Generally, companies are divided into four levels of hierarchy, the corporate, the division, the business unit and the product level. The general plan of the company is designed at the corporate level. As part of this planning, each resource is assigned to each division of the company. Division-level planning then allocates resources to each business unit in the company. In addition, business unit planning designs a strategic plan for each business area, which determines each of the marketing objectives / goals, strategies and tactics, which must be consistent with the overall strategic plan.

Therefore, a marketing plan, according to Kotler, is a “written document, which includes the objectives, strategies and action plans on the elements of the marketing mix that facilitate and enable compliance with the strategy dictated at the corporate level.”

So to make your business successful, you need a strategic marketing plan. Strategic plans are classified according to their time frame into long, medium and short term plans. Generally, long-term plans tend to be between 5 and 10 years at the corporate level, medium-term plans between 2 and 5 years, and short-term plans consist of a period of time that varies between 6 months and 1 anus.

A proper marketing plan has 10 sections.

Executive Summary: The marketing plan, like all documents that are presented to the established executive bodies, should begin with a brief summary of the entire plan, with basic numerical data and information.

Mission and Vision: the marketing plan includes the “reason for being” of the company, its values ​​and its future intentions and strategic focus.

Situation Analysis: This section includes all the results of the market research with various subsections. It includes an external analysis (macroenvironment and microenvironment analysis) and an internal analysis (with the help of various internal matrices such as BCG Matrix and General Electric Matrix).

SWOT analysis: the strengths and weaknesses of the company and the environmental threats and opportunities for the company, this is the basis for defining marketing objectives and strategies.

Objectives: the goals that the company plans to achieve, which can be classified according to their characteristics into quantitative or qualitative.

Marketing Strategies: Based on goals, a marketing strategy is the roadmap to success.

Marketing Mix: one of the key points of the marketing plan is the design of the medium and long-term approach of the 4 Ps (price, place, product, promotion).

Action Program: this section lists all the actions to be carried out with specific information, schedules and responsibilities among the staff.

Interim income statement: the plan must include an income statement with the inputs for which the marketing department is responsible.

Monitoring and control: the purpose of this section is to ensure that the 9 sections are followed and the proposed objectives are achieved.

Apart from these 10 sections, a successful marketing plan must have 3 characteristics.

The plan must be flexible, because the business environment is changing rapidly and the plan must be adaptable to achieve the goals that have been set.

The marketing plan must be clear and precise in the order of each section to avoid misunderstandings within the department.

It has to be systematic and structured, written as a series of logical steps, organized and complete in terms of the amount of information.