Assignment

Throughout this course, you will develop a marketing plan for an existing product or service.  In each module, you will complete a component of your marketing plan.  A marketing plan serves to form the basis of a marketing strategy.

In this module, you will identify a product or service, and you will research, select, and submit a marketing template to use for developing your plan.  You may either explore existing marketing plans through Internet research, or you may use the following marketing template:

SAMPLE – Marketing Plan Template

The Formal Marketing Plan and Informal Marketing Plan links provide useful information for you to get started.  Also, the following sample marketing plan may be useful to gain a better understanding of the expectations for your final marketing plan project:

                SAMPLE – Final Marketing Plan

Your final marketing plan must include the following information:

• Introduction (including product/service, purpose, audience, and product life cycle)
• Marketing Environment (including competitive, economic, political, legal, technological, and sociological forces)
• Marketing Objectives
• Marketing Management
• Marketing Mix (4 Ps/7 Ps, to include product, price, place, and promotion)
• Marketing Segmentation (including target markets)
• SWOT Analysis
• Competitor Analysis
• Advertising Approach/Strategy
• Budget

For this activity, submit your marketing plan template, identifying your selected product/service, to your instructor for evaluation and approval.

Things to Remember!

• Select an existing product or service that you are excited about or have a particular interested in researching.
• Choose a marketing template that best supports your product/service.  You may use the sample template provided, or you may select a different template with instructor approval.  Although your final marketing plan may vary from APA formatting, it must be a professional document.
• Be creative … this is a marketing class!

Compose your work using a word processor (or other software as appropriate) and save it frequently to your computer. Be sure to check your work and correct any spelling or grammatical errors before you upload it. When you are ready to submit your work, click "Browse My Computer" and find your file. Once you have located your file, click "Open" and, if successful, the file name will appear under the Attached files heading. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Submit."

Use the EC Library resources to properly cite your work:

• APA Format Tip Sheet
• Citing Sources
• Plagiarism & Copyright

This activity will count as 5% of your grade and will be assessed according to the Marketing Plan Template Rubric (checklist).

Formal Marketing Plans

2

What are formal marketing plans?

Formal marketing planning is what is commonly thought of as marketing planning. It tends to be a systematic process that includes a series of stages. Few authors agree on the specifics of the process but it is common to see the marketing plan beginning with analysis, the development of strategy and the implementation of the marketing mix (Hooley et al 1996, Simkin 2000, Kotler 2001, Baker 2000, Dibb 2002).

Hence there is the use of a mission statement and corporate objectives. Such a strategic view is not common to all approaches. Commonly the organization’s size is ignored completely (Dibb 2002). Others place marketing planning after strategic planning (Kotler 2001, Wensley (in Baker 2003). There are many applications of marketing planning that create their own contradictions and confusions that simply underpin the fact that there is no straightforward, commonly accepted approach. There is often some overlap between the strategic and operational aspects of marketing planning (Varadarajan and Clark 1994)

Marketing planning is widespread (Dibb 2002) and has been adopted by a wide variety of organizations in almost every market and sector, such as the service sector (Greenley 1983), the manufacturing sector (Greenley 1982), cause relate marketing (Adkins 1999), arts marketing (Kerrigan et al 2004), as well as many others. The subject of marketing planning has generated a large number of papers, books and studies that have approached the subject in a number of ways. The earliest references to marketing planning were made in the 1960’s. Marketing planning for industrial products has been investigated (Ames 1960). Consumer manufacturing companies were scrutinized by Stasch and Lanktree in the 1980’s. Hopkins (1981) looked into 265 US companies of varying sizes. US grocery manufacturers from the top one-hundred spenders on advertising were examined in 1982 by Cosse and Swan. From a geographical point of view, the early research was done in the United States of America followed by research from British academics.

McDonald’s 1982 PhD thesis looked at the views of mainly directors and chief executives from UK companies, whilst Greenley (1982, 1983) investigated both manufacturing companies and service companies, all with varying turnovers and with differences in size. Therefore strategic versus tactical marketing planning may be an oversimplification. As can be seen from the short series of selected examples above, companies that adopt marketing planning come from a variety of market sectors, different countries and cultures, from companies with a range of turnovers.

Marketing plans, according to McDonald (2003), contain a series of steps that make up the marketing planning process. The steps are mission, corporate objectives, marketing audit, SWOT analysis, assumptions, marketing objectives and strategies, estimate expected results, identify alternative plans and mixes, budgets, and first year implementation programme. This is a typical formal marketing planning process. However McDonald tends to take a strategic perspective on marketing planning as opposed to a tactical/operational perspective, and this difference of perspective is one for which there are varying opinions in the marketing planning literature.

Strategic and Tactical – Marketing Planning Perspectives

The much emulated and generally highly regarded ‘McDonald’ approach to marketing planning contains a series of provisos or assumptions. It is strategic rather than tactical i.e. it is a corporate marketing plan. Definitions of strategic as opposed to tactical are cited below.

A strategic plan is a plan which covers a period beyond the next fiscal year. Usually this is for between three and five years.

(McDonald 2003 p31)

A tactical plan covers in quite a lot of detail about actions to be taken, by whom, during a short-term planning period. This is usually for one year or less.

(McDonald 2003 p31)

Informal Marketing Plans

7

What is informal marketing planning?

