Marketing Plan Worksheets

To Accompany Marketing: A Practical Approach 7e

These worksheets will help you to prepare a Marketing Plan for a good
or service you have selected. Each section of the worksheets relates to
the material in one or more specific chapters in the text; if you are
unsure how to complete a particular section, simply refer to the
nominated chapter of the text for guidance or additional information.
For an initial feeling for the structure and contents of a marketing plan,
refer to the section in Chapter 1 headed The Marketing Plan.

Marketing plans do vary in depth and breadth, depending usually on

the importance to the firm of the product or service the plan is being
prepared for, and the time period the plan is intended to cover; an
annual plan for an existing line will be shorter and largely tactical,
whereas a plan covering the launch and first three years of a major
new product venture will be strategic and much more detailed.

Plans also vary according to the type of industry, product and even the
preferences of an organisation’s management. Some organisations
require extensive planning to be completed before funds will be
allocated to support any product, while others take a more flexible
approach. In your marketing career it is likely you will encounter both
views towards planning. Here are three points that might help you to
reconcile them:

• Planning should never be an alternative to action

• Planning should increase the chance of success by reducing

uncertainty

• The modern world changes quickly – marketing planning must

have flexibility built-in.

Good luck compiling your own marketing plan!

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Marketing Plan Worksheets
 Executive Summary
(see Chapter 1)

The executive summary is just that – a summary of your plan that allows
executives (i.e. your boss!) to make a quick assessment of what you are
proposing. An executive summary should include:

i. Brief description of the product, service or business and who it is aimed at

ii. Summaries of any critical influences in the marketing environment
iii. Summaries of marketing mix elements
iv. Key financial indicators – capital costs, budgeted sales, expenses and
contributions

Most executive summaries will be limited to one or two pages. Even though the
executive summary appears at the front of the plan (for easy access) it is best to
write it last.

Write your Executive Summary below:

Executive Summary
i. The car rental company which is providing different types of cars,
truck and ute services to different age group of people or companies.
The target audience of this company is individuals because they can
sale insurance, gps, trollies, ropes and boxes frequently in week. So
they can make money from selling their products more than one time
in week rather than giving it to companies for long term contract. We
are trying to attract more international and domestic customers by
providing free pick up and drop off from airport or their places nearby.
ii. As we have to face our competitors as well we have to be more
specific about customers demand. For that we are trying to attract the
customers by giving them reliable cars and quick services with no
hidden costs or information about their liabilities.

iii. We are located at many places around Brisbane and we are trying to
grow as per the market demands for future. Talking about the price we
have convenient price ranges suitable for any customer’s
requirements. The cars we rent are from one company and all new
cars, and we are trying to bring new models for a better performance
point of view and attract customers. To promote our product and
services we are trying to give those cheap rates by booking online and
some upgrade options like unlimited kilometres and other driver as
well.

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 iv. WE are trying to make good sales by attracting more customers as we
can rent a car or truck or ute to individual for short term contract so we
can rotate the money more frequently and can do good sale for
insurance options, GPS, trolley, ropes or boxes. And also as we are
good profitable company we are planning to invest our money to buy
more cars for so we can provide more vehicles to reach the current
and future demand.

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Marketing Plan Worksheets
 Situation Analysis
(See Chapter 2)

The next step is to conduct an analysis of the current situation facing your firm or
product. One tip; focus only on the major or important factors that might influence
marketing performance. Don't worry about insignificant forces. There may be
nothing worth entering under one or two of the sub-headings. That's fine, let's not
create issues or problems that really aren't there.

By the way, there are various ways of structuring a Situation Analysis in a

Marketing Plan. Here we are using a Broad External Marketing Environment
Analysis to assess the macro-environment your product will be facing, a SWOT
analysis to look at the current position of your product or firm, and a Competitor
Analysis to assess the strengths, weaknesses and positioning of your main
competitors.

Broad External Marketing Environment analysis

This is where you list any factors that you feel might have an impact on the
potential for your product.

Demographic environment
• Are there any demographic trends that might influence your product –
population shifts, birth or death rates, migration?

