An example of a schedule plan for marketing services. The main sections and elements of the marketing plan

SOSTAC is a widely used marketing and business planning tool. It is among the most popular marketing models that have stood the test of time.

In this article, you will learn how to develop marketing plan promotion of the company using the SOSTAC model.

Created back in the 1990s by writer and speaker PR Smith, the SOSTAC® structure has earned a good reputation among authorities. It is taken as a basis by representatives of businesses of various sizes, including start-up entrepreneurs or international organizations around the world.

The SOSTAC marketing plan covers six key areas, namely:

Stage 1. Analysis of the current situation

The first stage of marketing planning is the analysis of the current situation. This is an overview of your project - who you are, what you do and how your online sales work. External and internal factors affecting your business are also considered.

In this section, you will paint a big picture of your project. To do this, ask the following questions:

• Who are your customers today (make a portrait of your target audience and their profiles).
• : what are the strengths and weak sides, opportunities or threats for the entire organization?
• Conduct competitor analysis. Who are your competitors? How do they create competition (eg price, product, customer service, reputation)? What are your key differences?
• Make a list of all customer acquisition channels you use and the success of each for your organization. What works well and what doesn't?

Below we will take a closer look at an example of target audience analysis.

The target audience

This section should analyze who makes up your target audience. This is important in order to clearly represent existing customers and understand who you are actually targeting. If you work in a competitive environment, consider what your special offer() if you have it?

Customer personalization helps you see your existing customers and understand their buying motives. Creation will also help you overcome barriers to new clients. To create a series of avatars, match and analyze existing data from your CRM system and order history, and then build a profile picture of your existing customers based on this.

For online trading information that you may consider based on your CRM data may include:

• Male/female - what is the percentage?
• Age profile - what is the average age and is there room for development of age group categories?
• Location/Address Data - Percentage of customers living in and outside of your area.
• Purchase history. Gain a clearer picture of purchase history, average order, brand preference trends, and products ordered by size, for example.
• Method of payment for the purchase (for example, credit or debit card, upon receipt).
• The route traveled for the purchase. Were there purchases through a search engine, email newsletter, affiliate site, contextual advertising?
• Frequency. How often are purchases made?

Based on these data, we proceed to the second stage. We need to turn this data into more personal information that may be relevant to your organization.

Creating Customer Avatars

For example, we collected data on the target audience and now consider two avatars for a fictitious online t-shirt store:

Avatar A - Sergey:

Sergey is a professional, 28 years old, he rents an apartment in Moscow, a bachelor with a high income. He is very passionate about football. He likes to show his support for the football club by buying a new fan jersey from the online store every year.

It is more convenient for Sergey to place orders online and communicate using social networks, in which he follows the latest news in the world of football and football product launches. As the World Cup provides an opportunity to present a collection of international fan shirts, it allows company X to get in touch with Sergei and offer him an international fan shirt in addition to his favorite club jersey.

The scenario of interaction between avatar A and the online store:

Sergei read the latest World Cup news on his favorite football blog. He noticed that the blog offers an exclusive promotion - you can order any World Cup t-shirt from company X and save 10% by clicking on the link to www.vash-magazin.ru/worldcup. Sergey follows the link and gets to the site of company X, which provides him with a selection of T-shirts available for order with an exclusive 10% discount. He chooses a t-shirt in his size and completes the purchase using his credit card.

Avatar B - Katya:

Katya is a professional, she is 33 years old, she is in a relationship. Katya loves to keep up with the latest trends fashion, and it is convenient for her to place orders in her favorite online store. Her boyfriend is a big football fan, he likes to keep up with football fashion and buy new fan shirts with the image of his favorite team. Katya may face the hype around the World Cup. This will encourage her to shop at Company X for her boyfriend. She will purchase merchandise with images of the team they will support during the tournament.

The scenario of interaction between avatar B and the online store:

Katya received an email from one of her preferred online stores. This email includes Company X's marketing promotion, an advertisement offering to order a World Cup T-shirt with a promo code. She decides that this will be a great gift for her boyfriend and goes to www.vash-magazin.ru. She's not sure which team jersey to get, so she calls customer service. She explains her situation to a sales consultant and places her order for a fan jersey over the phone.

In this way, you represent your customers in detail and can prepare appropriate advertising campaigns. For starters, you can create 2-3 customer avatars for each group of similar products.

Stage 2. Goal setting

The second phase of your marketing plan system should be focused on your goal. Once you have defined your goal, it is important to make it as precise and unambiguous as possible. To do this, the goal must meet the following points:

• Concreteness. What indicator do you plan to work on within the framework of a given goal?
• Measurability. How do you plan to measure performance? Will it be controlled through quantitative or qualitative analysis, for example?
• Reachability. Can you, in principle, achieve such a goal in the foreseeable future?
• Relevant and realistic. In this case, when developing a marketing plan, we mean the possibility of achieving this goal with marketing tools, and not development, for example.
• Time limit. Have you set a specific period of time when the task should be completed?

For example, if we go back to our fictional online t-shirt store, we can create the following targets:

• Goal 1. Engagement: Increase the number of existing customers served through the online store by 50% by July 2017.
• Goal 2. Engagement: increase brand awareness between April 2017 and July 2017, measured by Google analytics.
• Goal 3: Engagement: Increase email frequency from one email per quarter to one email per week from May 2017 to July 2017.

Stage 3. Strategies for achieving goals

The strategy tells how you are going to achieve your goals. This is general idea about achieving goals.

Using the example of an online t-shirt store, we will determine what questions need to be answered in the strategy block of your marketing plan.

Goal 1 is to increase brand awareness between April 2017 and July 2017, measured through Google Analytics.

It is necessary to increase the brand presence in certain online channels that are aimed at the audience of football fans.

• What is the most cost-effective way to market?
• Are our key customers in these channels?
• Where can we get more customer attention?

Study your competitors, understand what online marketing tools they are using and what they are not using, and take advantage of the first movers.

Goal 2 is to increase the number of existing customers served with an online account by 50% by July 2017.

Analyze your existing customer base and how they interact with your online store.

Goal 3 is to increase email frequency from one email per quarter to one email per week from May 2017 to July 2017.

• How does the company currently interact with subscribers?
• Who are your competitors and how do they send mailings?

The answers to these questions will help you determine a strategy to achieve your goals.

Stage 4. Tactics for achieving goals

Tactics contain those specific tools that you plan to use to achieve the goals of your marketing plan. As you draw up your strategy, you will describe each of the tactics in more detail, as well as specify specific KPIs for each tactic.

In the example of a t-shirt store, let's assume that we have chosen three tactics for implementing these strategies: SEO, PPC, and Email Marketing.

Tactic 1 - SEO

When analyzing competitors, it was revealed that one of the key disadvantages of company X is a small marketing budget. However, search engine optimization of the site does provide the company with a field for competition.

To understand what positive influence SEO can assist in the matter of increasing brand awareness among the target market, it is necessary to conduct a keyword analysis.

