MARKETING PLAN

Marketing Plan Contextualized To A Tourism Sector

Marketing Plan Contextualized To A Tourism Sector

Part A

In order to get your marketing efforts off to the right start, you must first fully understand the strategic goals of your company or organization. All good marketing plans begin with a comprehensive and intimate understanding of the goals of the company. You will also be well served to review the vision and mission of the organization. All of your marketing efforts should fully support these goals and every marketing strategy and tactic should be designed with these goals kept firmly in mind.

The first step in creating a marketing plan

Marketing plans must be based upon the goals laid out in the business plan so a thorough review and understanding of the company's business plan is the first step in created a marketing plan. Once you understand the strategic goals of the company, as a successful marketer you will also fully understand the benefits of the products and services you offer. You will also understand who can benefit from those products and services and how you will sell and deliver those products and services to them profitably. You will also seek to uncover and explore strategic opportunities that will help your business grow and increase profitability through the delivery of superior products and services to an audience that will benefit from them.

The marketing plan is the foundation for all your marketing efforts.

Communications strategy and measurement

Critical to your marketing plan is an understanding of how people will benefit from a relationship with you so your plan must include a clear communication strategy to let people in your target market know how they will benefit from your products and services. You will also identify ways to quantify and measure your plan so you know not only if your plan is working but how well it is working. Traditionally, marketers have talked about and taught "The Four P's of Marketing". They were: Product, Place, Price, and Promotion. It is these things, it was felt, and that must be addressed in order to succeed in marketing. In my opinion these "Four P's" were lacking a very important element and were too inward looking. What about the people we are trying to serve?

The 5 P's of Marketing

Your marketing plan should address the 5 P's of Marketing: People, Price, Product, Promotion, and Place. If you do not start by keeping people foremost in mind you are bound to fail. After all, when we talk about markets we are really talking about people and when we create marketing plans we are designing ways to effectively communicate with people. Of course, just to keep things interesting, some feel that the "P's of marketing"--be there 4 or 5-- is an outdated concept and that the P's should be replaced by C's.

C's of marketing:

O Customer solution

O Customer cost

O Convenience

O Communication

Source: Kotler, Philip and Armstrong, Gary, Principles of Marketing, 9th Editions, Prentice Hall, 2001.

No matter what letters you choose, marketing involves addressing ...