic decisions all along the way. When you finish this book, not only will your plan be ready but you'll be ready to implement your plan! How to Write a Successful Marketing Plan is the marketer's complete guide to
- Finding the data you need to develop your plan
- Conducting an accurate situation analysis
- Formulating problems and opportunities
- Setting realistic sales objectives
- Defining target markets and quantifying marketing plan objectives in a manner that ties directly back to fulfilling the sales objectives
- Positioning your products
- Preparing your marketing strategies from 18 strategic alternatives
- Determining the awareness and attitude communication goals that will fulfill your marketing objectives and help guide your development of the tactical marketing mix tools
- Establishing specific objectives and strategies for tactical tool components: products, pricing, promotion, advertising, merchandising, publicity, and more
- Condensing your plan into a workable calendar of activities
- Arriving at a realistic budget and payback schedule
- Using the keys to successful execution of the plan
- Evaluating and testing the plan's effectiveness