Economic environment
• Are there any economic events or trends that might impact on your product
– interest rates, exchange rates, inflation, consumer spending? Are these
international, national or regional?

Competitive environment
• Is your industry or market highly competitive and volatile or mature and
orderly? Do you face one or two large competitors or many small ones?

Social and cultural environment

• What attitudes and behaviours might have an impact on your product or firm
– relating to health, work, leisure, time, your firm or product type etc?

Political and legal environment

• What is the elected government’s attitude/policies in your product area,
what is the Opposition’s, what particular laws or regulations might have an
impact on your firm or product?

Technological factors
• How might new production, communication or promotion technologies be
useful to your firm or product, how might they threaten or constrain you?

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Write your Broad External Marketing Environment Analysis below:

Broad External Marketing Environment Analysis

Looking forward to capacity of a person who is
hiring a Car, Truck or Ute for their business or
personal use. Mostly we are concern to focus on
people or companies who would like to hire
Trucks or Utes for long term rentals. Most of the
Demographic
working peoples are looking for hire on very short
environment
time period, also the young age people prefer to
rent 4WD for off road use. The trucks and utes
are hired by companies and individuals for
moving their houses and machineries to other
places.
This affects our business in huge amount as
some international customers’ needs facilities like
Economic environment
airport pick up and drop off which we are
providing them.

Competitive environment

Social and cultural

environment

Political and legal

environment

Technological factors

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Marketing Plan Worksheets
SWOT Analysis
Think about your product or firm as it is now. Remember, it is important to be
brutally honest. Remember, you are looking for capabilities that give you
competitive advantage (Strengths) or disadvantage (Weaknesses).

Strengths
• In what marketing areas are you bigger, better, cheaper, faster than your
competitors?

Weaknesses
• In what marketing areas are you smaller, weaker, more expensive, slower
than your competitors?

Opportunities
• List any changes you have identified in the external marketing environment
that may benefit your firm or product

Threats
• List any changes or potential events in the environment that may harm your
firm or product

Action Plans
• For each SWOT factor you have identified outline a strategy to respond:
o How might you further build on your strengths and overcome your
weaknesses?
o How can you exploit your opportunities and minimise the potential
impact of your threats?

Write your SWOT Analysis below:

SWOT Analysis
We are providing faster and convenient services as
compare to our competitors like we are close to the airport
so we can do pickup and drop off much faster than others.
Strengths
We have different locations where people need to hire our
vehicles for their needs such as green slopes, Tingalpa,
Hendra, Transit Centre etc.
As per the customers demand we need some more vehicles
like people movers for carrying 7-8 people at a time. In
holidays we get customers in group or families to hire our
Weaknesses
vehicles and that makes us difficult to sale them two
vehicles instead of one, though it is good for our business
but we lose those customers for next time.
We can provide rental car franchise to individuals to grow
our distribution channel and make easy profit. By giving
Opportunities discount vouchers we can attract more customers or can
satisfy the current customers as well.

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 Cost of buying new vehicles is high. From a technological
standpoint, renting a car to go the distance for a meeting is
a less attractive alternative as opposed to video
conferencing, virtual teams and collaboration software with
Threats
which a company can immediately setup a meeting with its
employees from anywhere around the world at a cheaper
cost.

Competitor Analysis
Who will be your major competitors in this market, where are their strong and
weak points, where might they be vulnerable to your new product?

There are various ways to undertake a competitor analysis; one method is to use a
grid such as the one below. The attributes that are important in your particular
market may well be different and more extensive than these.

You might choose to give each competitor a rating against each attribute, or
simply enter a comment. The advantage of this method of competitor analysis is
that you can see at a glance what you will be up against when you enter the
market. You may also see market gaps or competitive weaknesses that will be
helpful to you when you develop your own strategy.