Tactic 2 - Pay per click - contextual advertising

As with SEO, keyword research will give you an idea of ​​how much budget you need for contextual advertising. Most of the competing companies do not use a lot of queries in advertising, so here you can benefit. It also helps increase brand awareness.

Tactic 3 - Email Marketing

It is necessary to develop an email marketing strategy so that the existing customer base receives regular messages. The tactics that will be used will include options for what should be included in the content of the emails so that you get enough clicks to the site and conversions to purchases.
This tactic will be to use the existing customer base and encourage them to refer friends, colleagues to join the weekly newsletters.

Stage 5: Actions

The fifth stage of your marketing planning system focuses on how to bring your plans to life. The action section covers what needs to be done in each of the tactics listed in the previous section of the SOSTAC plan in order to realize its goals.

To achieve the goals above, we have identified three tactics. Now we list examples of actions required to implement each tactic.

This is not an exhaustive list, it only contains examples and a brief description of what to consider:

Tactic 1: SEO

• Keyword analysis. What keywords are we targeting?
• Page optimization. We must optimize the site pages for key queries in order to provide better rankings in Yandex and Google.
• Content - regular blog posts on the topic of the site.
• Building a link mass. Make a target group of sites where you could post information about your project with a link to it.

Actions for tactics 2: Contextual advertising

• Keyword analysis. What queries can drive profitable traffic?
• Budget.
• Landing pages. What pages will people land on when they enter certain queries?

Tactic Action 3: Email Marketing

• Create email scripts for various actions on the site (subscription, purchase)
• Creation of reporting to analyze the involvement of subscribers in the mailing list
• Analysis of the profitability of mailings

Stage 6. Control of results

The final stage of planning is to provide an opportunity to analyze and evaluate your performance in the future based on the goals set in the second stage.

Think about what to set for tactics that are tied to your goals and set up weekly or monthly monitoring reporting to make sure you are on track to achieve your goals.

We will send the material to you:

From this article you will learn:

• Why is it needed
• How long to make it
• How to develop a company marketing plan
• How to do it quickly in half an hour
• What mistakes should be avoided

Modern enterprises are constantly in a state of competition together. The one that is weaker due to an illiterately developed marketing plan loses. A company's marketing plan is important because it helps drive sales to new level. Let's figure out together how to compose it and what strategy is better to apply.

What is a company marketing plan

The leaders of modern enterprises in a competitive environment are faced with questions on which the future of the company often depends. How to develop further, what mechanisms to use to reduce costs, where to look for and attract potential consumers, what marketing techniques to use to increase profits?

With the correct, competent and effective construction of the plan, you can easily find answers to these and other questions.

A company's marketing plan is a brief description of an algorithm that allows you to quickly find solutions to important production problems. Moreover, this document clearly indicates the timeframes and strategies. It could be one year, two or three.

A plan is being drawn up marketing activities companies as a separate document. Together with financial and production plans, it is included in the strategic business plan of the company. With their help, it is easy to build a general line for the development of the enterprise.

To develop the document, the results of previous studies, data on the study of economic niches in which the enterprise operates are used. Additionally, resources and consumers are analyzed to determine the main goals and objectives. Be sure to indicate the period during which the desired results, indicated earlier, are achieved.

Why is a company marketing plan necessary?

We think this is understandable. The main objectives of this document include the following.

1. A company's marketing plan will help determine its profitability.

Therefore, it is necessary to use terms that everyone will understand - from the head to the junior service personnel. This must be taken into account so that the work of all employees is as productive as possible.

1. For greater productivity, you need to consider how the system works.

From the document it will be clear which department of the company needs to be strengthened and which should be closed. It is important to describe each item in detail and accurately.

1. The marketing plan clearly sets goals and defines methods to achieve them.

It is important to have an additional document if the first does not justify itself.

1. The main purpose of the document is to coordinate the actions of the personnel (workers, employees) and the management (management) of the company.

Thanks to this, the actions of the company's employees will be clear, each of the employees will know well official duties and fulfill them.

How long does it take to write a marketing plan for a company?

If the company is large, then the document is developed every year. In order to have a result, specific terms must be indicated, which depend on the size of the company, the scope of its activities.

Typically, the document is drawn up for a period of three to six years and is annually adjusted, the data is adjusted, and changed taking into account new market conditions. After revision, a company's marketing plan is often rewritten.

If the company is small, then according to research conducted in 2017, effective search or SEO marketing is used. It is usually used to promote goods and services on the Internet, along with contextual advertising and SMM.

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Large companies work according to a different scheme, they prefer to use advertising in the media (newspapers, magazines), television, radio.

The frequency of reviewing the marketing plan for small businesses depends on demand, activity needs, which can be determined independently using a SWOT analysis.

Other tactics, goals and methods of promotion can be chosen. As soon as the market occurs global changes, then most often the company adjusts the positioning of the product, service, which means that the entire marketing plan is being reworked.

Let's look at an example. Company N produces baby food premium. In the early years, it was known only to a narrow circle of consumers. It means that the main task marketing department to increase brand awareness. This will definitely be highlighted in the marketing plan of the enterprise.

In a year, when awareness grows, the assortment expands, the document will indicate specific deadlines for holding promotions, a section will appear in which you need to clearly describe advertising campaigns.

What goals should be reflected in the marketing plan of the company

The ultimate goal of a marketing plan is to continuously increase the company's profits.

Many businessmen often forget that marketers cannot decide everything themselves. They do not produce and sell goods and do not provide services, do not work with customers, partners. Therefore, it is important to consider all departments of the company and strengthen the interaction within it in order to constantly increase profits.

All members must participate in the implementation of the marketing plan. labor collective. If this does not happen, all your undertakings will remain on paper, time and effort will be wasted.

All goals must be fixed, fixed with specific dates, by which you can then check the exact deadlines. It might look like this:

• expansion, optimization of the customer base by (date) by (%);
• development of a strategy to increase sales by (date) in (times);
• increase in brand awareness among consumers, target audience by (date) by (%);
• expansion or formation of a new partner and dealer network by (date) by (quantity).

What is the structure of the company's marketing plan

The company's marketing plan consists of several sections.

1. Executive summary (introduction for management) is the first, introductory, section of the document. It indicates a list of tasks, the main goals of the company, its mission and the problems that the business is solving at the time of writing the marketing plan.

2. Evaluation of the company's activities for this moment . This section clearly highlights the following points:

• Described main segments of the target audience.
• market analysis , including legislative framework, suppliers, forecasts and prospects, features of the industry in which the company operates;
• internal audit, during which the moments hindering the development of the enterprise, as well as mechanisms that can improve the situation, are identified;
• results of a previous SWOT analysis . At the same time, they evaluate the positive and negative factors that will affect your business;
• competitive advantages . This is what you are able to offer your business partners, potential customers. Based on the results obtained, you will be able to effectively promote a product or service.

3. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of your company's competitors. Here you need to describe the development strategy of your competitors, analyze the assortment, prices, their promotion methods, and the features of working with clients.

You can use the services of a "mystery shopper". This will allow you to draw conclusions to improve the further development of your business.

