Hospitality Marketing

MARKETING PLAN

What is a marketing plan?

 A written document that details the necessary actions to achieve one or more marketing objectives.
 It can be for a product/service, a brand, or a product line
 It is the heart of the business, the basis from which operational and management plans are derived.

Purposes of the Marketing Plan

i. Provides a road map for all marketing activities of the firm for the next year
ii. Ensures that marketing activities align with the corporate strategic plan
iii. Forces marketing managers to review and think through objectively all steps in the marketing
process.
iv. Assists in the budgeting process to match resources with marketing objectives.
v. Creates a process to monitor actual against expected results.

Benefits of a Marketing Plan

i. Helps to focus on the target market and to establish if there are gaps in the market that can
provide new opportunities
ii. Identifies needs and wants of consumers
iii. Determines demand for a product
iv. Aids in design of products that fulfill consumer’s needs
v. Identifies competitors and analyzes your product’s or firm’s competitive advantage
vi. Allows for test to establish if strategies are giving the desired results.

Implementation of Marketing Plans

 This is the process that transforms marketing strategies and plans into marketing actions in order to
accomplish strategic marketing objectives
 It involves day to day and month to month activities that effectively put the marketing plan to work
 The marketing plan addresses the what and why of marketing activities
 Implementation addresses the who, when, where and how

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Reasons for Poor Implementation

 Isolated planning- Planning carried out by top management with little or no involvement of the
marketing managers who must implement the plan
 Planners concerned with broad strategy and may prepare plans that are general
 Managers who face day to day operations may not fully understand the plans or may resent what
they perceive as unrealistic plans made up by ‘ivory tower’ planners.
 Management tradeoffs between long and short-term objectives-Company marketing strategies often
cover long run activities over three to five years, however marketing managers who implement these
strategies are usually rewarded for short run sales goals or profits
 Natural resistance to change can cause implementation problems-New strategies requiring new
company patterns and habits will be resisted
 Lack of specific implementation plans-Some marketing planners leave implementation details to
managers and the result is poor implementation or no implementation. Management must prepare a
detailed implementation plan showing specific activities and timelines, with tasks assigned to
specific managers.

MARKETING PLAN TEMPLATE

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CONTENTS
Executive Summary
1. Company Profile
1.1 Company details -
1.1 Mission Statement
2. SWOT Analysis
3. Marketing Goals and Objectives
4. Market Segmentation and Targeting
4.1 Market Segmentation
4.2 Target Market
5. Buyer Personas
6. Positioning
7. Current Market Situation/Situation Analysis
8. Marketing Strategy
8.1 Product
8.2 Pricing
8.3 Promotion
8.4 Distribution
9. Budget
10. Action Programs
11. Controls to Monitor Progress

Executive Summary
 The Executive Summary is a one- or two-page summary of your marketing plan.
 It gives the reader a relatively brief overview of the plan’s main points.
 It appears at the beginning of the marketing plan
 It should be written in paragraph form.
 Use short sentences and short paragraphs
 It is written last, after the marketing plan
 Organize the summary as follows:
o Describe next year’s objectives in quantitative terms
o Briefly describe marketing strategies to meet goals and objectives, include a description of
target markets
o Describe expected results by quarter; and identify the costs necessary, as well as key resources
needed.

1. Company Profile

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1.1 Company details

o Company name
o Headquarters
o Year founded
o Organization structure
o Number of employees
o Annual revenue (estimate)
o Link to website

1.2 Mission Statement

o The mission statement sums up in one to one to three sentences what the company does, who it serves, and w
competitors.
o You can find a company’s mission statement on its website

2. SWOT Analysis
 Analyse the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company using the SWOT matrix
 Remember:
 Strengths are internal assets or resources (tangible or intangible) that are within the company’s
control e.g. a better cost structure than competitors, a talented and innovative staff, or strong brand
recognition.
 Weaknesses are factors within the company’s internal environment, but these are hindrances to
success e.g. difficulty in accessing capital or funding, outdated technology or facilities, high turnover
among employees, high levels of debt, or weak brand recognition.
 Opportunities are attractive external factors that can be exploited to achieve its objectives e.g.
moving into a new market segment that offers improved profits, competitors who are experiencing
quality or delivery problems, or impending legislation that would favorably affect the business.
 Threats are external factors (i.e., not within the company’s control) that can negatively impact the
business, such as supply chain problems, new competitors, shifts in market requirements, or
impending legislation that may hamper ongoing operations.

