The Product Plan

The areas of marketing policy to be reviewed in the compilation of a product plan will vary considerably from organisation to organisation and, within any one organisation, from market to market, or from brand to brand: (1)One major variable in drawing up a product plan is the quantity and quality of data that is available to the marketing planner. Whereas many of the major companies operating in competitive markets will have highly developed information-gathering systems relevant to market analysis — through the activities of their market-research departments, sales data processing, etc. — many organisations have much less market and product performance information than is required to ensure the validity of comprehensive product plans.(2)Another major variable is that of the attitude taken towards the function of marketing planning, and the degree of responsibility given to planners by the organisation: even companies with fairly well-developed marketing functions, and a tradition for thorough product planning, may consider such areas as product costings and product profitability to be outside the scope and responsibility of the marketing planner.