4. Development of a commodity strategy for your company. You analyze the product portfolio, sales, consumption volumes and draw conclusions, form recommendations for expanding your business. If necessary, evaluate the product line and the main production technologies.

5. Strategy development. It is necessary to describe the main directions of marketing of your company, how the trademark and the company as a whole are positioned.

Specify measures for working with clients, events that are carried out to attract new business partners, to strengthen the company's position in the market for goods and services. Analyze internal marketing and how you will serve your customers.

6. Analytics. Using special data, analyze and describe external and internal situations (on the market and in the company), possible risks that need to be taken into account in future activities.

You plan and carry out the collection of information, prepare analytical materials, think over measures that can be used in specific situations. Monitor competitors, publicity, market research and describe how it all is implemented in practice.

7 Action plan. Analysis and inclusion in the company's work plan of the activities necessary to achieve the goals that you set for yourself and the employees of the company. It is better if this is a table in which you enter the actions taken to promote a product or service, as well as fix the deadlines, indicate those responsible, etc.

8. Finance. Analyze the main indicators, draw conclusions. They will help you predict sales, see and evaluate incremental costs. Include sales dynamics in the document, break it down by customers, market segments, groups of goods (services), regions.

Be sure to analyze the main indicators of expenses, group them so that later they can be used to draw conclusions on improving sales and the marketing plan as a whole.

9. Implementation of control. This is the last section of your plan. It spells out in detail the main mechanisms and control tools with an exact indication of which divisions of your company will perform a particular item.

This section can include reports, key metrics, and milestones to help draw conclusions.

10. Applications. This part of the document will contain graphs, tables, analysis separate provisions marketing plan. This way you can track the progress of your business.

As you can see, all elements of the marketing plan are systematized into a list that meets certain areas of activity. This helps to solve specific problems, eliminate problematic issues, etc.

Step-by-step development of a marketing plan for a company

The development of a company's marketing plan consists of several stages. Almost all of them are mandatory.

Development of a marketing plan according to the SOSTAC model

The SOSTAC structure was created in the 1990s. She is quite reputable and has an excellent reputation. business start-ups and international companies take it as a basis to draw up a marketing plan.

The SOSTAC marketing plan consists of a number of steps.

Stage 1. Analysis of a specific situation

Analyzing the current situation, it is necessary to show the overall picture of the project. For this, the following questions are being worked out:

1. Who are your current clients? Create a detailed portrait of your target audience.
2. Based on the conducted SWOT analysis, draw conclusions about your strengths and weaknesses, possible threats to the company.
3. Analyze competitors. Who are they? On what basis do they compete with you? It could be a product, its price, better customer service, or a different reputation than yours. How exactly do you differ from each other?
4. Make a detailed list of channels that you can use to attract customers. Check the ones that will be the most successful for you. Separate those who perform well from those who perform poorly.

Only after that you will be able to see your potential customers, evaluate their motivation for purchases. Alternatively, you can make a portrait of the client. This will help you get to know your audience better. To do this, you can use the data obtained by the current CRM system after analyzing the history of orders.

From the information collected by your CRM system, you will be able to:

• understand your ratio of male to female clients;
• evaluate profiles based on age, average age and see if it is possible to create categories;
• find out data about the location of your customers, their addresses, what percentage lives in your region;
• study the history of successful purchases and create an overall picture, evaluate the average order, figure out how products differ in volume, color, size from the competition;
• figure out how your customers prefer to pay upon receipt - by cards or cash; how often orders are placed and purchases are made.

With this information, you can proceed to the next step where we will collect information related to your company.

Consider on specific example. We have data about the target audience. Now let's take two avatars for a virtual online store that sells t-shirts.

Avatar A - Maxim

Maxim is a master of his craft, he is 26 years old, he lives alone, takes pictures one-room apartment in the center of Moscow, not married, has a high income level, as for the capital. The guy is passionate about football and often supports his sports club. Every year he buys a new colored T-shirt with the logo of his team fan. He does it over the Internet.

It is convenient and comfortable for Maxim to place orders via the Web. He often communicates with friends and acquaintances via social networks, regularly follows the news from the world of domestic and world football, and does not mind getting acquainted with new paraphernalia.

The World Cup is coming soon, and this will provide an opportunity to present a new collection of T-shirts for football fans. Therefore, XXX company can contact Maxim and offer not only a T-shirt of an admirer of his favorite team, but also a unique international T-shirt of an active fan.

How will Maxim interact with your online store? It could be the following diagram.

Maxim gets acquainted with the latest news about the World Cup in a fashion blog. He notices that the company offers to take part in a promotion - order a T-shirt with a logo dedicated to the championship at 10% cheaper. To do this, he needs to follow the link to the website of the online store.

Maxim makes a transition and gets to the site of the XXX online store. Here he is offered a large selection of quality T-shirts, which he can order with a 10% discount. Maxim chooses a T-shirt of the color, pattern, size he needs, and then completes the purchase by paying for it with a credit/debit card.

Avatar B - Margarita

Margarita is a professional in her field, she is 33 years old, the girl is in a relationship. Margarita follows the fashion world and tries to place orders through the online store.

And her young man, a fan of the football team and the local club, also likes to keep up with sports fashion. He buys jerseys from his team's fans every year.

The World Cup is coming soon, and Margarita knows about it. She, too, can become a customer of the XXX online store. A girl can buy a T-shirt for both herself and her boyfriend - together they are going to support football team at the championship.

An exemplary scenario of Margarita's interaction with an online store: a potential client received a letter via e-mail with an offer from an online store. This newsletter contains an online advertisement of a company that offers to order a T-shirt with the symbols of the championship using a promo code.

Margarita understands that this is a chance to give her beloved boyfriend a T-shirt, buy the same one for herself and save money. The girl goes to the website of the online store. To get information, she calls the support service and places an order over the phone.

To successfully promote an online store, you need to create two or three customer avatars for a separate group of products that have similar properties.

Stage 2. Goal setting

This part of the marketing plan should focus on your goals, which should be as specific as possible. Goals should be in line with the following:

• concreteness. Select the indicators that you will focus on.
• measurability. Decide how you will evaluate the effectiveness, exercise control.
• Reachability. How and when can you reach your goal?
• Realism or Valence. It takes into account what marketing tools you will use.
• Time limitation. See if the time is clearly indicated.

Continuing with the example of an online store selling t-shirts, the goals might be:

• Interaction: it is necessary to increase the number (flow) of customers by 50% by March 2018.
• attraction. The goal is to increase your brand awareness. Tracking with Google Analytics. Date: March - July 2018.
• Interaction. The mailing list of letters is increasing systematically: previously they sent one letter per quarter, now one letter per week, starting from April 2018 to July 2018.

Stage 3. Strategy for achieving goals

Your strategy should indicate that you are ready to achieve your goals.

Goal 1. Increase your brand awareness. Tracking with Google Analytics. Date: March - August 2018.

You should maximize the presence of your brand (product or service) in fan-oriented places online:

• Determine a cost-effective way to market.
• Are there any customers on these online platforms?
• Where exactly can you get the attention of potential customers?