3. Marketing Goals and Objectives

 This section is about setting ambitious but achievable goals and objectives.
 Remember that goals and objectives are related but different.
 Consider a road trip analogy:
 Goals are your destination, examples of goals may be increasing revenues, maximizing profits,
becoming the industry leader, reducing your carbon footprint, etc.
 Objectives are the specifics of how you intend to get there i.e objectives describe in specificity what
needs to be done to achieve the goals and who is responsible for each activity.
 Make sure that your goals are SMART (i.e., specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-
bound).

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List at least three marketing goals that you intend to accomplish within the next three to five years.
Marketing Goal #1:
Marketing Goal #2:
Marketing Goal #3:

Now convert each of these marketing goals into specific objectives that are easy to measure and
evaluate. These objectives should be shorter, i.e., achievable within one year.

Marketing Goal #1 Objectives:

Objective #1:
Objective #2:

Marketing Goal #2 Objectives:

Objective #1:
Objective #2:

Marketing Goal #3 Objectives:

Objective #1:
Objective #2:

4 Market Segmentation and Targeting

4.1 Market Segmentation
o Market segmentation is the process of dividing a target market into smaller, more precisely
defined categories of people or organizations who are likely to respond similarly to a marketing
action.
o This section should address the following in narrative form:
 What specific customer problems or issues does your product or service solve?
 Who are your potential customers?
 Identify the key segments in this market.
 Describe one to three market segments that the product or service serves.
 Identify the market segment(s) upon which the marketing plan focuses and state your
reasons for selecting this segment.
 Be sure to address why you believe this market segment offers growth and profit
opportunities for the business.

4.2 Target Market

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 Your target market is that group of customers that has similar needs for your product or service, the
money to purchase it, and the willingness and ability to purchase it.
 You can segment your target market along four key characteristics:
o Demographics (e.g., age, gender, family size, income, ethnicity, etc.)
o Geography (e.g., region, country, climate, city, and population density)
o Psychographics (e.g., social class, lifestyle, personality, etc.)
o Behavior (e.g., purchase occasion, benefits sought, usage frequency, etc.)
 In this section, you should identify the target market for your product or service and describe why
you have selected this target market.
 You should list all relevant demographic data, as well as lifestyle or behavior information.

5 Buyer Personas
 Now that you have defined your target market, you need to describe those who will likely purchase
your product or service, known as buyer personas.
 A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your “ideal customer” that helps you
understand and relate to the audience to which you want to market your product and/or services.
 Each persona should be given a name, job or other background details, personality traits, and
interests.
 For example, if your target market is women in their 20s who live in big cities, like photography,
and follow a vegan lifestyle, that persona could look like this: “Arielle is a female in her mid-20s.
She lives in Manhattan and spends her weekends exploring the city, taking photographs, and
discovering new vegan restaurants to try out with her friends. She has a job at a tech company, is
very active on social media, and owns no pets.
 In this section, you should identify two or three buyer personas for your product or service and
describe each in narrative form.

6 Positioning
 Your positioning strategy defines how you would like your customers to think about your
company/product/service e.g. If you want to be perceived as the guaranteed low-cost provider, most
reliable, premier brand, etc.?
 Prepare a position map (sometimes called a perceptual map) for your company/brand.
 This position map is a diagram that compares your product to the competition.
 The map is organized on two axes plotting two key product benefits, which aids marketers in
identifying market opportunities.
 The benefits along the two axes could be any number of product features, and here are a few
examples to help guide you in developing the map:
o Quality vs. Price
o Functionality vs. Price
o Healthiness vs. Taste
o Price vs. Performance

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o Price vs. Safety and reliability

 If you were using quality and price as the determinant attributes, your position map should look
something like this:

