Essay: Understanding the Purpose and Components of a Feasible Marketing Plan

My understanding of the purpose of the marketing plan is to show how a team’s or organisation’s objectives can be achieved via specific marketing strategies. (Kotler et al., 2017) This marketing plan would have to be convincing and persuade investors that the product or service we are trying to market is a feasible idea. A feasible marketing plan is one that would meet the objectives of the product, be it financial or non-financial objectives.
Sets task objectives and actions to meet the task goals
The marketing plan has to be comprehensive and unique to each product. First, the marketing plan has to analyse the current market in terms of the microenvironment and macroenvironment, using appropriate frameworks such as the SWOT analysis. Next, the marketing plan has to state the objectives of the product, which can be financial (i.e. make a profit) or non-financial (e.g. encourage smokers to quit smoking). After that, a customer-driven marketing strategy would be developed. This would require segmentation of the market via geographical, demographic, behavioural or psychographic variables. This segmentation must also be effective, which means the segment has to be measurable, accessible, substantial, differentiable and actionable. A target segment is then chosen along with an appropriate targeting strategy. The marketing plan then has to differentiate the product to create superior customer value, and come up with a positioning strategy (using possible value proposition framework) and statement. (Kotler et al., 2017)
The marketing plan then has to present the marketing mix which supports the positioning strategy. The marketing mix consists of the 4Ps, Product, Price, Place and Promotion. An action plan would be required to outline the timeline of events and actions required to ensure the success of the marketing plan. Next, the marketing plan has to present a comprehensive financial analysis to show how funds from investors would be used and an estimate of the profit that can be made from the product offering. Lastly, the marketing plan has to include contingencies, for scenarios such as if product turns out to be unsuccessful or too successful. A team would then be required to present the marketing plan convincingly and confidently to potential investors.
Defines milestones for implementation and criteria for evaluation of task results
My teammates and I had high expectations for our project. Due to the scale of the marketing plan project, our team knew this project could not be done last minute. Thus, my team decided to meet up for project discussion every Monday after tutorial class, usually around 2-3 hours, where we would discuss what should be done by the following week. Our team would then allocate parts for each team member to complete by the end of the week. To ensure a high quality of work, our team used the Devil’s Advocate Method (John Spacey, 2015). Using this method, we would critique each other’s work to ensure there are no loopholes and that every aspect of the content is covered. The team’s consult with our tutor, Professor Arthur, has also helped us greatly to improve our marketing plan and report using his advice. Personally, I would go back to thoroughly review the chapter that I am allocated to do (e.g. Positioning, Place) by reading the textbook and going through the lecture. This ensures I truly understand the topic such that I can contribute to the marketing plan to the best of my ability.
Describes results
Our team’s teamwork at the beginning of the semester was not ideal. There was some miscommunication regarding what each team member had to do, and it was getting obvious that one member of the team was not contributing enough, which might be a result of social loafing. (NTU, 2019) The lowest point was when our team forgot to print the hardcopy of the proposal presentation slides, which showed the lack of shared leadership (NTU, 2019) in the team. After this mistake, our team got a wakeup call and was much more serious for the remainder of the semester. We were on schedule based on the timeline we made for ourselves to ensure we would finish the marketing plan early, such that we could have a final look through before the submission. I believe that my personal and group’s performance is high. Team members make the effort to arrive on time for meetings, work that is allocated is completed on schedule and is of good quality. Everyone was proactive in contributing to the project. However, it is unfortunate that there is one member of the group, despite already being told off by one of the members, failed to really contribute to the marketing plan. This team member would either not complete the task allocated to him or do so with poor quality of work, such that the others would have to do it for him. This has left the teammates no choice but to request for peer evaluation from our tutor.
Evaluates results
I realised that it is not easy to work effectively in a team. Everyone has different schedules and it is difficult to find time where everyone would be free to meet. Personally, I feel that I should have taken more initiative and personal responsibility at the start, where I was just going with the flow. I also realised the importance of shared leadership and having to be proactive, to ensure that simple mistakes like forgetting to print the proposal slides can be avoided. I then tried to be more proactive, reminding others of deadlines, booking Arc discussion rooms for meetings and be aware of other teammates’ work, adding input to aspects they might have missed. It is also essential that meetings be efficient and productive, and doing one’s allocated tasks and reading the relevant concept beforehand would help in this aspect. As for the team member that did not contribute much, I feel that the team has tried our hardest to get him to contribute, from allocating easier tasks to a message sent to him that conveys how we feel about his lack of effort. Apart from that, I feel our team’s performance for the marketing plan was good. Each team member put in effort to complete their part, which allowed for our marketing plan to be completed on schedule and of the quality we expected.