Write your Competitor Analysis below:

Competitor Analysis
Attributes Budget Direct Europcar Ace rental car
New family cars, Good transport People mover
Provide road vehicles , cars, Free
Product quality side assistance excellent and airport pickup
well maintain and drop off
vehicles
Loyal in current Well-funded and Creative
Brand equity market reputed company
Economical, fuel Economical and New and trendy
efficient cars heavy vehicles, cars, Good
comfortable for performance
Style
luxury class vehicles
people and
middle class
Cheap hiring Expensive in Competitive
Price / value rates price but more price
valuable
Expanding into Big company Limited market
Market coverage new market and big market coverage
share
Comparative Well known and Poor
Advertising advertisement less advertising advertisement

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 Creative and Professionals Fresh sales men
Sales team
profitable sales and skilled sales
strength
team team

Gathering marketing information

In reality, of course, we will most probably have conducted research before
developing a Marketing Plan. To give yourself some practice, however, consider
the research project below; it is known as a concept test, and is often conducted
before a firm makes a final decision on proceeding with a product development
project.

Concept Test
Product:
• How big is the target market (describe one group you think will be interested
in your product - how many people or firms are there in this group?)

• Describe the main want that your product satisfies?

o Describe other wants your product satisfies.
o How do people in the target market currently satisfy these wants?

• What feature of your product will give the target market better satisfaction
than they are receiving now?

• Will the increase in satisfaction offered by your product be sufficient to

cause some of the target market to switch to your product? If the answer is
'yes', what proportion of people in the target market do you think might try
your product? (note: be conservative, many marketers overestimate this)

Write your Concept Test below:

Concept Test
Our market is targeted for promoting our product and service in
Brisbane. We are growing our business in different location as
per the customers demand. As our market is segment for
Target
different group of people the market size is large and we are
market size
focusing to provide long term contract to big companies for their
international employees. WE are providing Utes and Trucks for
long term hire.
As we have economical cars, family cars and SUV for long trip.
As per the current customer demand and looking for current
Satisfied
hiring ratio women in Australia are driving more than men so
want
we have put new cars specially for women which they likes to
drive and that can satisfy their wants.
Product We have all cars from same brand and they are well
feature maintained and serviced as per the requirements by the
company. We provide clean cars and all cars have street
directory and all cars been checked before we give it to
customers. They all pass through quality control which has fuel
level, odometer reading, and safety check, and all other general
check. We provide our customer loyal service about what they

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Marketing Plan Worksheets
 are hiring and what is included in their contract.

As per our satisfied customers reviews we have increase our

Outcome services and we have some loyal customers who are hiring
vehicles all the time whenever they want to hire.

Now, hopefully you will have been objective in your answers to these questions.
But, you still have only your opinion. A real concept test gathers information from
the marketplace. Look again at the questions in the concept test. For each one,
write how you would collect the data; specific secondary sources, survey
questionnaires, experiments with actual product samples, observation studies.

Concept tests are quite difficult to properly conduct, but are essential to discover if
there is a genuine, and sufficient, need for your product.

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Marketing Plan Worksheets
 Market Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning
(see Chapter 4)

Now you are ready to identify specific groups of potential customers for your
product. Remember, we need to know not only who we are going to target, but
most importantly, that there are enough of them who will buy often enough for our
product to be viable.

Benefits
First, list the various different benefits buyers might be looking for in a product of
your type – for example, some motor bike buyers want a small runabout, some
want a means of getting to and from work, others want a powerful racer, others
want to go touring on the weekends.

List your product’s Benefits below:

Benefits
1. As per different group we have different class of vehicles which are
suitable for each customers like we have family cars, some new cars for
women, some heavy vehicles like UTE and Trucks for workers or
companies and we provide them with full tank of fuel and nice and clean
as they want to drive for holiday or meeting.
2. To compete with the demand and to grow more in our business we are
hiring more staff to provide wide range of services and product range.
3. We are trying to get new location to provide more facilities to our
targeted customers and to grow more in future.
4.

5.

Market Segments
Next, cluster the groups that might share one or more of the benefits you have
listed according to the segmentation dimensions (this will enable you to clarify
specific groups of customers by identifiable characteristics).