You can achieve your goal only when you study competitive companies, so you understand what basic tools they prefer.

Goal 2. Engagement: Need to increase existing customer flow by 50% by April 2019.

Here you should carefully analyze the existing customer base and identify what each of its representatives prefers.

Goal 3. The frequency of emails is steadily increasing. Previously, they sent a letter in 3-4 months, now in 7-10 days, starting from April to July 2018.

By answering the questions below, you will determine the frequency of sending emails:

• How does the company currently interact with subscribers?
• Who are your competitors and how do they send mailings?

Stage 4. Tactics for achieving goals

Here you need to consider the main tools that will help you achieve the goals of your marketing plan. There may be several tactics.

Suppose you have chosen methods such as SEO optimization, contextual advertising, and email marketing. Let's consider them in detail.

During the analysis, key shortcomings were identified - a small budget for marketing and research within its framework. To determine the direction of marketing forces, it is necessary to analyze the requests for a specific product, in our case, T-shirts with the logos of football clubs.

The second tactic is focused on contextual advertising, that is, on payment for clicks made. Having determined the keywords, you will understand how much budget you need to allocate for contextual advertising.

The third tactic is email marketing.

You must develop a mailing strategy so that your customers receive emails regularly. The main purpose of the message is to make potential customers go to your site and order a product or use a service.

Stage 5. Active actions

At this stage, you embody what you have worked out into reality. It is important to re-examine the goals carefully in order to follow them.

Plan of exemplary active actions.

• SEO.

We analyze key queries. We optimize the main pages for keywords for better ranking of site pages by Yandex and Google search engines. Regularly (once every 2-3 days) we publish content. We create a reference mass. We place information on other sites.

• Contextual advertising.

Based on the analysis and processing of requests, we analyze the approximate traffic. We determine the budget and the main pages of the site (target) to which people will come for key queries.

• Email marketing.

First, we create a script for letters that your subscribers will receive. We analyze the involvement of recipients in the mailing list, profitability.

Stage 6. Control of the received results

This is final stage, which will help you evaluate previously announced goals. This analysis will allow you to draw conclusions - whether you are acting correctly.

Shortest company marketing plan

The shortest but most useful marketing plan for a company was created by Kelly Odel. It is suitable for any, even the newest idea, product or service. It is enough to fill in the table, and you will immediately see the big picture, including the future, which will help you draw a conclusion about the prospects for business development.

3 Common Mistakes in Developing a Company Marketing Plan

1. Inconsistent promotion

If you don't have a clear strategy in place, your company marketing plan can fail right away. Here, not only the presence of bright and memorable symbols, logo, but also the entire marketing program in general plays an important role.

1. Save justifiably

Advertising spending should pay off. What determines the effectiveness of the tools used to promote a product or service? There are many factors, including: product features, knowledge of potential consumers, goals set for the business.

At the same time, it is important to understand that the larger the company and the wider the goals it sets, the more expensive the business.

1. Don't have high expectations

Don't assume that there will be results immediately after implementing a marketing plan. Not always well-thought-out stages of promotion will give an instant effect. Keep a balance between what you promise in reality and advertising.

Alexander Kaptsov

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The formation of a stable array of buyers, finding their niche in the market, suppressing competitors, building a plausible reputation - this is not a complete list of issues that entrepreneurs have to solve. Without a clear marketing plan to achieve stable demand for products, brand awareness, a large number loyal customers is almost impossible. How to properly compose this important document for any business?

Marketing plan of the company - what is it?

Under the company's marketing plan should be understood the details of all its actions that are focused on achieving its optimal position in the market. It does not affect the production and technological aspects of the functioning of the company and only affects the sale of products and profit.

Benefits of developing a marketing plan for a company:

• First of all , determines which part of its funds will have to be spent on marketing activities.
• Secondly , to form a policy of promotion on the market of specific types of goods and services.
• Thirdly , draw up a strategy and tactics for working with the target market, including the procedure for setting prices.
• Fourth , certain goods, sales proceeds and profits.

Important point: Since the marketing plan draws in detail all marketing activities and expected results, it is possible to trace the effectiveness of certain approaches in the company's activities in the market.

Types of the company's marketing plan and the purpose of their preparation

There are many criteria for classifying marketing plans, including:

1. Duration of validity - strategic (more than 3 years), tactical (up to 3 years), operational (up to 1 month).
2. Coverage - a plan for turnover, sales, promotional activities, market research or integrated (comprehensive plan).
3. Depth of study - detailed or general.
4. Field of activity - a plan of goals, pricing policy, product policy, marketing communications, control and revision, finance, warehousing, ordering, supply (logistics), etc.

A marketing plan is a very serious internal document, which is focused on achieving certain goals:

• Maintaining the company's position in the market.
• Development and implementation of a new product.
• Coverage of new niches and segments (diversification), etc.

Important point: In connection with such a wide range of areas for using marketing plans, it seems necessary to draw up a separate document for each goal, since the methods and tools for each of the goals are different.

It should be remembered that a marketing plan is not an analogue of a business plan. It covers only the activities of the company in the market.

Structure and content of the company's marketing plan

The marketing plan is an internal document that is used to make decisions by the company's management. However, it has a fairly clear structure.

It can take several months to complete, as it requires:

1. Collecting information about buyers.
2. Studying supply and demand in the market.
3. Definitions of competitive advantages.
4. Competitive ratings, etc.

Important point: The marketing plan should not be just a "collection of facts", but a document containing analysis, recommendations, alternatives for the company's further work in the market.

All 3-4 months during which the marketing plan will be formed will be spent as follows: 50% of the time will be spent on collecting all the necessary information, 40% on analysis and evaluation, and only 10% on creating the document itself.

In order not to be mistaken in the formation of a marketing plan, it is advisable to focus on the following structure:

1. Resume . This section includes a description of the main points outlined in the marketing plan. Here the goal is necessarily prescribed and the ways to achieve it are listed. The expected results of the implementation of the plan are also prescribed.

Important point: Paradoxically, the first section of a marketing plan is always the last section because it is summary the entire marketing plan.

2. Market overview and forecast . This section describes the market (size, growth opportunities, trends, features) and shows the specific behavior of consumers and competing firms in it. Here it is important to indicate how many competitors are in the selected segment, what share they cover, and also what are the opportunities for market growth.

3. SWOT analysis and competitive advantages . This part analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the company, the threats and opportunities for its functioning.

Based on the results of the SWOT analysis, the marketer should determine:

• The main competitive advantage of the company.
• Positioning of the product in relation to consumers (preferably with a forecast for 3-5 years ahead).
• Tactical measures to seize opportunities and reduce the impact of threats.
• A strategy to fight competitors and increase customer loyalty.

4. Purpose and objectives of the marketing plan . The marketing plan should contribute to the development of the business, which is why it contains business goals within the chosen planning horizon (month, year, three years) and marketing goals for the same period of time. Only after that, the tasks of marketing activities are drawn up.

