Business Research: Marketing plan

Knowing the market for your product is one thing.... Marketing your product is another deal. This page will give you tips on marketing, or the art of getting to know your potential customers (and their needs), and what strategies are best suited to effectively market a product or service to those customers.

What is often given as an assignment is to write a marketing plan for an existing or fictional business. In a marketing plan, you gather relevant information that will give your product or service the best chance of selling well.

Read on below to find out how to go about that, and what resources can help you do so.

Below is a Dutch infographic with 7 steps to create a strong marketing plan to grow your (internship) business and reach new clients. We will go through these steps with you below. 

Note: You may have to follow different steps from your teacher, always read the assignment description carefully!

Translated the steps contain:

1. Make a SWOT analysis
2. Determine your goals
3. Define your target audience
4. Create your brand
5. Choose your marketing mix
6. Determine your budget
7. Draw up a schedule

'How to write a marketing plan in 7 steps', written by Juliëtte Geers, referred to with permission from 'How to write a marketing plan' (KvK, 2023)

• Trying to use a database but not quite getting there? Then use these pages
  •  |    NEN Connect    |    Nexis Uni    |   OECD iLibrary    |  Marketline |   Statline |    Company Info |  BSU |  Statista
• Looking for specific information (e.g. DESTEP/PESTL information)? Then use one of the following categories.
  • Market/ industry information
  • Country / region information
  • Company information
  • Consumer information
  • Product information
  • Business news
  • Statistics, data & trends
• Are you stuck with your business research? Check out Support & Contact to see what support you can get.

First, look at your (internship) business: what are its Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats?
Here is an article from the KvK (by Juliëtte Geers of KvK, 2023) to get you started. The conclusion of the SWOT analysis will help you determine direction and better fill in the next steps.

For the SWOT analysis you need information about the company. If possible, you can talk to different people in the company, but you can also look at what has been said in the news or what is known about the company through the Marketline database, for example. 

For information on Opportunities and Threats, it is important to look at external factors: are there competitors, trends and developments that come into play? For this, you can also read business news through our databases, or look up information about the entire market.

Now that you've looked at the SWOT analysis for the business, it's time to formulate what your marketing goals are. You can think about long-term, as well as short-term goals. In any case, it helps to formulate measurable goals, such as in numbers of new customers. One method for formulating your goals in a measurable way is SMART. Read more about SMART here.

It is recommended to consider the results of your SWOT analysis while formulating your goals.

Because you want to make your service or product as compatible with the customer as possible, that is what you need to start gathering information about now. What are their pursuits and desires? How can you best reach them? Read more about finding information about the customer here.

Then think about how you want to stand out from the rest. What do you want to be known for? The answer to this question also affects how your brand will look: what colors and styles fit your mission? Do you want to appear very serious, or informal?

You can punch in information about your competitors by exploring their websites, but also by searching a news database to see what has been said and known about them.

You can find information and examples of how a goal matches the looks of a brand in our collection, in various databases (see bottom of this page), as well as online.

The next step is to fill in your marketing mix. This will give you a concrete picture of what Product you want to Promote at what Price through what Place. In the article 'How to write a marketing plan' by Juliëtte Geers of the Chamber of Commerce (2021) more examples are worked out, like what types of (online) marketing are possible.

CBS is also a handy source when it comes to pricing: through this link you can find their overview of current prices and price developments per product or service.

Other useful information can be found, for example, through the Marketline database, which tracks international trends in specific products and services.

Then the financial picture: how much money do you want to spend on marketing, and in what time period? In the case of a college assignment, you may have already been given a set budget. Do you need to decide how much of the budget goes to marketing? Here are some ways to decide:

• Percentage: a certain percentage of your expected sales
• Whatever is needed: calculate what you think you need to achieve your goals from step 2
• What is left: look at the whole budget: what is left to put into marketing?
• What competitors do: maybe you can find out what competitors spend approximately on marketing. Use this info as a basis for your own budget

Finally, consider how you will plan your marketing campaign. Take your time to think about how you will meet your goals. Are there periods in your industry when extra advertising is going to bring in extra attention? Does that vary per channel (step 5)? How does the competition approach planning? Also in this step, it is helpful to be able to find competitor company information quickly. Tips on how to do this can be found under the tab company information.

Marketing plan

A marketing plan in steps

Tips

1 SWOT analysis

2 Marketing goals

3 Target audience description

4 Brand creation

5 Marketingmix with 4P's

6 Budget

7 Planning

Databases

Useful websites