List your Cluster Groups below:

Demographic (by age, gender, socio-economic group etc)

1. Youngsters
2. Working peoples
3. Tourists

Geographic (city or country dwellers, inner-urban/suburban, higher/lower socio-economic

areas, different climatic conditions etc)
1. Near Air Port

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Marketing Plan Worksheets
 2. In City
3. At beach

Psychographic (lifestyles, personality-types, attitudes)

1. Young peoples want to go for long drive.
2. Working peoples want to use for some movements of goods.
3. Business class people use our services for meetings and personal use.

Behavioural (light or heavy users of your product type, specific reasons (benefits) for
buying your product type)
1. Young people use this less frequently.
2. Working people needs in their contracted time.
3. Business peoples use it throughout a year.

Select Targeted Customer Groups

Now, decide which of the segments identified above you have the best chance of
attracting with your product. (note: although you have not yet developed your
marketing mix you will have some idea of the groups whose needs are not being
met by current offerings)

Describe these using as many of the segmentation variables as necessary - the

more complete a description of a targeted group the better.

Describe 3 Target Customer Groups below:

Target Customer Groups

1. Young persons
2. Middle class and workers
3. Business class

Finally, estimate the viability of the targeted segment(s). For each targeted group:

i. establish the total number of potential customers in the segment,

ii. make a realistic estimate of the percentage of the segment your product
could win, (Tip: be conservative, most of us over-estimate the appeal of our
products!),
iii. calculate the number of customers your product might have in this
segment.
iv. estimate the target market's likely average purchase frequency (again be
conservative)
v. calculate total potential sales from the segment (no of customers x
purchase frequency)

The table below will help you with this section:

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Marketing Plan Worksheets
 Calculate your Target Segment Estimation below:

Viability of the targeted segments

Target Group 1 Target Group 2 Target Group 3
i. 18196 71435 67320
ii.

Positioning
You might choose to develop a positioning for your product/firm now, or when you
begin working on your marketing mix.

What image do you want customers to have of you or your firm that differentiates
you from your competitors?

Write a succinct statement that outlines:

1. Your target market (this helps you get ‘inside the minds’ of your ideal
customers)
2. The core benefit your product/firm offers these customers (this is the basic
benefit any product or firm in your category must offer if it is to attract
customers.
3. The distinguishing benefit that can make your product/firm different and
‘special’ to these customers.

Tip: As you develop your marketing mix later in the Plan, keep checking
back on your positioning statement – everything you do with the mix
should re-enforce your chosen image.

Positioning Statement
Target is to achieve best seller award to local and
Target Market international customers in summer holidays.

We are providing clean and maintained cars all the time

Core Benefit and we provide vehicle returns after office hours as well.

We upgrade our vehicles time to time and sometimes as

Distinguishing per the demands of the customers or to attract more
Benefit customers.

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Marketing Plan Worksheets
 Customer Buying Behaviour
(see Chapters 5 and 6)

Here, you need to identify aspects of your potential customers' buying influences
or patterns. What motivates their purchases for this type of product? How involved
do they become in the buying process? How do they gather information, compare
alternatives, make the purchase itself?

The insights you record here will be very useful when you come to develop your
marketing mix - your choice of brand and packaging, pricing strategies, location
and type of distribution outlets, promotional messages and media.

Remember, the reason we are attempting to better understand our chosen

customer groups is so that a marketing mix can be developed that more exactly
meets their needs and buying situation.

If your product is a consumer good or service, complete this section.

Consumer products
• Consider again the specific groups of consumers you are targeting (see
Chapter 4). Reflect on their purchases of your type of product.

• What social or group influences are likely to be present in their buying?

Perhaps they belong to a particular sub-culture or social class. Do they take
their lead from a reference group such as work colleagues or club members?
Or, perhaps their purchasing is influenced by particular family members.

• What psychological forces might influence their buying? What motivates

their purchases of your type of product - value, a need for indulgence, the
opportunity to have a good time with friends? What are their perceptions
about the product category - some consumers for example, see imported
products as superior to locally made; others buy Australian to be patriotic.