5. Marketing mix (marketing mix). The core of any marketing plan is the so-called marketing mix, which is based on the 5P model for goods and the 7P model for services.

Model 5R. Any marketing event is built on the basis of five components:

• Product (Product) or product policy – ​​logo and corporate identity, appearance and physical properties product range, product quality.
• Price (Price) or pricing policy - wholesale and retail price, the procedure for determining the cost of goods, discounts and promotions, price discrimination.
• Place of sale (Place) or marketing policy - the sale of goods in the markets, in stores, the basics of distribution, the display of goods, inventory management and logistics.
• Promotion (Promotional) or promotion policy - promotion strategy, promotional activities, PR activities, event marketing, communication channels, media strategy.
• People (People) - staff motivation and stimulation, corporate culture, work with loyal customers and VIP clients, feedback.

Model 7P is supplemented by two more "P", namely:

• Process (Process) - the conditions of interaction with the client, the order of service, the creation of a favorable atmosphere, the speed of the service, etc.
• Physical environment (physical evidence) - furnishings, interior, background music, image, etc.

Thus, when developing a marketing plan, each of the above positions is worked out in detail, which makes it possible to form a comprehensive idea of ​​the company's functioning in the market.

6. Choice of company behavior in the market . This part of the marketing plan describes specific actions companies on the market to achieve the set goal and solve the identified problems

7. Activity budget . Includes a detailed list of costs for marketing activities, which can be presented in the form of a table.

8. Risk assessment . This part describes the risks that a company may face in the course of implementing a marketing plan.

The main stages of developing a marketing plan: an example of drafting

Obviously, a marketing plan is a complex and complex document, which is not easy to form. However, even a specialist with basic knowledge in the field of marketing can do it. Where should you start?

First of all, you should collect information about the market, the selected segment, competitors, consumers, and then implement the following sequence of actions:

• Stage 1 . Analysis of market trends. Identification of customer requirements for quality, price of goods, packaging design, communication channels.
• Stage 2 . Product analysis. Evaluation of quality, price, packaging design, communication channels for an existing product.
• Stage 3 . Target market selection. Determination of the category of consumers who are more suitable for the proposed product.
• Stage 4 . Positioning and competitive advantages. Establishing the position of the company's product in relation to competitors (average in quality, lower in price, etc.) and its beneficial aspects.
• Stage 5 . Creating a strategy. Formation of promotions and special offers for the target audience, the procedure for promoting the brand to the market, etc.
• Stage 6 . Tactical action plan. Actions to achieve the ideal position of the product in the market.

It is advisable to give a simplified example of creating a marketing plan for a company selling fresh juices through five specialized points located in different parts of the city.

Stage 1. Analysis of market trends

1. Customers want to buy juices that are squeezed out of fruits and vegetables in their presence, sold in containers that are convenient for drinking (paper cups and plastic bottles).
2. Sale is carried out in places of rest and near large offices.
3. The price may be higher than the cost of draft carbonated drinks and coffee, but cheaper than fresh juices offered by cafes and restaurants in the city.

Stage 2. Product analysis

1. The company produces fruit juices in plastic bottles and on spill.
2. All five points of sale are located in crowded places, including near recreational areas.
3. The price of juices is similar to the cost of fresh juices in cafes and restaurants of the city.

Stage 3. Selecting a target market

1. Taking into account the properties of the product and its price, the main target audience will be working representatives of the middle class who monitor their health.

Stage 4. Positioning and competitive advantages

1. The company will offer customers a product of excellent quality and high cost.
2. Natural ingredients, ease of drinking, proximity to the consumer are the main competitive advantages of the company.

Stage 5. Creating a strategy

1. Targeting an array of regular customers.
2. Retention of the audience in the cold season.

Stage 6. Tactical action plan

1. Formation funded system points for customers and a system of seasonal discounts.
2. Juice delivery offer plastic container in the city.
3. Expansion of the assortment by selling diet cookies and bars.

The above blank should be considered as a kind of basis for drawing up a marketing plan. In fact, having such information in hand, the marketer can only distribute it into the appropriate sections.

Problems of effective application of the marketing plan of the organization

Many marketers ask a completely natural question: why do marketing plans drawn up according to all the rules do not work and do not bring the desired effect?

The fact is that often quite accurate and meaningful documents include such shortcomings as:

• Use of information from one source . When leaving a marketing plan, you should use information from industry surveys, expert opinions, statistical bulletins, customer surveys, competitor reports, etc.
• Overgeneralization . The document should operate with data, and not endlessly “pour water” and write speculative, unsupported assumptions.
• Lack of flexibility . Despite its detail, the marketing plan must be flexible so that any of its parameters can be adjusted when the market situation changes.
• Lack of connection with the company's strategy . If the overall strategy of the company defines the sale of goods to middle-aged people, and marketing activities are focused on teenagers and young people, the marketing plan will not bring the expected effect.
• Inconsistency . If the marketing plan first considers the means of advertising and only then analyzes the product and customers, then the goals will not be achieved.

Important point: The finished marketing plan should be re-examined for the above problems.

A well-designed marketing plan is half the company's success in the market. With its help, you can create a clear, structured, consistent picture of the company's position in the industry and in a separate segment. It allows you to create a list of effective tactical marketing activities that will help achieve the company's goals.

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What are the main marketing plans

Various planning approaches are possible. Traditional planning usually involves dividing plans according to the time period for which they are designed. Including short-term, medium-term or long-term plans. However, there is no universal definition of planning periods.

Medium- and long-term plans are known as "strategic" because they look at business strategies for a long period. Short-term plans are often referred to as "business plans" or "corporate" because they provide guidance for day-to-day activities. The application of a specific plan depends on the scope and objectives of the company, the markets served, the need to plan for future product releases.

Long-range planning is designed to assess general business and economic trends over many years. The company's strategy is aimed at the growth of the relevant long-term objectives of the organization, which has importance for the spheres of the defense industry, pharmaceuticals and astronautics, where the terms of development of new products reach 5-10 years. Long-term planning in these industries covers 10-20 years. But the timing of the development of most companies is not so significant, with a long-term planning orientation of more than 5-7 years.

Medium-term planning is more practical, designed for a period of not more than 2-5 years (usually three years). Such planning is more tied to life, since it refers to the near future, the probability of reflection in terms of reality is higher. At the heart of a medium-term "strategic" marketing plan, strategies are similar to long-term ones. However, major decisions need to be implemented in a shorter time frame. Such decisions include the need for capital investment, the introduction of new products, the availability and use of resources and personnel.

Short-term planning (and budgeting), as a rule, is focused on a period of up to 1 year, involving the development of business or corporate plans and associated budgets. It is expected that these plans will consider the near future and the details of what the company plans to undertake over a period of 12 months. Short-term plans are considered the most detailed. They can be adjusted if necessary.

How to Make a 1 Page Marketing Plan: The Allan Dib Technique

Quick and easy write a marketing plan, even if you are a marketing pro, you can with the help of the e-zine article "Commercial Director".

