Simple marketing plans

Kelly’s 1 page marketing plan

Upon reading this chart, you can see it is simple and clear.

However, what was the rationale for the order on this chart?
What, why, when, how, how much, who
Products, price, place, promotion

The first questions to be asked, may not be the most important answers to have (execute) but are vital in the progression and development of the marketing plan.

Who should be the first question asked. It will drive the rest of the discussion.

Why does this population care?
What
How
When
How Much



On the other axis

Product
Place
Promotion
Price

For people who read left to right, and top to bottom, this is the order in which to fill out the boxes.

But on the execution side, the part that deals with keeping your company around for another season, the most important question is cashflow. How Much, and When.

Run out of cash, and there’s no company to worry about.

So the most important question to ask start with why.
The most important answers to execute, begin with how much.

Most groups I see that have sales, got the how much/when answer right. They might have guessed, but they got the answer right, for one cycle. When parameters shifted, they tried using the same answer, or guessing again, and have an incorrect answer.

Asking the Why questions gets you to the right answer, and allows a robust approach for your business model. But failing to get the How answers will doom you no matter what else you do.

The question of “which side of a sphere is most important to keep it rolling?” Only the part of the sphere that’s in contact with the ground.

Guy’s version of the marketing plan.
http://www.guykawasaki.com/downloads/marketingplan.doc