Military Planning Template

Business/Marketing Plans

• Analysis of the current position
  • Consumer Analysis
    
    • What is the need for your product or service?
    • Who is buying the product, and who is consuming it?
    • What is the buying process?
    • Is it an impulse buy, or is it carefully weighed? How anxious is the consumer to make a right decision?
    • Segmentation & Targeting
      Will one part of the potential market be more lucrative than others?

  • Market Analysis
    • What is the Relevant Market?
      Are you sure that you are viewing the market correctly? How do you define it? How large is it? Is it expanding or contracting? What are market trends?
    • Market/Product Life Cycle
      What differentiates products in the market? What guides the consumers choice?
    • What are the key factors determining success?
      These could be quality, price, advertising, R&D, design, service, etc.

  • Competitive Analysis
    • SWOT
      What are your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats relative to the competition? What are is your access to resources?

  • Distribution Analysis
    • Channels of distribution
      What are the precise channels of distribution between yourself and the consumer?
    • Markups
      What are the mark-ups at each stage in the channel?
    • Power in Channels
      Who has the power to dictate the way the channels operate?

• Planning the Marketing MixThe marketing mix represents your plan for making the most of your product. This involves consideration of:
  • Product
    How will your product appear? What will it do? How will it meet consumers needs? How does it fit with an existing product range? - presentation, fit with product range, etc.

  • Place
    Where will you market it? What distribution channels will you use? What mark-ups will you have to allow for?

  • Price
    What price will you charge for it? How will you justify the price?

  • Promotion
    How will you promote the product? What marketing strategy will you use? What image will you present? How will you handle PR? How will you handle advertising?

• Evaluation of your plan
  What does a cash flow forecast show? How long will it take to break even? Is your plan viable? Do you need to replan your marketing mix or abandon the plan?