Marketing Plan Outline The following article explores key components need to be included in designing an effective marketing plan. First element : Product Performance. Two to three paragraphs summarizing the product's performance relative to last year's plan, along with explanations of variances from the plan. Any research conducted on product performance or quality can be included in this section as well. Elements of Marketing Strategy A marketing strategy is composed of several interrelated elements. The first and most important is market selection: choosing the markets to be served. Product planning includes the specific products the company sells, the makeup of the product line, and the design of individual offerings in the line. 12 Steps for New Product Development New product development can play a variety of roles in defining corporate strategy to gain competitive advantage. This variability makes the process of new product development subject to the emerging organizational issues of the day. In general, a long-run, focused, and ongoing strategic commitment to attractive market opportunities should define the role of new product development. New product development should be integrated into an organizations strategy and significantly contribute to its perpetual renewal. Five Innovation Principles Such sessions are incredibly fun and often produce lots of new possibilities and plenty of excitement. But nothing happens because innovation, or inventing the future as it's sometimes called, is not a discipline, and ideas, no matter how good, get pummeled by the pressures of the present. Brand Asset Management The purpose in this phase is to understand customer perceptions and perspectives about your brand relative to the competition and opportunities for growth. This phase asks the following questions: a) Among current and target customers, what does our brand really stand for today? What are its strengths and weaknesses? How does our brand compare to competitive brands? Positioning Strategy All marketing strategy is built on STP : Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning. A company discovers different needs and groups in the marketplace, targets those needs and groups that it can satisfy in a superior way, and then positions its offering so that the target market recognizes the company's distinctive offering and image. Creating and Managing Customer Relationship Setting up and managing individual customer relationships can be broken up into four interrelated implementation tasks: 1) Identify customers. Relationships are only possible with individuals, not with markets, segments, or populations. Therefore, the first task in setting up a relationship is to identify, individually, the party at the other end of the relationship.