• What information would consumers normally want to make an informed

choice about your product category, and where would they expect to find
that information? Would they first look in the Yellow Pages, Internet, or local
paper? Will they discuss the purchase with family and friends?

• How do consumers actually make and carry out a purchase decision for your
type of product? Do they make the decision at home or at the point of sale?
Will they be prepared to buy 'sight unseen', that is from a catalogue,
brochure or Web site, or will they want to touch and test before making a
purchase commitment?

• Are there particular times of day, days of the week, or seasons, when they
are more likely to buy?

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Marketing Plan Worksheets
 Consumer Products Statement
ABEL “We’ll do a deal! Absolutely!”

Consumers prefer our service because they can choose their rates and
additional things like GPS, Trolly, Rope, Boxes as per their requirements for
trip. They can reduce their rates buy booking online and they can inquire
about hiring on phone as well. We have more convenient locations as per
customers need like they need to pick up our vehicles which are near to city
and air port etc. We are most demanding for our vehicles because we have
competitive price which is quit cheaper than our competitor and more
convenient locations. Even our time is more convenient for all which is 7days
from 7 AM to 7PM.

If your product is sold to other organisations, complete this section.

Business products
Nature of demand
• Think about the typical organisation who might buy your product. Why do
they need it? What is the demand for your product derived from? Perhaps it
comes directly from the demand for their own product(s), or maybe it simply
assists the smooth running of their business, or perhaps helps them to
maintain staff morale.
• Is the demand for your type of product stable, or does it fluctuate widely
from period to period, and if so, in response to what influences?

Type of buying situation

• Is the purchase of your type of product typically a straight re-buy, modified
re-buy, or new task purchase?

Buying centre
• Who would normally place orders for your type of product - a Purchasing
Manager, junior assistant, technical staff?
• Who else might exert influence on the choice of product or supplier?
• What factors will motivate each person in the buying centre?

Buying process
• How is the purchasing of your type of product normally carried out - is it a
quick decision made by one individual, or a lengthy, group process?
• What are the typical purchase frequencies and quantities for your product
category?
What expectations do buying firms have for pre- and post-sale service? Do they
expect to buy on credit or receive other financial incentives?

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 Business Products Statement
We do a deal for some businesses that need our trucks and utes for long term
contract. The demand is really fluctuated throughout a year and it is wide from
period to period. As we do a good deal with our existing customers for long
term contract they buy from us frequently when they need our service. We
have the nearest locations to construction sites which are more convenient for
our customers so the managers of any company come to us for hiring our
vehicles more and more. They ask for advance booking for next year and we
do provide suitable time period and vehicles for them. AS we provide vehicles
because of some security reasons the process of hiring is little lengthy and we
have to be accurate while putting the data in our system as well. If the
customer has previously hired from us then the process becomes easy and it
saves lot of time and we give some discount to the existing customers as well.

Marketing Mix
You are now ready to develop a marketing mix for your chosen product. In this
Workbook section, and the next three, you will develop strategies for the product
itself, its pricing, distribution and promotion.

Make sure you keep referring back to the information and insights you have
recorded in the earlier parts of your Marketing Plan - a marketing mix should
reflect the needs and situation of the chosen target market(s).

Remember too, that while you will work on each element of the mix separately,
they should be consistent with each other; in marketing terms, the elements of a
marketing mix are interdependent - that's why it's called a mix!

Product Strategies (see Chapter 7, 8 and 9)

Product description
• Remember - a product can be a physical good or an intangible service
• Describe your good or service in terms of the wants it can satisfy. (see also
Chapter 1)

Product classification
• Is your product a consumer good, business good, or a service?
• Can you further classify it into an appropriate sub-category (see Chapter 7
for goods and Chapter 9 for services classifications.)
• Note how these classifications might affect your product strategies.

Likely adoption rate

• If yours is a totally new product assess it on the basis of the five
characteristics that seem to influence the speed of product adoption.

Product lifecycle stage

• What stage of lifecycle is your product category at? (remember, PLC refers
to the category, not your specific version or brand) Note any implications
this might have for marketing strategy.

Product mix

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 • List the sizes, variants, colours, types and levels of service, options etc you
will include in your product line.

