Worksheet for Drafting a Marketing Plan

INSTRUCTIONS

Use this worksheet to draft a marketing plan that states your objective and an executive summary,
describes the opportunity, explains your strategy, provides financial information, and ends with a
compelling summary.

Step I: Establish the objective

1. Draft an executive summary that contains your objective—a brief explanation of what you’re doing and
why. Because your objective and executive summary should be the clearest, most compelling part of your
plan, return to this step and polish your executive summary after you’ve established the facts and ideas in
other sections.

Step II: Describe the opportunity

2. What is the opportunity you see for your product or service? What niche is unserved? Why should
customers buy from you and not others?

Page 1 of 5
d
© 2014 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business School Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School
3. What customer segment(s) have you identified? Describe the different customer groups and how you will
target them.

4. What is the competitive landscape? Who offers a similar product, and what market share do they hold?

5. What are the potential threats? What companies could become competitors?

Step III: Describe your strategy to attract and serve customers

6. Product. Describe the product or service. What will it help customers achieve? How does it differ from
what competitors sell?

Page 2 of 5
d
© 2014 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business School Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School
7. Price. What will the product or service cost? Will you offer discounts or other deals?

8. Place. Where and how will you sell the product or service? Will you use a distributor or outlet? What is
your online strategy?

9. Positioning. How will you market the product or service? How will you convey your brand’s story through
packaging, advertising, social media, and public relations?

Step IV: Provide financial information

10. What is your estimate of the market size?

Page 3 of 5
d
© 2014 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business School Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School
11. What do you plan to spend on marketing? Create a breakdown of how you’ll spend this, by task and by month.

12. What are your projections of revenues and profits?

Step V: Add a conclusion

13. Summarize your main points.

14. End with a strong, forward-looking statement about the potential of this project.

Page 4 of 5
d
© 2014 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business School Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School
15. Revise your executive summary, including your objective. Make it clear, concise, and compelling.

16. If someone reads only the executive summary, have you made a strong enough case for your plan? What
can you add to make your case more compelling?

Page 5 of 5
d
© 2014 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business School Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School