Marketing Management, 16th Edition

Developing a Marketing Plan

The marketing plan directs and coordinates all company marketing efforts.25 It is a tangible outcome of a company’s strategic planning process, outlining the company’s ultimate goal and the means by which it aims to achieve this goal. In order to serve its ultimate purpose of guiding a company’s actions, the marketing plan must effectively communicate the company’s goal and its proposed course of action to relevant stakeholders—company employees, collaborators, shareholders, and investors.

The scope of the marketing plan is narrower than that of the business plan because marketing covers only one aspect of a company’s business activities. A company’s business plan addresses not only the marketing aspect of the company’s ...