Marketing Plan: Yes, but What Kind?

A well-prepared marketing plan is a fundamental document created by true marketing professionals.

It is a compilation of facts describing the current market reality and defining the strategy for the coming years. It serves as a guidepost, a plan of actions aimed at achieving defined qualitative and quantitative successes.

We distinguish between two types of marketing plans – the strategic plan and the tactical, or operational, plan. A strategic marketing plan outlines the strategy and actions for the next 3-5 years of a product/category’s life. A tactical marketing plan details actions for the upcoming months or year, describing the specifics of most activities that will be implemented soon.

What types of marketing plans do you create in your work?

From my experience, most of the marketing plans that Brand Managers have the opportunity to create are typical tactical plans. These are characterized by a large number of various digital data concerning the market, market shares, stocking levels, sell-ins, sell-outs, projects, and above all, detailed descriptions of planned activities for the upcoming months. These plans are often prepared during the summer and presented between August and October. Theoretically, implementation of these plans starts in January. However, this process does not always reflect the original assumptions. Why is that?

Tactical plans are very good and essential tools for marketing and sales departments. However, when prepared without a broader perspective (“big picture”), they lose their authenticity. It might seem that teams working for many years with a given product or therapeutic area know everything about the markets they deal with. But this is not always true. Focusing primarily on tactics can be misleading and does not direct our attention to crucial matters, especially defining strategy.

So, what should an ideal marketing plan look like?

There is, of course, no recipe for a universally ideal marketing plan. However, what such a plan should certainly include is a detailed market analysis. From this analysis should come the strategy, and subsequently, a proposal for a tactical plan. And here, voices might rise saying, “But no one has time for detailed market analysis when creating each marketing plan.” The truth is, however, that without detailed market analysis, the planning process makes no sense.

Therefore, every Brand Manager starting work with any product should conduct such an analysis, preferably according to a certain, specific pattern for the pharmaceutical industry. Only through such analysis can they propose an appropriate strategy derived from the market’s nature. Once conducted, this analysis requires only vigilance to detect significant changes and constant monitoring of what is happening in the market, to be able to make corrections to the strategy and tactical plan at any moment. This means that the Brand Manager must be continuously engaged in building their knowledge of the surrounding world, to be able to transfer this knowledge onto paper in the form of an updated analysis at any moment.

An analysis culminating in a strategy thus constitutes the strategic part of the marketing plan. After this comes the preparation of the tactical part. Usually, Brand Managers handle this element the easiest. It is their, one might say, daily bread. But with a well-defined strategy, tactical planning becomes even simpler.

Top-Down Marketing Plan

Creating a marketing plan is a process. It starts with analysis and ends with the details on how to account for each individual activity. This is often called top-down planning. Through such a scheme, we first define the vision and strategy for our product and then match specific activities to them. The vision and strategy for our product are the Big Picture, the DNA of the Brand Manager’s work.

The Process of Preparing and “Defending” a Marketing Plan

Marketing analysis, the process ending with defining a marketing strategy, is often many weeks of hard work. It involves collecting a lot of data from various sources and thoroughly analyzing them. It finally results in conclusions expressed in the form of charts, graphs, and summaries. Does anyone have time to present and listen to this entire thought process? Certainly not always. And that is why organizations often take “shortcuts,” focusing only on the tactical part of the marketing plan and gradually reducing the analytical part. How can we make this process more professional without stripping it of its fundamental elements?

Organizations that place great importance on the analysis process usually prepare thoroughly for the presentation of marketing plans. This preparation involves getting acquainted with the analysis and the resulting conclusions. It also means presenting any doubts or comments before the meeting with the Brand Manager. During the meeting, the strategy and tactical part are presented. Thanks to this approach, all participants know the market situation and are prepared to discuss how to implement the strategy for each product.

Therefore, I encourage all marketers to create “real” marketing plans. I encourage you to “break free” from daily duties and devote time to what is the foundation of marketing, which is good analysis. It is through analysis that planning makes sense. Through analysis, you will have the knowledge and the ability to defend your views expressed in defined strategies. And, finally, through analysis, you will be real marketers “through and through.”

I agree with the saying: “Show me your marketing plan, and I will tell you what kind of Brand Manager you are.” Therefore, I encourage you to develop your skills in this area and invite you to training sessions!