What is a marketing plan and why is it a company's a most important document? What basic elements should be included in a top-down marketing plan? How can small companies use bottom-up marketing to become big companies? List the elements of an advertising plan and an IMC strategy. What is best method of allocating funds for a real estate development? Why? What types of companies tend to use the percentage of sales method? Why?

A marketing plan refers to the comprehensive document that outlines a company's overall marketing effort. It is a blueprint that outlines how a company will implement its marketing strategy, and how the company will utilize a combination of resources in order to achieve its business objectives. It is a company's a most important document because:

It contains specific goals and objectives and outlines the precise strategies to be used in achieving them.

It rallies the company's forces and resources for the marketing battlefield and therefore, dictates the role of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) in the marketing mix.

A marketing plan should always have the following:

A situation analysis: normally this will include a market analysis, a SWOT analysis and a competitive analysis.

Marketing strategy
Sales forecast
Expense budget.

Small companies can use bottom-up marketing to become big companies by creating an ingenious tactic they can use and building a strategy around it.

The elements of an advertising plan and an IMC strategy:

The IMC strategy will be determined by how the marketer makes use of the creative mix.

The creative mix is composed of:

The target audience
Product concept
Communications media, and
The message.

The best method of allocating funds for a real estate development is the sales percentage, market share, objective task, empirical research

The type of companies that tend to use the percentage of sales method are companies that want to use a method that will cost them nothing and will provide a greater chance of success for future sales.