Marketing plan - Key elements?

Marketing Plan Elements
Puneet Kapoor
In my view, a Marketing Plan is a typically annual plan of Marketing activities specifying Brand's revenue and expenditure. Key elements of Marketing Plans are:
1. Objective (Qualitative and Quantitative)
2. Calender of Activities
3. Details of Expenditure etc.

Marketing Plan is Art and Science to Sell
jc
Creating a MP is an art and science of devising a way to sell the product, service, brand, the business unit, and even the entire company to meet customers' needs. Some may say identify the customers' needs first and than apply the 4 Ps to deliver solutions ... whatever it is ... as long as your plan can sell - you made it. The time frame is a self-induced restriction.

Marketing Plan More an Art than a Science
Enrique Florido
Marketing a product/service is more an art than a science. People who lack creativity hav e made of marketing a science, so they can thrive. The essence of marketing is more like the Blue Ocean Strategy theory; the key is in the innovation (creativity), and that is not a science.

Marketing Planning Aligned with Strategic Plan
Sheree Welch, Director, Trinidad and Tobago, Member
The marketing planning needs to be integrated and coordinated with other functional planning activities and the overall strategic business plan. You need to do a marketing audit based on your corporate objectives and link this to your marketing objectives and strategies. It is a process of identifying and anticipating future events and aligning resources to meet the marketing objectives.

Marketing Plan Components
Latif Salifu Kasim, Entrepreneur, Ghana, Member
Well, personally for me, I think all the elements in my marketing plan are pretty key. Right from Mission Statement of the organisation, to Situational Analysis, through Objective Development (Quantitative and Qualitative) to Strategy Development then Target Customers and Time, Then Budgeting, Implementation and Control.
The reason being that one can not function without the other because they need to be coordinated. Objectives and strategies of the organisation have to be coordinated with its mission and suitability, feasibility and acceptability and so on.

The Main Elements of a Marketing Plan
Jaap de Jonge, Editor, Netherlands
The main contents of a marketing plan typically are:

1. Executive Summary
2. Situational Analysis (Macro-Environment, Market Analysis, Customer Analysis (Segmentation)
3. Opportunities / Threats Analysis - SWOT Analysis
4. Objectives (Mission Statement, Strategic Vision, Strategic Goals, CSFs and KPIs.
5. Marketing Strategy
6. Action Program (the operational marketing plan for the next period)
7. Financial Forecast (investments and expected results)
8. Controls

See also: 5 C's of Marketing Strategy