Brand
• What will you call your new good or service? Assess your brand against the
characteristics of a good brand.
• Will you use an individual, family or combined brand strategy?

Packaging
• If your product requires packaging, what materials, styles, colours will you
use?
• What information and promotional messages will you include?

Other product features

• How will you use design, colour, quality, warranties and servicing to add
appeal to your product?

At this stage you should have a clear outline of the good or service you are
planning to offer to the market and how you will manage its various aspects.

Describe your Product Strategies below:

Product Strategies
We provide the vehicle hiring services which is more in
Product demand for business peoples from oversees and local as
description well. They use our services for transportation or for business
use.
We provide a kind of transportation service. Which is
Product convenient for workers, business class peoples and other
classification peoples for moving their equipment’s or for travelling?
We provide cheap price, good locations, better customer
Likely services, good vehicles as per the trends. That’s why people
adoption rate are using our service really quick.
Product At the moment we are on maturity stage so we almost at the
lifecycle top in market. We are focusing to be stable in this stage.
stage
We have added new features like heavy promotions and
Product mix some other services with our vehicles for special
requirements like baby seats etc.

Brand

Packaging

Other product
features

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Pricing Strategies (see Chapter 10 plus Chapter 9 for
additional aspects on pricing services)

Now you are ready to establish your pricing strategies.

Pricing goals
• Is your main aim to make an initial level of profit, to establish your product in
the market place with a certain level of sales, or to fit into an existing market
and avoid "rocking the boat"?

Product cost
• Prepare a cost schedule for your good or service - distinguish between
variable and fixed costs. You may have to estimate some costs at this stage.

Expected price
• What price will customers expect to pay for a good or service like yours?
(this is normally expressed as a range)
• What factors have you used to establish your expected price?

Price elasticity
• What do you believe is the shape of your demand curve? Will demand be
very or not very responsive to changes in price?

Setting the base price

• Set an initial base price using the three methods outlined in the text - cost,
demand, competition.

Cost-plus
• Take the product cost established above and add an 'acceptable’ profit
margin (or mark-up)

Demand
• Use your expected price above to estimate the price you believe customers
will be willing to pay for your product.

Competition
• List the prices that the three most direct competitors to your product are
charging. Note any advantages or disadvantages that these products may
have compared to yours. In particular, consider whether you want to be
positioned above or below competitors' prices.
• Now, it is a matter of judgement for you to consider the three methods, and
finally to set the base price for your product.

Adjusting the base price

• You need now to establish the price(s) that your customers will actually pay.

Discounts and allowances

• List any price reductions you will make for large quantities, trade customers,

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 fast payment, or promotions.

Freight
• If your product needs to be transported, calculate how you will adjust your
price to account for freight costs.

Other pricing tactics

• List other pricing tactics you might use, such as flexible pricing for different
customers, line pricing, odd pricing.
• Also consider how you will respond if a competitor attacks you with price -
it's always better to be prepared for this possibility.

You should now have a comprehensive pricing strategy in place.

Describe your Pricing Strategies below:

Pricing Strategies

Pricing goals

Product cost

Expected
price

Price
elasticity

Setting the
base price

Cost-plus

Demand

Competition

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 Adjusting the
base price

Discounts
and
allowances

Freight

Other pricing
tactics

Distribution Strategies (see Chapter 11)

You must now decide how you are going to ensure your product is conveniently
and effectively available to your customers.

Channel tasks
List the various tasks that will need to be performed to give customers access to
your product; physical handling, storage, delivery, order processing, installation or
technical services, returns, servicing and repairs.

Note next to each of these who, ideally, will perform these tasks, you or a
middleman.

List your Channel Tasks below:

Channel Tasks
Task description Who is responsible
1. Radio announcement 97.3FM channel partners

2. Booking Agent Reception staff

3. Website developers
Online

4. CSO Sales agents

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Marketing Plan Worksheets
 5. Exhibition/Fairs/Shows Marketing Manager

Channel choices
Note the channels currently available (e.g. through wholesalers to retailers, direct
to retailers, online, catalogue etc) Note also any characteristics of the market, your
product, the available middlemen, and your own preferences and capacities and
financial strength that might suggest why one type of channel should or should not
be used.