7 Current Market Situation/Situation Analysis

 This section of your marketing plan should provide the reader with a clear description of the current
state of the marketplace, including your target market and the competitive environment.
 It should include a summary of the research into and analysis of your target market, your
competitors, challenges in the marketplace, and the company’s competitive differentiators.
 Some of the key items to address in the plan are as follows:
o Market Description - this section should address things like statistics about the size of your
target market, whether it is growing, shrinking, or staying the same, if it is changing, and why it
is changing.
o Product Review – this section summarizes the main features of your company’s products,
including information about sales, price, and gross margins.
o Competitive Analysis - this section should include a discussion of your top competitors and how
they fare in the marketplace vis-à-vis your company’s products and/or services. This typically
involves researching major competitors to collect insights into their products or services, sales,
marketing tactics, product quality, pricing, market share, and distribution.
 Who are your primary and future competitors?
 Who are their target markets?
 What are they offering their visitors?
 Describe the major competitive strengths and weaknesses of each competitor – use a
table
 How are you different?

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 Differentiation can be based on numerous factors: price, product, service quality,

location, and many others.
8 Marketing Strategy
8.1 Product
 This section of the marketing plan is the “road map” that you’ll use to develop your product(s) or
features(s), including all tasks needed to achieve the objectives set forth in the marketing plan.
 The product strategy outlines how the product(s) or service(s) will benefit the business, how it will
solve customer problems or address customer needs, and the impact that it will make on customers
and the business.
 You will want to address questions regarding the product life cycle and in which stage of the life
cycle is the product or service currently.
 How well does the product or service deliver on what the target market values or needs?
 Set forth any recommendations you have for improving the product or service to better fit your target
market’s values and needs.
 Describe any improvements to the product or service that would help the company’s offering
compete more effectively.

8.2 Pricing
 This section of your marketing plan should address the following questions:
o How is your product or service priced?
o How does this pricing compare to competitors?
o How sensitive are customers in your target market to changes in price?
o Which approach to pricing is optimum for your product or service (e.g., competition-based
pricing, cost-plus pricing, dynamic pricing, penetration pricing, price skimming, etc.)?

8.3 Promotion
 Your promotion strategy sets forth the tactics you intend to implement in your marketing plan in
order to increase demand for your product(s) or service(s).
 List the methods you will use to gain awareness and interest in your product from those in your
target audience.
 Methods of reaching potential consumers abound—company websites, social media networks, trade
shows, radio/television/website advertising.
 You’ll want to list the advantages and disadvantages of each method and indicate why and how
much it will cost to employ the method(s) you have selected.
 Be sure to address promotion strategies such as advertising and public relations.

8.4 Distribution
 Your distribution strategy describes how customers in your target market will purchase from you.
 This section of your marketing plan should address the following:

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o What is your current distribution strategy (i.e., exclusive, selective, intensive)?

o Will customers buy directly from your website, from a storefront, or through distributors or
retailers?
o What costs are involved in this type of distribution?
o Why do you believe this distribution strategy will enable you to effectively get your product
to the customer?
o In which geographical areas will your offering be available?

9 Budget
 Using the table below, list the marketing budget and resources required to execute your marketing
campaign.
 You will want to estimate costs such as labor, materials, online media tools or development,
advertising, public relations services, etc.
 You may add additional rows to the table as needed.

Item Purpose Cost Estimate

10 Action Programs
 The marketing strategies outlined in the plan should now be translated into specific action programs
that indicate
o What will be done?
o When will it be done?
o Who is responsible for doing it?
o How much will it cost?
 The action program should list when activities will be started, reviewed, and completed. Think of
this section as your to-do list and use the table below to outline those activities.
 E.g. a sales promotion action plan should outline special offers and their dates, trade shows entered,
new point of purchase displays
 The actions to be taken should be listed in the order they need to take place as well as the due date so
that the plan is successful.
 You can make the assumption that the marketing campaign must be completed within 6-12 months
for the purposes of setting due dates.
 You may add additional rows to the table as needed.

Action Item Purpose Due Date

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11 Controls to Monitor Progress

 This section will outline the control methods that will be utilized to monitor the action programs
outlined in the plan.

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