A marketing effort that is undertaken without planning is directionless. It cannot, likewise, be reviewed and evaluated in terms of success or failure because there are no guideline and standards to measure it against. This lack of direction can be a waste of time, effort, and resources in the long run. Planning is important in marketing because it serves as the blueprint of the whole marketing process. It is the map that shows where the individuals and components involved should go, do what, do when, and expect which results

Marketing planning takes into serious consideration the mission and vision of the company. It determines the financial budget that is allowed for marketing, as well as all other resources that can be utilized for the marketing campaign. It ascertains how to best utilize the financial resources and where to allocate the funds. It verifies and validates the target market. And most importantly marketing planning establishes the most cost-effective strategies by which to carry out the marketing effort.

The three major parts of a marketing plan are market, customer, and strategies. The essential components of a marketing plan are: a situation analysis of the market, customer analysis, competitor analysis, SWOT analysis, marketing strategies, pricing scheme, distribution scheme, advertising and promotion schemes, budgets, timetable projections, and financial projections.

If still clueless, one should only ask the questions: what do we do, when do we do them, how much should we spend for each and every step, and how will we know if we succeed in whatever we want to happen. The marketing team will definitely think hard about these because they will obviously need concrete answers. The answers to these questions will eventually comprise the marketing plan.

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