Marketing Foundations

with Marta Dapena-Baron

Strategic Marketing Outline: Key Questions

This is a sample outline for a marketing plan. You can use the templates provided in this course to
help you answer the questions below. Regardless of the particular structure you end up using, be
sure your plan tells a story that resonates and motivates your internal and external audiences alike.

1. Business objective/brand
• What brand are you taking to market?
• What core competences and strategic assets will support your brand?
• What are the goals of your plan?

2. Business category
• What business category have you selected for your brand?
• Who will you compete with and what are their competences and resources?
• Will you be trying to expand the category or take share from a competitor?

3. Bodies (customers)
• Who is a customer for your brand in this plan?
• How many customers will you need to achieve your business goal?
• Will your plan focus primarily on acquiring or retaining customers?

4. Beliefs (value proposition)

• What is the customer journey for your category and brand?
• Who is the target persona and what are their needs and likely expectations relative to
the positioning benefit? What barriers will your organization need to overcome
for this persona to change behavior?
• What is the value proposition of your brand to the target audience? How will it change
their behaviors and beliefs so your company can achieve your business goal?

5. Execution
• How will your company make good on the promise you’ve made? What will customers
see, feel, and do when working with your brand?
• What will your organization do to encourage them along this experience? How will
your organization implement the brand-customer experience through solutions,
pricing, communications, and customer touch points (distribution)?

6. Benchmarks (metrics)

What are the key executional metrics your team will use to guide execution (leading indicators)?
What metrics will you use to assess success and learn?

Marketing Foundations with Marta Dapena-Baron 1 of 1