Introduction

This book will help you write an effective marketing plan by showing you what others have done to make their marketing plans succeed. Whether youre writing a marketing plan for a brand-new business, launching a new product, or branching out into a new product line or market you can learn a great deal from the experience of others.

This book will review some of the key characteristics that differentiate successful marketing ventures from unsuccessful ones. Throughout the book, you will learn the main reasons that marketing ventures , and new products, have succeeded.

Different Types of Marketing Plans

Many of the marketing plans in this book are for something that is being marketed for the first time. Some of them are for totally new products that represent major technological breakthroughs. In other cases, the marketing plan was created for an extension of an existing brand. These line extensions are included because in many cases they were launched in much the same way as a totally new product. Typically, they represented new offerings to the consumer and required their own sales and marketing thrusts if they were to be launched effectively.

This book includes examples of marketing plans from many different types of businesses. In reality, most business ventures have many things in common, whether the venture is a new health food product started by one person or a new electronic product launched by a major corporation. For example, any marketing plan must include a determination of whether or not potential customers will become buyers . A review of the overall market for the venture must be conducted . Legal and financial considerations must always be taken into account. And every marketing plan must also include an internal look at your resources to make sure that you either have or can get what will be required to pull off the mission.