Note the channels that other suppliers of your product type are using.

Outline your possible options for Channel Choices below:

Channel Choices
Channel description Benefits/
1. Repetitive advertisement every day
Radio channel 97.3 FM to all listeners

2.

3.

4.

5.

List your competitors’ Channel Choices below:

Competitor Channel Choice

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Channel selection
• Review the channel tasks and channel choices above. Now you need to
decide on the channel you will use.
• Will you distribute to end-users directly yourself or use middlemen?
• If direct, how will you do this - Internet, own outlets, own trucks etc? I
• If indirect, how many levels and what types of middlemen will you use?

Distribution intensity
• Review the factors determining distribution intensity. How many outlets will
you use in each market area?

Selection of channel members

• It may be too early to identify individual middlemen to help you distribute
your product, but you can certainly consider the types of firms and
individuals you want to deal with - their size, skills and capabilities, their
ways of doing business. Keep in mind that the destiny of your product may
well be in their hands.
• You might also note the type of arrangement you would like to have with
these middlemen – an informal agreement, formal contract, long-term /
short-term, extent of their responsibilities.

Location of outlets
• If you are considering having your product available from your own outlet(s),
you need to consider where it will be and how customers will access it.
• Look at a map of your catchment area (the area your customers will come
from). Consider the roads, traffic flows, boundaries such as rivers, highways,
railway lines (even small details can be critical, such as whether there is a
right turn arrow at traffic lights on an intersection leading to your outlet).
Remember the three rules of real estate: location, location, location! List all
suitable sites.
• Consider also aspects such as proximity to public transport, parking, ease of
access to the building, opportunity for signage and physical presence.

Outline the details of your Channel Choice below:

Channel Choice

Channel Selection

Distribution
intensity

Channel members

Outlet locations

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Marketing Plan Worksheets
You should now have a clear strategy for making your good or service easily and
cost effectively available to selected target customers.

Promotion Strategies (see Chapter 12)

Your task here is to prepare a plan to promote your product.

Campaign plan
Smaller firms will usually develop their own promotions. For a major promotional
strategy it is likely that you will brief specialist promotional agencies to develop
your campaign. Either way, you will need to include several aspects in your
Marketing Plan.

Customer situation and buying motives

First review the analysis of your targeted customer groups (see that section
above). In particular, check
* what motivates purchases in this product category, and
* what media do the target group read, listen to, watch.
* when, where and how do they buy products in this category

Promotional objectives
What do you want your promotional activities to achieve? Be specific; build brand
awareness, communicate a distinct advantage over a competitor, demonstrate
how to use the product?
What specific messages should your promotion communicate?

Campaign theme
Promotional activities are often constructed around a theme, a central idea that
succinctly communicates the chosen promotional appeal. In other words, the
theme can be related back to the objectives of the promotion. Themes are
expressed as a slogan (Oh! What a feeling, Which Bank?). The theme is then used
consistently across all forms of promotion and helps to integrate the various
elements.

List your Promotion Strategies below:

Strategies

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Marketing Plan Worksheets
 Campaign plan

Customer
situati
on
and
buyin
g
motiv
es

Promotional
object
ives

Campaign
theme

Promotional activities
What tasks do you plan to allocate to the various forms of promotion?

List your Promotional Activities below:

Promotional Task
form

Personal selling

Advertising

Sales Promotion

Public relations /
publicity

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Marketing Plan Worksheets
Choosing specific media
You know your targeted customers, their buying motives and patterns, and their
media usage.

You also know the characteristics of the various media types. Using these data you
can now choose specific media vehicles to spearhead the mass communication
aspects of your promotion.

Outline your specific media choices, not just television, radio, newspapers, email,
Internet, but specific stations, shows, publications, web sites, social media, blogs.

