Writing the Situational Analysis for Your Marketing Plan

By Grafton Milne
Marketing Plan Success

A situation analysis is the foundation of the strategic planning process for your marketing plan. It includes an examination of both the internal factors (to identify strengths and weaknesses) and external factors (to identify opportunities and threats). A useful tool in performing a Situation Analysis is what we might call The C's of Marketing. The C's of Marketing help companies focus on key elements that apply directly to marketing. Understanding these principles is essential in developing a successful marketing plan. You can find further assistance with our Marketing Plan Success templates.

The 5 C's of Marketing can be summarized as:

Company - The product time line, experience in the market, etc.

Collaborators (or Partners) - Distributors, suppliers, and alliances. These are any companies that you work with on a day to day basis to help your company run.

Customers - This is your market. Ask yourself what benefits they are looking for. What motivates them in the purchase process? Where does the customer actually purchases your product? How the product is purchased (impulse buys, internet, etc)? Understand the quantity a customer will purchase and even trends in consumer tastes.

Competitors - Both your actual and potential competitors and those that directly or indirectly compete with you. Understand their products, positioning, market shares, strengths and weaknesses.

Climate (or Environment) - These are governmental policies and regulations that affect the market. It is also the economic environment around your company; which is the business cycle, inflation rate, interest rates, and other macroeconomic issues. Society's trends and fashions are found in the "climate." The technological environment is creating new ways of satisfying needs (i.e. using technology to enhance the demand for existing products).

Evaluating the company, collaborators, customers, competitors, and climate is a simple way to get a leg up on your competitors. Marketing Plan Success can help you develop a successful situation analysis, which is the foundation of the strategic planning process. You can also look to your SWOT Analysis for further information.

How Marketing Plan Success can help:

The Marketing Plan Success templates include powerful tools and resources for developing your Situational Analysis.

• The Word template includes a 14-page, fill-in-the-blank Situational Analysis with templates for analyzing your competitors, distribution network, products and services, and more.

• The Excel template will help you forecast the growth in your target market, compare your competitors pricing and market share, and analyze the current financial situation in your market. It is linked to the Word template so the charts are automatically included in your marketing plan.

These tools, along with over 30 resources for finding information on demographics, competitors, and industries, are included in our marketing plan template. Download the Marketing Plan Success Demo >>>

Marketing Plan Outline:

• Situation Analysis
• Market Analysis
• Competitive Analysis
• Historical Results
• Macroenvironment
• SWOT Analysis
• Marketing Objectives
• Marketing Strategy
• Marketing Mix
• Action Plan
• Financial Information
• Break-even Analysis
• Sales Forecast
• Marketing Budget
• Implementation & Controls

More information on The C's of Marketing can be found at: NETMBA.com.

Why waste time organizing your marketing plan when we've already done it for you? Download Marketing Plan Success and finish your marketing plan today!