Marketing is an integral part of a successful business entity. It refers a process through which a business enterprise ensures that they maximize sales by notifying the potential and existing customers of their products. For a successful marketing exercise, the management of an enterprise must develop a detailed marketing plan that will provide an outline of the marketing efforts. The plan must have a detailed description of the product and the target market to ensure it is successful. Failure to design an effective marketing plan will be detrimental since time and resources will be misused (Sba.gov, 2015). A successful marketing plan will entail three essential components namely; an intensive market analysis, development of the marketing objectives and setting out the optimum strategy that will ensure realization of the set objectives. Additionally, it is also vital to put in consideration other essential elements such as budgeting, performance measurements, and designing specific marketing programs and time frame just to mention a few.

It is important to develop a marketing strategy that will help an organization achieve a competitive edge over the competitors. This implies that it is imperative ensuring that the plan understands the competitive position in the market. A n effective marketing plan ensure that you adopt a strategy that differentiates the product from those offered by competitors. On this note, it is also critical ensuring that the tactics employed by the plan are easily understood and comfortable while dealing with.  In essence, a marketing strategy will be an essential component of a marketing plan (Sba.gov, 2015).  It is the obligation of the strategy to ensure the product in question matches the needs of the identified target market. An effective marketing strategy is expected to take a centre stage in tailoring promotion, pricing and distribution of the products accordingly.

Market audit is another essential component of a marketing plan for certain commodities. This is the initial stage of developing a marketing plan and entails understanding the market and environment of the business. For instance, it is critical to understand the past, current and the anticipated trends in both micro and macro environmental factors. On this note, the marketing department must understand the market size both in volume and value terms, competitors’ position, consumer segment behavior and the market share analysis. It is at his stage that the organization can be able to determine the position of the product in the market.  SWOT and PESTLE analysis will be instrumental at this juncture since informed choices can be made on what marketing strategy to follow. Market audit will also help in making both long and short term organizational objectives.

An effective marketing plan is the one that helps an organization achieve its marketing objectives. For instance, an organization may decide to be a market leader by delighting customers. In such instances, it is expected that the marketing plan will be developed in such a way that delighting customers remain the primary objective (Sba.gov, 2015). It is however prudent ensuring that every organization has well spelt out marketing objectives and the route to achieving those goals. Also, it is essential ensuring that other essential elements such as budgetary constraints and performance measurements are also not compromised in tailoring marketing plans for organizations.

References

Yücel, Recep; Elibol, Halil; Dağdelen, Osman (2009). Globalization and International Marketing Ethics Problems. International Research Journal of Finance and Economics. Issue 26 (2009) (PDF is located in Week 2 Assignment folder).

 Wind, Yoram; Douglas, Susan P.; Perlmutter, Howard V (1973). Guidelines for Developing International Marketing Strategies. Journal of Marketing. Vol. 37 1973, pp 14-23. http://skonwar.edublogs.org/files/2011/11/IM-strategy-xta1hx.pdf

Knight, Gary A. and Cavusgil, S. Tamer (2005). “A Taxonomy of Born-Global Firms”, Management International Review 45(3), pp. 15-35. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.bellevue.edu/docview/202691989/abstract

Sba.gov,. (2015). Developing a Marketing Plan | The U.S. Small Business Administration | SBA.gov. Retrieved 23 August 2015, from https://www.sba.gov/content/developing-marketing-plan

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