Marketing research plan

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Marketing Research Plan

Marketing research is a whole complex of actions aimed at studying the market and the mechanisms operating on it. Marketing research includes the following steps:

• Study of market trends.
• Overview of sales strategy options.
• Analysis of sales results and its dynamics.
• Study of goods or services offered by competitors.
• Forecasting the level of sales and market activity in the short and long term.
• Study of consumer reaction to new types of products.

The essence of the marketing research plan

A marketing research plan is necessary for the research to be carried out taking into account all important nuances and to be as reliable as possible. The plan contains details of the methods that will be used to obtain the necessary information, helps to structure all the data and lead the marketing research to a successful result. The plan underlies the conduct of marketing research and includes detailing the general approach to solving this issue, which is formed in the first place. The better the plan, the better the marketer's work will be and the more effective the research he will conduct.

Marketing Research Plan: An example includes a number of main components:

• Define the required data.
• Development of research phases - search, causal, descriptive, etc.
• Determination of procedures that will be carried out to measure the required parameters.
• Create a questionnaire or interview form to be used to collect data; preliminary check of this form.
• Determination of the sample, its process and size.
• Development of an analysis plan.

Some of the components of this sequence may undergo changes, depending on the type of design and nature of the study.

Classification of research plans

Most often, marketing research plans are subdivided into final and search. The summary is more in-depth, while the search is primarily intended to collect information.

Search engine research, as well as search plan, has as its main purpose to understand the essence of the problem facing the marketer. The search plan is used in cases where it is necessary to more accurately determine the question that the research must solve. The search plan allows you to determine the direction of work and further explore the circumstances.

In search research, the marketer, as a rule, has an inaccurate idea of ​​the situation, does not know what information he needs, and the research process itself does not have such a clear structure and may undergo certain changes as the work progresses. The plan may provide for face-to-face interviews with experts in the industry under study; the samples are not the largest, often not representative. The primary data obtained in the process of research are of a qualitative nature and are subjected to detailed analysis. The results of the research carried out according to the search plan are considered preliminary. Most often, after such a study, more accurate work is carried out,

Marketing plan. Examples, templates, the ability to develop - all this is an opportunity to step up to a new level of development of your business.

Andy Dufrein couldn't have escaped from the toughest Shawshank life prison without a plan. Because a plan is a process of achieving a goal.

Therefore, if your business has goals, then you cannot do without a plan. More precisely, a marketing plan. What is it in general, what mistakes should be avoided and how to develop it, we will analyze in this article.

What is a Marketing Plan?

What marketing tool will you use to broadcast your brand in 4 months and 10 days and how much will it cost (presumably)?

But if there is a marketing plan, especially on paper and not in your head, then this is not a difficult question for you. So what exactly is a marketing plan? I give my definition.

A marketing plan is the future steps of marketing activities and communications aimed at achieving the long-term goals of the company, with the calculation of all costs, risks and strategy.

And for clarity, you can see the example below ↓

The story of Vasily Alexandrovich

Often, business owners underestimate the effectiveness of such a plan.

And Vasily Alexandrovich is one of them.

His company was engaged in the production and processing of turkey meat. And the marketing plan was basically an outdoor advertising table.

Yes, this is also important, but such a plan is called - getting “into kefir” if you have ever played darts.

Competition in the market today is very fierce, and all business leaders must pay great attention to the development of their business. Managers should determine which direction to go, how to cut costs, how and where to attract customers, and finally how to increase revenue.

In this regard, it is very important to develop a marketing plan - a document that allows you to clearly understand how to solve the above and other tasks.

From this article you will learn:

• What is the purpose of developing a marketing plan
• Which plan do you need to develop?
• What are the sections of a marketing plan
• Key stages of development
• An example of developing a marketing plan
• 5 shortcomings in already developed plans

What is the purpose of developing a marketing plan

The marketing plan is an integral part of the company's development system for the year ahead (as well as financial, production and other plans). When developing a marketing plan, the organization reflects in this document its goals and offers options for achieving them.

General tasks (market, financial, production, innovation, management) are prescribed in the annual plan, ways and methods of their solution are determined.

