Difference between a Marketing Plan and a Business Plan Essay

Essays on Difference between a Marketing Plan and a Business Plan Essay The paper â€Å"Difference between a Marketing Plan and a Business Plan† is a   thrilling example of an essay on marketing. A marketing plan is a detailed outline that is meant to show the efforts in marketing that an organization has. A marketing plan, therefore, shows the goals that an organization seeks to achieve in selling its products be they goods or services. On the other hand, a business plan refers to a statement that is written and it sets out the goals that a business seeks to achieve. A business plan also sets out reasons which inform the beliefs that the goals set by the business can be attained. A business plan often bears information about the organization which is attempting to attain the set goals. A business plan could be geared toward changing the way that a business is viewed by various stakeholders in the business. The stakeholders who are important in this regard include the clients and also the community at large. Whenever an organization seeks to ove rhaul its business plan, it is important that such a plan should be made having in mind about three to five years.There is a marked difference between a marketing plan and a business plan. The difference lies in the fact that the marketing plan tends to be more specific. A marketing plan tends to cover only how an organization is going to achieve the set goals in its sales. On the other hand, a business plan tends to be more comprehensive and covers more ground and areas unlike a marketing plan (Abrams, 2003). A business plan could be said to cover the business as a whole and each and every aspect of the business. A business plan, therefore, could have more impact on the image of the organization to the outside world since every person is able to understand the ideals of the business. At times, a marketing plan could be part of the business plan. This means that in terms of scope, the business plan covers more areas, unlike a marketing plan which is only concerned with attaining cer tain levels of sales that an organization seeks to achieve. A market plan could act as a guide. In this respect, a marketing plan guides the organization to know how much to produce based on the perceived size of the target market (Mathur, 2006). A business plan should also act as a benchmark against which an organization is able to establish whether it has attained a given set of objectives. The following essay, therefore, looks at the important contents of a marketing plan and its central role in a business.DiscussionThe key purpose of developing a marketing plan is to enable a business to relate to its customers. However, a marketing plan is not only developed for the sole purpose of engaging with the customers that a business has. There are other functions that the marketing plan serves and which are also very critical for the purposes of a business (McKeever, 2008). For a business to grow, it requires to attract and retain customers. The attraction and retention of customers sh ould be coupled with a bigger picture whereby this should not be a one-off thing. The business should aim at having the customers attracting other customers and this would ensure that a business continues expanding (Cowper, 2006). A marketing plan should, therefore, be responsive to the changing and different needs of its clientele and this can only be discovered through constant interactions, research and getting of feedback from the clients of such a business.