Don't Underestimate the Importance of Your Product Marketing Plan

Now that summer is ending and fall is rolling in, our attention is turning to football, raking leaves, sending the kids off to school and - product marketing plans. That's right, product marketing plans. Whether you are a small business or a large corporation, a marketing plan is essential to reaching your desired financial results.

Without a plan, you don't know where you are or where you are going and you'll never know if you get there. The marketing plan acts as a road map that outlines strategies, objectives, and specific tactics. An effective plan will help your company achieve financial goals, allocate resources efficiently, and establish metrics for accountability.

Before a plan is written, you must make an assessment of where you are today. A careful analysis precedes the writing of the plan. During the analysis, you must take a look at current marketing efforts, business objectives, economic factors, prospect and customer activity and competitive activity. Next, marketing goals need to be established. These should be supportive of the company's overall business objectives. Once marketing goals are clearly defined, specific tactics can be addressed.

Your marketing plan should articulate what you wish to accomplish, how you will do it, when it will be complete, and how you will measure it. As you begin to work on your marketing plan, here are a few things you should consider:

Marketplace Analysis

This analysis begins with a thorough understanding of the prospects and customers you expect to buy your product or service. Determining a target market is critical to establishing a successful product marketing plan. This should start with a profile of your current customer base. The profile should include: who your customers are, which products and services they purchase, how much they spend, how often they purchase, who are the decision makers, etc. The analysis should include detailed demographic information and economic trends that may indicate changes in the marketplace.

Competition

Whether you're a manufacturer or a contractor, there's always an opposing force at work: your competition. Accurate information about the competition and their marketing efforts is powerful. You can gather information about the competition by reading trade journals, attending trade shows and trade association meetings, asking your sales people, and polling your customers. Many companies cannot outspend their competition, but you can outsmart them.

Market Strategy and Tactics

For the most impact and the maximum return on investment, all elements should be planned simultaneously. Rather than planning the direct mail program, then moving to the trade show program, a comprehensive approach will complement and enhance all elements. If you plan to exhibit at a trade show, how can telemarketing, direct mail and advertising help you reach objectives and increase your return? Taking a comprehensive approach enhances all of the marketing elements. Don't forget to include measurement devices in all programs. Like all other disciplines, marketing must be accountable for its ROI.

Budget

The budget is a great tool for allocating resources, and it often brings marketers back into reality. The budget should cover all anticipated expenditures such as advertising, direct mail, collateral production, and other marketing investments. While many in marketing dislike the budget, it can be your best ally. A carefully prepared budget and a complete inventory of your activities, results, and ROI can provide you, and management, with tangible evidence that your marketing dollars are being spent wisely.

Marketing the Plan

An essential step that is often overlooked is marketing the plan. Since marketing doesn't operate within a vacuum, it is critical that the marketing plan's objectives, tactics and schedules are communicated throughout the organization. Since the marketing plan cannot be implemented without the assistance of others within the organization, it should not be developed without the input of other departments. Finance, manufacturing, sales and other departments must be involved in marketing plan development and implementation. By including other departments in the process, you are effectively educating them and giving them some ownership of the marketing process. This internal marketing will pay off throughout the year as others become champions of your marketing efforts.

Dynamic Plans

Many companies make the mistake of writing a product marketing plan and just putting it on a shelf where it collects dust. To be effective, marketing plans must be living documents. They must be constantly modified and adjusted to take changing market conditions into account. Throughout the year, a large customer may go out of business, a competitor may be sold, your top sales representative may leave, or a number of other things may happen. Your marketing plan will need to be modified to account for these changes. Furthermore, as programs are implemented, you may want to modify your plans based on year-to-date results. At year-end, your proactive approach to managing the plan will have helped the company reach desired goals and objectives.