Differences between Marketing and Business Plans (Essay Sample)

Creating Marketing and business plans can be an exciting and scary step of creating or updating a business. Both of these plans are crucial to the development and growth of any business. The Business Plan or business model, “Explains in a way that is systematic and clear way how a business will generate profits and cash flows” (Longenecker, 2017, P. 151). In other words, this plan should offer a brief overview of the business, the products or services offered, as well as a plan for generating revenue among other things.. The Marketing Plan should be more about the consumer, and is based around the Four P’s: Product, Place, Pricing, and Promotion. These four elements describe what the product or service is, where you are selling it, for how much, and in what way a business will advertise and distribute these services. A business plan and marketing plan have similar structures and cover some similar ideas, but are also different in many respects.  For the purposes of my essay, I’ll be discussing product and promotion and how the business and marketing plans are both similar and different in their presentation of these ideas. 

First, the business plan and marketing plan are similar as they both cover the topic of the product. As part of the business and marketing plan, a business owner needs to identify the product or service that they are offering. Whether a comprehensive, or short plan, this step will not change. On the cover page, or executive summary, a detailed description of a product or service needs to be offered..  “Describe how your product has been designed and tailored to meet the needs of your target customer and how it will be competitive” (Lawrence, 16). This is such a key and often overlooked detail in the business model.  This is especially important for businesses who offer multiple products, or products that are complex in nature. Similarly In a Marketing Plan, we also discuss the product or service. We ought to outline primary and secondary research we have conducted, and make a case for why the product is necessary. We also ought to define our target audience, any labeling or branding requirements that are lacking, in addition to any patents, trademarks, or Copyright’s that we need to secure. In this way, the business plan and Marketing plan are similar because the Business plan should also cover some of these details throughout the model. 

There are some ways in which business and marketing plans differ. For example, in a marketing plan we might discuss the name of the product, the name of the business, and how our target audience can best be reached.  We may consider such issues such as opening a store, or acquiring shipping capabilities. Other important factors need to be addressed such as the packaging. The product needs to be neat, properly labeled, and preferably reviewed by a legal professional. If it is a food, the FDA ought to approve all health claims made regarding the product. For recipes, proper copyrights must be secured, and disclaimers or warranty information needs to be available and accessible to the public to boost their confidence in this product. In contrast, a Business plan might offer a brief overview of costs of production, resources required, as well as an overview of responsible individuals in charge of overseeing operations and management structures.

The second concept to compare would be promotions or advertisements. The biggest similarity between the business plan and marketing plan, is they both ought to contain information about large projects or tools that will be utilized to reach out to the public. A business owner will want to include in both plans information on if a website will be constructed, or if they have plans to open a physical location. If the business owners plan on partnering with advertising agencies, or employing salespeople; all these details really ought to be covered in detail in both plans.  

While there are similarities, there are some areas that could be covered in one section over the other. As a business owner, one needs to include a section analyzing the competition, this would likely be included in the Business plan as opposed to the Marketing plan.  A business owner who is opening a restaurant for example, would do well to look at the neighboring business and see what kind of advertising they are doing. If businesses that are doing well are posting advertisements online, or in a newspaper, or are frequently in the news, then a smart businessman would follow suit. Estimate other businesses expenses or view public records and then build those expenses into the annual budget. If a business owner can plan and make reservations for that outreach early on in the business model, then they will be set up for success later on when it comes time to use those funds. These large budgeting decisions, and market analysis would likely fall in the Business model as opposed to the market Analysis, however the market plan should elaborate on these plans and discuss more specifics. This leads into the Marketing Plan. In the marketing plan, one should outline important details such as: If sales people will be employed, and if so how many? It should also detail what kind of advertising or community outreach will be done. The company should have some sort of social media presence, which may also include a budget for promoted advertisements and special deals. If there are any slow days, or days where people are less likely to come in, we ought to have special discounts and delivery on those days to ensure that we are not losing income during those times. Ultimately, while the “promotion” Side of things is important in both a business plan and Marketing plan, it is made more mention of in the Marketing plan, as the marketing plan directly addresses how the business and product will be promoted. Many business plans may not address this topic much at all, preferring to cover this topic in its entirety in the Marketing Plan. 

In conclusion, business models and Marketing models are similar, but different in focus and scope. For example, a Marketing plan should be focused around the 4 P's whereas the business model ought to be more broad and all-inclusive. Another important detail to note, is that According to the Small Business Administration, a good business model will include a marketing plan. So while there are similarities between the two plans, the distinctions should be apparent. The business model should have more data, analysis, vision, and overarching goals, whereas the Market analysis offers specific plans and actions to take that can help a business better reach their audience.