Westwood - How to write a marketing plan: define your strategy, plan effectively and reach your marketing goals

How to Write a Marketing Plan

John Westwood | Revised Third Edition

This is for Lucinda and Ben
who are forever grateful to their father for his plans

Publishers note

Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book is accurate at the time of going to press, and the publishers and authors cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, however caused. No responsibility for loss or damage occasioned to any person acting, or refraining from action, as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by the editor, the publisher or the author.

First published in Great Britain in 1996 by Kogan Page Limited

Second edition 2000

Third edition published in Great Britain and the United States 2006

Revised third edition 2011

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licences issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned addresses:

John Westwood, 1996, 2000, 2006, 2011

The right of John Westwood to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBN 978 0 7494 6171 3

E-ISBN 978 0 7494 6151 5

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Westwood, John, 1947-

How to write a marketing plan / John Westwood. -- Rev. 3rd ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-7494-6171-3 -- ISBN 978-0-7494-6151-5 1. Marketing-Management. I. Title.

HF415.13.W48 2010

658.802--dc22

2010022256

Typeset by Jean Cussons Typesetting, Diss, Norfolk

Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt Ltd

eBook by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong

Contents

This book is different from most business books. It is a practical workbook that will enable you to prepare your own marketing plan.

In the course of this book, you will follow the development of a marketing plan for a fictitious company The Equipment Manufacturing Company. Step by step you will be shown how to carry out the different steps in marketing planning. Exercises help you to produce sections of your own marketing plan.

By the time you reach the end of this book, we will have completed our marketing plan and you will have completed yours.

The book can be used in many ways:

• as an individual study guide;
• for group marketing planning exercises;
• as a textbook for marketing courses.

Since the completed plan is included at the end of the book, we include the answers as well as the questions!

Planning is one of the most important roles of management. A companys corporate or business plan runs the business. A companys marketing plan is a key input to the business plan. It should identify the most promising business opportunities for the company and outline how to penetrate, capture and maintain positions in identified markets. It is a communication tool combining all the elements of the marketing mix in a coordinated action plan. It spells out who will do what, when, where and how, to achieve its ends.

An overall company marketing plan can be made up of a number of smaller marketing plans for individual products or areas. These smaller plans can be prepared as and when the occasion requires.

Most books on marketing planning concentrate on theory. This approach is fine for business academics but makes the whole process too complicated for the average sales manager. The approach in this book is a practical one, including only as much theory as is necessary to understand the planning process. Working your way through this book will broaden your understanding of the principles of marketing planning so that you will be able to carry out the background work necessary to put together any type of marketing plan.

It is, however, becoming more common for sales and marketing personnel to have to put together individual plans for a product or an area very quickly. This book is designed as much to help those people as to provide guidance to marketing personnel putting together an overall marketing plan.

Throughout the book we will follow the fortunes of a company manufacturing filters and valves The Equipment Manufacturing Company. It will be used in examples and as the basis of a marketing plan. The plan will be for all its products for its home market. To get the best out of this book, you should follow this example and prepare an equivalent marketing plan for a product for your own company as we progress through the steps one by one. By the end of the book, you will have your own marketing plan.

Adopting and following the formal structure of the plan (shown later in this book) will make it easier for you to order your thoughts and the facts logically.

It will be easier for:

• people reading the plan to follow your arguments and to see how you reached your conclusions;
• you to present a professional-looking and complete document from even a relatively small amount of information.

The Equipment Manufacturing Company is a medium-sized company based in the south of England. Key facts are given opposite:

Company name: The Equipment Manufacturing Company

Main products: Valves and filters

List the same information below for your own company or business unit:

Before we proceed, we need to cover some basic definitions. So first of all, answer the following questions:

What is selling?

What is marketing?

What is marketing planning?

Check your answers with the definitions given below.

Selling is a straightforward concept which involves persuading a customer to buy a product. It brings in todays orders. It is, however, only one aspect of the marketing process.