Why You Need a Marketing Plan

Lack of a marketing plan leads to the following problems:

• there is a spontaneous development of the company without a specific plan of action;
• there is a constant conflict of possible schemes, existing development options; there is a dispersion of means, efforts, time;
• the target audience is not defined, which periodically leads to the above problems;
• chaotic purchases of products, attempts to diversify the product offer at a time when you need to concentrate on the main product offer.

The marketing plan accomplishes the following goals:

• systematize, formally describe the ideas of the leaders of the organization, conveying them to employees;
• concentration of company resources with their reasonable distribution;
• set marketing goals, providing control in achieving them.

What sections are included in the marketing plan

• grocery plan;
• sales plan - increasing sales efficiency;
• advertising and sales promotion plan;
• research and development of new products;
• distribution channel operation plan;
• price plan, including price changes in the future;
• plan marketing research;
• plan for the operation of the physical distribution system;
• marketing organization plan.

Structure and content of the marketing plan

Executive Summary (Summary) – This initial section of the marketing plan provides a brief summary of the main recommendations and goals in the plan. This section allows management to quickly understand the focus of this plan. This section is usually followed by a table of contents for the plan.

Current marketing situation - this section describes the target market, the position of the organization in it. These sections include:

• market description;
• product overview;
• competition;
• distribution.

Hazards and Opportunities - This section lists the main opportunities and dangers for the product on the market. An assessment of the potential harm of each hazard is expected.

Marketing goals - this section characterizes the direction of the drawn up plan, initially formulating the desired results of activities in specific markets.

Marketing strategies are the main directions of marketing activity. By following them, organizations strive to achieve marketing goals. The marketing strategy includes specific strategies for operating in target markets, the marketing mix used, relevant marketing costs. In the strategies that are developed for each market segment, it is necessary to consider new and manufactured products, prices, promotion of products, bringing products to consumers, it is necessary to indicate how the strategy reacts to the opportunities and dangers of the market.

Action Program - a detailed program showing what needs to be done, when and by whom the accepted tasks should be carried out, how much it will cost, what decisions need to be coordinated in order to fulfill the marketing plan.

The program, as a rule, briefly characterizes the goals for the achievement of which the activities of the program are oriented. Therefore, the program is a set of specific activities that must be carried out by the marketing and other services of the organization in order to achieve the goals of the marketing plan. The course will help you reach them faster."

Marketing budget - this section reflects projected revenues, profits and costs. The amount of income from the forecast position on sales and prices is substantiated. Costs are determined as the sum of production, marketing and distribution costs. At the same time, marketing costs will have to be detailed in this budget.

Section "Control" - it reflects the methods and procedures for control, which are required in assessing the level of success of the plan. For this purpose, criteria (standards) are established, on the basis of which the progress of the implementation of marketing plans is measured.

Stages of developing a marketing plan

Stage 1. Determination of the initial goals of the development and activities of the company.

Stage 2. Analysis of marketing activities. It is divided into three parts:

1) Analysis external environment marketing:

• analysis of the economic and business environment - the state of the economy, socio-cultural conditions, financial policy, technological conditions, socio-economic conditions in the company;
• market environment: general state of the market; its development; distribution channels, communications, the state of the industry;
• competitor environment.

2) A detailed analysis of marketing activities involves the analysis sales volume , market share, profit, marketing organization, marketing procedures, analysis of all elements of the marketing mix, control of marketing activities.

3) Analysis of the marketing system involves an analysis of marketing goals, marketing strategies, duties and rights of managers in the field of marketing, information system, planning and control systems, interaction with other management functions, as well as profitability analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis.

Stage 3. Formulation of assumptions, hypotheses regarding certain factors external to the company that may have an impact on its activities. It is worth classifying and presenting assumptions explicitly. Classification of assumptions can be made in the following areas - the organization itself, a specific industry and the country of operation.

Stage 4. Setting marketing goals. Defining and organizing goals is an important aspect of marketing activities. Almost any planning and management document on marketing now contains in one of its initial sections at least a simple verbal list of goals, upon receipt of which no special approaches and methods are used. But in order to strengthen the focus on final results in planning and management activities, with the intensification of the use of special management methods, the need to increase the quality of individual management to build a system of goals, it is necessary to apply special approaches and methods.

Marketing has the following goals:

1. Satisfy the needs of consumers.
2. Provide yourself with a competitive advantage.
3. Raise the level of sales.
4. Get some profit.
5. Increase market share.

The core of marketing goals should be the specifics of the product or the need for it. If possible, goals should be focused not on consumer groups, but on their needs. After all, buyers are a fickle group.

Stage 5. Alternative strategies are developed that are aimed at achieving marketing goals. These strategies are detailed in relation to the elements of the marketing mix.

You can create strategies in the field of pricing in the following way:

• setting the price of products according to the market position;
• conducting a different pricing policy, depending on the markets;
• development of a pricing policy, taking into account the pricing policy of its competitors.

In the field of product promotion, strategies can be noted that characterize communications with consumers, means and methods of organizing the actions of sales department employees in new markets.

The strategy in the field of bringing the product to consumers includes:

• channels used to bring the product to the consumer;
• level of after-sales customer service;
• activities aimed at achieving delivery costs;
• sales in small lots or wholesale.

After these stages of marketing planning are completed, you need to re-confirm that it is possible to achieve your goals and strategies using various evaluation criteria, including sales volume, market share, resource costs, profit margins and other estimates of the planned results and the ability to achieve them.

Stage 6. The set of marketing strategies, goals and activities to achieve is a strategic marketing plan, which at the next planning stage should be brought to working planning documents. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out operational scheduling.

Stage 7. At the stage of operational-calendar planning or development of detailed action plans, it is required to specify marketing strategies into detailed plans, programs in the context of each of the 4 elements of the marketing complex.

We are talking about the development of action plans for each unit of the organization, aimed at achieving the specified goals based on the selected strategies. It is necessary that they contain answers to questions - what, who, where and when, how and with what resources should be done to implement marketing programs and plans.

As a rule, written instructions for drawing up action plans are also being developed, which are accompanied by forms and sample filling.

Stage 8. A marketing budget is being developed. Its compilation helps in the correct prioritization between the strategies and goals of marketing activities, in making decisions on the allocation of resources, in exercising effective control.

The budget is usually developed using a profit-based planning approach.

In this case, the marketing budget is developed in the following sequence: predictive estimates of market capacity, market share, price, sales revenue, variable and fixed costs are determined; calculated gross profit, covering all costs, including marketing costs, and providing a given value of the target profit.

Variables are then subtracted from the gross profit and fixed costs, as well as the value of the target profit. In this way, marketing costs are determined. They are detailed by individual elements of the marketing mix.

• Marketing and sales: how to establish effective interaction

Budgeting is always a problem.

Roman Tkachev,

promotion project manager trademark MDV, group of companies "AYAK"

Marketing expenses are not always perceived as an investment in customer acquisition or retention. Some view marketing spending as a fashion statement rather than an investment to increase profit margins. The reason is that the marketing department is often unable to present a system for evaluating its performance in the form of a mathematical model to management.

