[MUSIC] So what is a marketing plan? We're going to see different definitions here. None of them is correct or right or wrong. They're simply different, and basically, the idea is reviewing them all and try to get the commonalities and the things that they have in common in order to get our own definition and our own understanding of what the marketing plan is. Let me begin with the first one, which is Perrault and McCarthy, which are two of authors of very well known classic textbook, which is called Basic Marketing. And they defined the marketing plan as a written statement of a marketing strategy and the time-related details for carrying out the strategy. It should include, first, what marketing mix will be offered and to whom, which is the target? Second, what company resources will be needed? And third, what results are expected? As you see, this is like a process definition, where they begin saying, this is basically what we're going to look for. Second is the results that are going to be needed. And third is going to present the results. Let me now introduce you to the Kotler and Keller definition, again, a very classic and well known textbook that is used many times in marketing courses. And they say, a marketing plan is a written document that summarizes what the marketer has learned about the marketplace and indicates how the firm plans to reach its marketing objectives. The marketing plan operates at two levels, a strategic and tactical. The strategic marketing plan lays out the target markets and the value proposition, while the tactical marketing plan specifies the product, price, channel, and communication. As you see, this is a more detailed definition. But again, it's actually exploring the two sides of the marketing plan, the strategic side and the tactical one. I think it's a very good definition. Then we are going to review another more practical definition coming from Entrepreneur, which is a magazine. And they say a marketing plan is a written document that describes your advertising and marketing efforts for the coming year. So it's saying basically, this is a one year exercise. And it includes a statement of the marketing situation, a discussion of target markets and company positioning, and have description of the marketing mix you intend to use to reach your marketing goals. Once again, three stages, analysis, marketing and strategy definition, and marketing mix implementation. The next one, again, is pretty much focusing in the activities that are going to be done in the marketing plan. It says the marketing plan describes the activities involved in achieving a specific marketing objectives with a set timeframe. A marketing plan begins with the identification through market research of specific customer needs and how the firm intends to fulfill them while generating an acceptable level of return. It generally includes analysis of the current market situation. So as you see, it's a standard version, and they also said there is a detailed action programs, budgets, sales forecasts, strategies, and projected financial statements. And now let me take you in a very final definition, the one that basically says, the marketing plan is the one that is going to help us achieve certain objectives with some resources. Okay, this is a very simple definition, but the idea is, what do they have in common? What is the common line in all these definitions? Well basically, all of them tried to answer three very simple questions. First one is what is the situation now, where are we now? Second one is where do we want to be, what is the objective? And the third one is basically, how are we going to get there? So if we take these three simple questions as our objective when doing a marketing plan, I think it's a good starting point. So try and develop a model where you have a very clear answer to the question as where are we now. Then, basically, try and answer the question of, where are we going to go? And the third one is, how we are going to get there? In the model that we're going to use, basically, we're going to call the first stage analysis. The second one, we're going to call it marketing strategy definition. And the third one is going to be the marketing mix implementation. I think it's a sensible model, it's easy to follow, it's quite intuitive. And I think it summarizes well the different definitions that we have seen and have been used in the marketing literature. Thank you very much.