Development of any company plan is carried out according to the following scheme:

Since there is a lot of competition on the market, companies should focus on marketing activities. In this regard, the development of a marketing plan is a top priority for enterprises. Accordingly, it is this document that is most important in comparison with others for a number of reasons:

In addition, the main function of any enterprise is to link the wishes of the buyer and business opportunities, for which marketing is responsible. Therefore, defining the company's mission, performing a SWOT analysis, setting common goals and developing a development strategy also turn into a marketing task.

Marketing market research is a study of consumers, market size and opportunities for implementing a strategy in the market under study. Typically, such a study consists of the stages of searching, collecting, processing and analyzing information on certain indicators of market conditions. The objects of marketing research are consumer preferences, solvency of demand, market size, market structure. The results are set - the definition of the target audience, market segments, definition of a strategy in accordance with the market structure.

Key Elements of Marketing Market Research

The main goal of marketing research of the market is precisely the first element, but it is impossible to draw reliable conclusions about the development of a particular market without analyzing consumers and competitors. Therefore, market research is a multidimensional process, below we will consider the content of its main elements.

When analyzing the market, the main goal is to obtain information about the volume of the market, its dynamics, the dynamics of each segment. Here it is important to understand whether it makes sense to enter this market. This can be done in several ways. Depending on the volume - for consumer goods, the volume of demand will be significantly higher than for a highly specialized market. Depending on the dynamics (development) of the market or its individual segments (often these are multidirectional trends). For example, in general, the dairy market is falling, but the segment of curd products remains stable or even grows.

The most important element is obtaining information about consumer preferences, consumer segmentation and targeting the target audience of the product being manufactured. The basic rule of starting or developing a business is to determine who needs the product being produced and whether it needs it at all. This is determined in two main ways. You can make a "consumer portrait", which describes the level of income, education, hobbies, occupation, client needs. Based on this portrait, an analysis of consumers is carried out, the identification of suitable target groups - that is, the consistency of the hypothesis is checked. Another way is to analyze the existing characteristics of consumers (the same level of income, preferences, etc.) and, on the basis of these data, highlight the most suitable segments, as a rule, the most widespread.

Competitors are analyzed according to the following characteristics of their activities - positioning, sales and production volumes, pricing strategy. The sales volumes of competitors will also help to understand the market size, and their dynamics - consumer behavior depending on a number of factors (seasonality, fashion, information).

One of the most important indicators when analyzing competitors is conversion - the percentage of people who made a purchase directly from the number of all people involved in the sales funnel. For example, an advertisement was seen by 1000 people, 500 people went to the site, 100 people added a product to the cart, and only 20 made a purchase. Thus, the conversion will be 2 percent (20/1000). Conversion can also be determined by the total number of potential customers. For example, a total of 1000 people use mobile phones with the ability to install applications, but only 200 of them have downloaded an application for learning a foreign language. If we decide to create a similar application, then we should understand that the approximate conversion in this case will be about 20 percent.

A firm's positioning and pricing strategy helps to understand the market structure. Thus, it is not easy to enter all markets "from scratch" - there are many barriers to entry: consumer confidence, reputation, technological and legal restrictions.

Types of Marketing Research

Usually, two types of marketing research are broadly distinguished.

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Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

St. Petersburg State University of Service and Economics

for the course "Business Planning"

Topic: Marketing Research in Business Planning

Marketing is a type of management activity and influences the expansion of production and trade by identifying consumer needs and meeting them. It links the possibilities of production and sale of goods and services with the aim of purchasing products by the consumer. Marketing is used not only by manufacturing enterprises, but also by trade organizations, service organizations, and individuals. Therefore, marketing is not some kind of universal, unified concept; on the contrary, the directions and methods of its implementation require adaptation to the type of organization, conditions and possibilities of its application.

Most companies nowadays do some form of market research on a regular basis. The content of the concept of marketing is determined by the tasks facing it. From the moment of its appearance to the present day, it has changed depending on changes in the conditions of production and sales of products. Currently, marketing acts as a system for organizing all the company's activities for the development, production and sale of goods based on a comprehensive study of the market and the real needs of buyers in order to obtain high profits. In other words, the modern marketing system makes the production of goods dependent on the needs of consumers.

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