Determining the size of the marketing budget is an issue strategic planning in the work of the company. Therefore, the budget includes not only an estimate of the costs of promotion and advertising, but also costs for market research, the development of external brand attributes, with customer relationship management, distribution channels, BTL and other related activities.

It is worth considering that marketing planning is intended to determine the position of the organization at the current moment, areas of activity, means of achieving its goals. The marketing plan is central from the standpoint of conducting activities to receive a certain income. It is the basis for all other activities of the organization.

You don't need to reinvent the wheel to create a marketing plan

Anton Uskov,

General Director of PR agency Media_Act, Moscow

Companies do not have to reinvent the wheel to plan their marketing policy. If you do not know how to write a marketing plan, it is better to turn to the advice of professionals.

The most effective and simplest option is to put yourself in the place of a potential buyer or client, discarding your habits and addictions, ceasing to use stamps and templates.

How is the implementation of the marketing plan carried out?

To control the work of the enterprise as a whole, it is necessary to develop a multi-level procedure for management calculation, with the formulation of a development strategy, supported by a set of tactical measures. It is on the solution of the last task in the activities of marketing and commercial services that the marketing plan is oriented.

The head provides control over the results in the activities of his subordinate units:

• according to the criteria in the marketing plan;
• in terms of management accounting;
• on the performance of the department.

An analysis of the implementation of the marketing plan also involves a comparison of the actual development of the situation and the planned or expected indicators for the reporting period. If the actual state is recognized as unsatisfactory, it is necessary to make appropriate changes. Sometimes it is necessary to revise the relevant plans due to the influence of uncontrollable factors.

Analysis of the marketing plan can be carried out by 3 methods:

1. Analysis of marketing costs;
2. Implementation analysis;
3. Marketing revision.

As part of the analysis of marketing costs, an assessment of the effectiveness of various marketing factors is given. It is necessary to find out which costs are effective and which are not, and make the necessary adjustments. Sales performance analysis is a detailed study of sales performance to assess the correctness of a particular strategy.

A marketing audit is a systematized, objective and critical assessment, a review of the main goals and policies of the organization's marketing functions in the implementation of this policy, with the achievement of the set goals. Marketing audit involves 6 stages:

1. It is determined by whom the audit will be carried out.
2. The frequency of the revision is determined.
3. Forms for revision are being developed.
4. The revision is carried out immediately.
5. Presentation of the results to the management of the organization, decision-making.

A prerequisite in this direction is the dependence of wages on the performance of duties. The share of real payments, depending on the results, should be quite significant (at least one third of the employee's total earnings).

• How to Determine Your Marketing Budget: Calculation Methods and Expert Advice

Information about authors and companies

PR agency Media_Act specializes in advertising and PR campaigns in the regions. It has branches in almost all major cities countries. Among the main clients are the Finam investment holding, the Japanese tire manufacturer Yokohama, the distributor of roofing materials Diana-Trade, and MTS. The agency has subsidiaries engaged in the provision of advertising production and printing services.

Roman Tkachev, project manager for the promotion of the MDV trademark, the group of companies "AYAK". Graduated from the Altai State University(specialist in international relations, orientalist) and Yanshan University (PRC) (Chinese, international marketing). He was engaged in the development and implementation of a supply planning system and a system for accounting and analyzing commercial offers for the MDV brand.

Group of companies "AYAK"- Founded in 1996. Distributor of well-known global manufacturers of air conditioning equipment. It has about 50 regional offices, more than 2,000 dealer companies in the Russian Federation and the CIS countries. Official website - www.jac.ru

The vast majority of Russian marketers were brought up on Kotler's books. His contribution to the popularization of marketing is, of course, invaluable. But, perhaps, it is in this role that he will remain in history.

American authors Heebing and Cooper, known worldwide for their books on marketing planning, much more concentrated on the practical side. Their main contribution was the phased planning of marketing based on the establishment quantitative relationship between sales and marketing communications. It is no coincidence that thousands of students learn from their books in all US business schools.

Another American author Schultz made a great contribution to the development integrated marketing communications (IMC),- a system based on an objectively proven scientific fact that the consumer integrates all information about the market of a particular product, coming to him from various sources. Therefore, the presence of several communication channels greatly increases the impact on the consumer. On the other hand, when information coming from one source is not supported by similar information from others, its effect is just as much reduced.

The combination of these two methods, namely prudent transformation of IMC into real sales, is the key and most effective idea in modern marketing. Against the background of "emotional propaganda" books by foreign and domestic authors, this is by far the most rational and practically useful technique for businessmen and marketers.

There are practically no examples in the open press and the web of how this works? Mostly common words and academic plans are found. Therefore, it will be especially useful for you to familiarize yourself with our practice.

In the practice of Russian and many foreign companies, marketing and sales plans exist separately and have little to do with each other. You will find many such plans online, which are more like bureaucratic circulars, consisting of bulky paragraphs rewritten from textbooks and a lot of unnecessary terms and definitions. There is no the most important thing - any plan should give a result. Therefore, we will not talk about a plan "for the sake of a plan" and not about a training case. It's about a marketing plan that can actually increase sales.

It should also be remembered that the marketing plan is a key part of the investment plan. Not production or financial, which many people emphasize, but marketing! The marketing component is the weakest point of investment strategies and plans. A sales plan cannot be credible without a compelling marketing justification. This must always be remembered.

In practice, it is really very difficult to link sales and marketing plans with each other. It is easier to make formal plans or "replies" that are suitable for the role of "whip" for managers and do not help them in any way in their work.
In reality, this is a rather cumbersome and time-consuming construction, if presented in a schematic or tabular form. In addition, it is very difficult to fit into a visual model of a marketing and sales plan the many preliminary and intermediate studies and chains of reasoning that affect the content and indicators. But one thing makes her different:

At any given time, you understand why sales are rising or falling and what and how intense actions need to be taken to support, speed up or slow down (if you want) these sales by the desired amount.

We took the least voluminous marketing and sales plan of the Moscow representative office of a small manufacturer of electrical household appliances from the near abroad, who recently entered the Russian market. Based on the results of the market and product portfolio analysis, it was planned to double the current sales volumes, excluding online sales, which at that time did not yet make a significant contribution and were not so actively practiced. Although the products belong to a variety of goods that, despite the influence of the Internet, remain committed to traditional distribution channels. Therefore, the relevance of the project remains quite high.

By the time the project started, the customer had a small Moscow representative office in Russia of 5 people, sales of several hundred units of household appliances per month, and the only “urgent” question for him was in which publication to place an advertisement that would solve all sales problems?
We proposed a research phase, as a result of which this marketing plan was drawn up and began to be implemented, which is presented in full schematic form below:

Complete Marketing and Sales Plan Diagram

It is important to clarify the following points:

1. Target markets

At the start of the project, the target markets with which the company worked were limited to customer groups marked orange. After conducting market analysis and segmentation, other target groups of customers were identified, which are marked in green. In the process of field research, their main characteristics were determined - price segments, decision-making system and decision makers, basic needs and wishes, dynamics and trends in recent years.

