A good marketing plan sets specific marketing objectives. Think about sales, market share, market positioning, image, awareness, and related objectives. Remember to make all your objectives concrete and measurable. Develop your plan to be implemented, not just read. Objectives that can’t be measured, tracked, and followed up, are less likely to lead to implementation. The capability of plan-vs.-actual analysis and the discipline to use it is essential. Marketing objectives are likely to be based on sales revenues and market share. They may also include related marketing objectives such as presentations, seminars, ad placements, review coverage, or proposals.
Sales are easy to track and measure. Market share is harder because it depends on market research. There are other marketing goals that are less tangible and harder to measure, such as positioning or image and awareness. Remember, as you develop the objectives, it is much better to include the measurement system within the objective itself. This is especially true when those measurements aren’t obvious.
In other side, in order to set your financial objective, state your financial objectives as clearly as you can. Marketing involves sales, costs of sales, and sales and marketing expenses, all of which affect profitability and cash flow. Financial objectives are very different from marketing objectives and generally easier to measure. A financial objective might be to increase 1999 profits by 10%, or sales by 10%, or contribution margin by 5%, or gross margin by 10%. Financial objectives might also be stated to hold spending to a specific level, as a percent of sales. One of the most common financial measurements for marketing is the contribution margin.