Most firms today are using the Net as a major promotional medium. You will need
to decide if your site will be for advertising, to effect transactions, to provide
customer service, or a combination of all three. You will also need to consider how
you will attract visitors to your site – Search Engine Optimisation, banner ads,
Twitter, Facebook fan page, reciprocal links, plus a range of other directional
reminders in other media.

Outline your Media Choices below:

Type of Media Benefits

Budgeting
You will look at budgeting the elements of your Marketing Plan in the next
section, but at this stage you should note the costs of the various promotional
activities you are planning. Remember, even large marketing organisations
never have enough funds to do all the promotion they would like. Budgeting is
usually a compromise between the amount required to do the job, and the
amount realistically available.

Your promotional strategy plan is the final element of the marketing mix for a
physical good. You should now have a set of four integrated plans that will
give your product its best chance of successfully appealing to your targeted
customers.

Additional Services Strategies (see Chapter 9)

If you are compiling a marketing plan for a service, the strategies you have
worked through so far will be relevant and useful (except of course, for those,
such as packaging). There are also three additional elements of the mix often
used by services firms:

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Marketing Plan Worksheets
Physical Evidence Strategies
• How will you add tangibility to your service? How will you allow potential
customers to ‘feel’ your service in the way they can with a physical good
such as a pair of shoes or a car? Consider aspects such as your
premises, signage, ambiance, furnishings, information and advertising
material, staff uniforms etc)

People Strategies
• If yours is a people-based service, what types of people will be ideal as
the ‘points of contact’ with customers – age, gender, personality,
knowledge, skill, attitudes?
• Some marketing plans will also include job specifications, recruitment,
induction and training – other firms cover these aspects in a Human
Resources Plan.

Process Strategies
• How will you manage the experiences customers have when they
interact with your firm? Consider processes for initial contact by phone,
email or in person, contacts during service delivery, and contacts at
time and place of purchase.

Describe your Service Strategies below:

Service Strategies
Physical
Ev
id
en
ce
St
rat
eg
ie
s
People
St
rat
eg
ie
s
Process
St
rat
eg
ie
s

Budget and Marketing Metrics (see Appendix

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Marketing Plan Worksheets
D)
You are now ready to prepare a Budget and Action Plan for your marketing
strategies. The simplest method of budgeting for marketing activities is to
begin with the Income Statement format.

Sales Budget
The sales budget should be built from forecasts of sales volumes of individual
product lines, to individual customers or within specific sales territories.

If your product has a sales history this will obviously provide a good guide. For
a brand new product you may want to construct forecasts at three levels -
optimistic, pessimistic and best estimate.

Fill out the table below to calculate your Sales Budget::

Optimistic Pessimistic Best

Estimate
Forecast Sales
Units p.a
$ p.a.
Cost of sales
This will be constructed on the same basis as the sales budget
$ p.a.
Gross Profit
$ p.a.
Marketing expenses
These can also be built up by product or territory
Advertising
Personal Selling
Sales Promotion
Publicity / public relations
Online / Digital
Other expenses
Depending whether you are preparing a budget for an individual product, a division, or an
entire business, you may budget for other marketing and administration expenses.
Product development
Marketing research
Technical services
Training
Administration - Rent
- Staffing
- Utilities
Finance

Action Plan / Metrics

Use the table below to record each marketing activity planned for the period,
who is responsible for undertaking it, when and at what budgeted cost or
performance level.

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Marketing Plan Worksheets
 Fill out the table below to formulate your Action Plan:

Strategies Responsibility To be Budget /

(person / undertaken by Marketing
department) (date) Metric
(see Ch 14)
Marketing research / analysis

Product strategies

Pricing strategies

Distribution strategies

Promotion strategies

Congratulations! You have prepared a comprehensive

marketing plan.

The most important requirement now is to make sure your Marketing

Plan is a ‘living’ document. Put it into action and then continually
refer back to it as the period unfolds to check the performance of
your marketing activities.

Will things turn out exactly as you planned? Almost certainly not! But
having the Plan gives you the best preparation to effectively respond
to the market changes, competitive activities and mishaps you might
encounter.

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Marketing Plan Worksheets