Target Markets

Source: Analytical Marketing Agency

2. Positioning

This is the weakest point of the absolute majority of Russian companies. Because they underestimate the simple but painstaking procedure for developing this provision. In most cases, it is enough to carefully approach this to get a quick and noticeable result. In this case, the product portfolio was analyzed and product positioning was developed, which was then adapted with minor variations to different target markets. This is important point! Different target markets require specific positioning, even if at first glance it may not be fundamentally different.
In our case, a new positioning was tested in the form commercial offer for small sample clients. Its results were evaluated according to the system awareness - the share of positive attitude - decision-making on purchases (conclusion of a contract).

3. Goals of communications

The model of consumer behavior known in Western literature 4A is deciphered as a sequence of communications with the consumer Awareness - Attitude - Action - Action Again (Awareness - Attitude - First / trial purchase - Repeat purchase). In the Russian-language literature, you can find similar analogues of AIDA / AIDAS from the field of advertising, but we prefer to measure the specific "Attitude" of the consumer, rather than the abstract "Interest". Most importantly, you must learn to give these qualitative characteristics a quantitative dimension in order to understand the most effective direction of your communications. If, for example, you cover 100% of the target group with communication, 25% of them have a positive attitude, 5% make a purchase, of which half make a repeat purchase, then by distributing this data to a wider audience of consumers with similar characteristics, you can calculate the potential the effect of their communications. In order to get these numbers, you need local samples. And your ongoing challenge as a marketer or business owner is to constantly try to narrow the ranges between these numbers. For example, instead of 100% - 25% - 5% - 2.5%, achieve 100% - 30% - 10% - 7% in the first stage. This is the meaning of the quantitative relationship between marketing communications and sales in the general case. But this is only one of the rough (but illustrative!) options for interpreting this relationship, and it has its drawbacks. Most often, you have to select more subtle practical tools for each specific case.

Positioning is just one of these, although it is the most powerful tool for achieving such results. We will talk about this in detail in special articles.

4. Identification of leading and secondary target markets.

The target markets identified as the most promising green color in the topic "Marketing Objectives". "Specialized retail chains" were not previously considered by the customer due to the difficulty of getting there. This problem was solved by the consultants during the testing process. It was possible to agree with the large M-Video network on the placement of products there in the ideal price segment, which turned out to be unfilled by competitive analogues, which was brought to the attention of decision makers on purchases. Thanks to a well-reasoned proposal, it was possible to get their consent almost immediately.

By the way, during the first telephone conversation, the head of the procurement department was offered to get acquainted free of charge with the results of marketing research on the market for electric kettles in Russia and Moscow, in particular, in which a gap was shown in the price range of the trading network. During the second phone call, the sales network manager immediately agreed to a meeting that lasted no more than 10 minutes with the above result. Model 4A in this case looked like 100% (awareness) - 15% (positive attitude) - 7.5% (trial purchase). A positive attitude was expressed in the fact that, in addition to the main one, another small chain out of 13 covered, having familiarized itself with the offer and product positioning, was ready to carry out a trial purchase a little later.

Wholesale companies that had previously refused to work with the company's products managed to inspire loyalty with the new positioning of products and encourage some of them to test purchases. According to model 4A 100% - 29% -14%, this allowed to double the base of wholesale buyers - from 7 to 15.
In fact, the consultants worked in these examples as a sales department. Due to the small number of customers in the collected databases, instead of limited samples, these target markets have been worked out in full. A high degree of efficiency was achieved through a balanced positioning, which was adjusted after each contact until the share of a positive attitude increased. If at the beginning of the work it did not exceed 10%, then at the end it reached 29%.
All contacts were transferred to sales managers to work out the details and conclude contracts. And this is the main feature in our work, unlike classical consultants. We do not offer solutions that have not been tested with real markets and customers.
yellow color in the "Marketing Objectives" section highlights target markets or customer groups that are considered secondary.

Marketing Goals

Source: Analytical Marketing Agency

5. Secondary target markets are secondary in order to limit them in human and financial resources compared to priority ones.

You can't embrace the vast, or as we like to say, you can't do a little of everything! Unfortunately, the reality is that no manager or entrepreneur ever follows this principle. Most often they do the exact opposite and consider it a blessing. Because of this, we have to constantly check the compliance of the client's decisions with this principle.

"yellow"Target client groups were recognized as secondary according to the test results. Certain difficulties appeared with them, which were expressed in low shares of positive attitude and potential sales regarding awareness. These were problems associated with identifying and reaching out to decision makers, with reporting to them important information about the company and products, with forecasting the level of average purchases and sales in general, price pressure (market traders working with cheap Chinese products), with some seasonality in purchases, with the difficulty of ranking marketing and communications tools, etc.

All this in general increased the costs of promotion in these target markets. Therefore, in accordance with the "golden rule" of business - "don't do a little of everything"- a decision was made to limit activity in relation to them at this stage, and the main task of communications was their primary awareness of the positioning of the company and products. The mailing list of a specially designed informative booklet was chosen as the main means of communication. Therefore, the forecasts of concluded contracts or potential sales in this case were approximate and were not of great interest, since they did not plan a significant contribution to sales on their part.

While with respect to the main green"Target markets forecasts turned out to be quite reliable, and due to them it was supposed to receive more than 80-90% of all planned sales. Contacts with their representatives were made in full and specific agreements on deliveries were reached.

6. Ranking of means of communication according to the principle "Price - Effect"

Human psychology tends to trust and pay great attention to the most expensive things and means to achieve goals. Therefore, in our case, expensive and other paid types of advertising were deemed inappropriate until the available and free marketing tools were exhausted. The purpose of the sale was doubling current sales volumes, and the marketing plan budget is estimated at 1010 USD according to the exchange rate prevailing at the time. Tellingly, less than half of them actually achieved sales targets.

We specifically focus on the negligible amount of the marketing budget to emphasize the fact that big money does not always solve the problem of achieving the sales goal. There is always an opportunity to achieve a lot using the simplest and most cost-effective methods based on analytics and market research. In this case, the very fact of being represented in large network makes huge advertising costs for promotion redundant and allows you to reach, among other things, numerous minor groups of customers. Selling to large customers automatically attracts smaller customers. Another thing is that serving large customers is a special art and requires constant focused efforts. For example, this manifests itself in working with, whose standards, as our practice has shown, are not able to withstand a significant part of Russian manufacturers in the field light industry or food production. And this is despite the fact that only German retail is able to surpass all Russian sales of an individual company, not to mention the rate of return that is incomparable compared to the domestic market.

From the point of view of BCI demonstration, this project was not very successful due to the described artificial limitations. But the goal of a marketing plan is not to master the budget, but to get a result that is qualitatively different from the current one. Therefore, the set of selected tools for target markets can be expanded in the future with greater efficiency than at the moment. On the whole, it can be noted that in a country where one federal channel easily replaces all possible BCIs, it is not so easy to show such examples.

Marketing Communications Goals, Marketing Means and Budget