The Marketing Plan is an integral part of any marketing department as this is the guide used in achieving the goals of an organization. Developing a successful plan therefore involves understanding the knowledge of what goes into a plan and how to craft it, and utilizing leadership and collaboration skills to effectively communicate the plan and execute it. This unique course is ideal for all members of a marketing team especially those required to have developed skills in more strategic thinking and leading a team to execute. In this intensive format, you’ll learn the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of successful marketing planning for any type of organization.

• Best practices in marketing? Why is it important?
• Key marketing concepts and terminology: the marketing mix, understanding the macro and micro environment, SWOT analysis, strategic decisions and tools, the action plan
• The marketing plan and its importance to a business
• How to develop a working marketing plan: the environmental analysis, creating an overview, SWOT analysis, segmentation, strategies, the action plan
• How to prepare your mission statement and vision for the upcoming year.
• Discover and define your niche markets.
• Develop your value proposition.
• Develop and plan your marketing strategy.
• Develop your marketing mix.
• Create a marketing calendar that contains a month-by-month schedule of marketing activities and events for the upcoming year.

• The Role of Marketing Planning
• What’s in a marketing plan?
• Writing a marketing plan
• Summarize the situation analysis and understand the target consumer and market segmentation
• Developing marketing objectives and strategies
• Developing tactics and implementation plan
• Identifying core product/service benefits and differentiators
• Understanding the need for and the ability to develop contingency plans
• Approaches to formulate budget allocation and build the marketing forecast
• Defining how to monitor and manage performance by linking the plan to a marketing scorecard
• Communicating the plan to stakeholders and partners
• Taking the plan to the next level