Formal and informal approaches to marketing planning were investigated by Lyles (1993). This study found that neither had any relationship with business success. Over 60 studies into SME’s were collated by Shrader et al (1989). Their conclusion was that there are some benefits to informal marketing planning, especially in smaller firms.

The shift from formal to informal marketing planning tends to see the marketing planning process as something that is not linear but as something influenced by the behaviour of the marketer. The linear approach to planning ignores the human and organisational factors that impact upon the marketing planning process. Many organisations could find difficulty in closing the gap between the theory and practice of marketing planning. The reason for this is that a logical model of marketing planning is being superimposed upon an organisation. It ignores the behavioural and experiential inputs that the manager himself brings to the planning process (Piercy and Giles 1989). From this behavioural perspective, the plan is not a written document (Monroy 1985). The most recent manifestation of the inadequacy of the current literature was expressed by Greenley, Hooley and Saunders (2004).

Their criticism has resonance since it is based upon their dissatisfaction with the current focus upon ‘what’ decisions should be made, rather than ‘how’ they are made. They suggest two models of marketing planning, and propose directions for new research. The first model is the ‘direct effects’ model, and the second is the ‘moderator effects’ model. Whilst the call for new research into the topic of marketing planning is welcomed, the nature of the two models is informal, but more importantly the value of the individual marketing manager is omitted. Neither model refers to human behaviour, individual learning or experience.

The owner/manager tends to make business decisions based upon his or own experience and judgement. Once again there is disagreement regarding the link between such planning and decision-making in small businesses, with Robinson and Pearce (1993) finding that owners of small businesses did not link their decision-making process to formal planning. The formal nature of marketing planning is rejected by Piercy and Giles (1989).

There is recognition that the formal marketing planning process does not take into account the human realities of the planner. Marketing plans may in reality be driven from below by tactics rather than from above by strategies. These ideas are important since they not only see marketing planning taking place almost in reverse, but also because they offer informed criticism of the linear, formal planning process and begin to suggest that marketing planning in general is more informal than formal. It is also noticeable that Piercy and Giles (1989) do not see formal marketing planning as something adopted by large organisations with informal planning being practiced solely by small businesses or their owners. Informal marketing planning is also practiced by large organisations. Applying the same planning process to all organisations is like a doctor prescribing the same drug to all patients regardless of their ailment (McDonald 1986b). A series of criticisms of a written business plan were lodged by Monroy (1995).

A written business plan was rarely referred to after preparation, and there was little causality between business plan creation and business success. This view is supported by the earlier work of Bracker and Pearson (1986) in that the unstructured nature of planning was a process rather than a written document. If the process it not written and nor is it formal, what actually takes place? It is accepted that a written planning document is often the starting point (Kuratko 1995).

Informal Marketing Plans

7

What is informal marketing planning?

Formal and informal approaches to marketing planning were investigated by Lyles (1993). This study found that neither had any relationship with business success. Over 60 studies into SME’s were collated by Shrader et al (1989). Their conclusion was that there are some benefits to informal marketing planning, especially in smaller firms.

The shift from formal to informal marketing planning tends to see the marketing planning process as something that is not linear but as something influenced by the behaviour of the marketer. The linear approach to planning ignores the human and organisational factors that impact upon the marketing planning process. Many organisations could find difficulty in closing the gap between the theory and practice of marketing planning. The reason for this is that a logical model of marketing planning is being superimposed upon an organisation. It ignores the behavioural and experiential inputs that the manager himself brings to the planning process (Piercy and Giles 1989). From this behavioural perspective, the plan is not a written document (Monroy 1985). The most recent manifestation of the inadequacy of the current literature was expressed by Greenley, Hooley and Saunders (2004).

Their criticism has resonance since it is based upon their dissatisfaction with the current focus upon ‘what’ decisions should be made, rather than ‘how’ they are made. They suggest two models of marketing planning, and propose directions for new research. The first model is the ‘direct effects’ model, and the second is the ‘moderator effects’ model. Whilst the call for new research into the topic of marketing planning is welcomed, the nature of the two models is informal, but more importantly the value of the individual marketing manager is omitted. Neither model refers to human behaviour, individual learning or experience.

The owner/manager tends to make business decisions based upon his or own experience and judgement. Once again there is disagreement regarding the link between such planning and decision-making in small businesses, with Robinson and Pearce (1993) finding that owners of small businesses did not link their decision-making process to formal planning. The formal nature of marketing planning is rejected by Piercy and Giles (1989).

There is recognition that the formal marketing planning process does not take into account the human realities of the planner. Marketing plans may in reality be driven from below by tactics rather than from above by strategies. These ideas are important since they not only see marketing planning taking place almost in reverse, but also because they offer informed criticism of the linear, formal planning process and begin to suggest that marketing planning in general is more informal than formal. It is also noticeable that Piercy and Giles (1989) do not see formal marketing planning as something adopted by large organisations with informal planning being practiced solely by small businesses or their owners. Informal marketing planning is also practiced by large organisations. Applying the same planning process to all organisations is like a doctor prescribing the same drug to all patients regardless of their ailment (McDonald 1986b). A series of criticisms of a written business plan were lodged by Monroy (1995).

A written business plan was rarely referred to after preparation, and there was little causality between business plan creation and business success. This view is supported by the earlier work of Bracker and Pearson (1986) in that the unstructured nature of planning was a process rather than a written document. If the process it not written and nor is it formal, what actually takes place? It is accepted that a written planning document is often the starting point (Kuratko 1995).