The budget, the action plan and monitoring

What the standard means by "the marketing plan"

• The standard defines it precisely: the marketing budget and a detailed action plan for implementation and future monitoring.
• This is the part that turns a strategy into something a business can actually do. Everything before it was analysis and intent; this is who does what, when, for how much, and how anyone will know whether it worked.

The marketing budget

• The budget lists every planned activity with a cost, totals them, and shows how the total is justified.
• Set the total in one of three ways, and say which you used:
  • Objective-and-task — work out what the objectives require, cost it, and total it. The most defensible, and the one to use.
  • Percentage of forecast sales — a fixed percentage. Simple, but it cuts spending exactly when sales are weak and spending is most needed.
  • What the business can afford — realistic for a small business, but it sets no relationship between spend and objective.
• Cost by activity, not by category, so the budget can be compared against the action plan:

Activity	Timing	Cost (NZ$)
Australian market research (completion)	Aug	4,000
Packaging redesign for Australian labelling compliance	Sep–Oct	7,500
Trade show attendance, Sydney fine food fair	Nov	12,000
Distributor launch incentive	Nov–Feb	9,000
In-store sampling, 30 stores	Feb–Apr	15,000
Digital and social campaign	Nov–Jun	18,000
Public relations and media samples	Nov–Jun	5,500
Contingency reserve (10%)	—	7,100
Total		78,100

• (Invented business, illustrative figures.)
• Two things a thorough budget has and a sound one often does not:
  • a contingency reserve, usually 5–10%, because something always costs more than planned
  • a check against the forecast — the budget as a percentage of forecast revenue, so a reader can see whether the spend is proportionate

The action plan

• The action plan is a table with four columns and no prose. Every row is a commitment.

Activity	Responsibility	Start	Complete	Cost
Confirm Australian labelling requirements	Operations manager	1 Aug	15 Aug	—
Finalise packaging artwork	Marketing coordinator	15 Aug	30 Sep	7,500
Appoint Australian distributor	General manager	1 Sep	31 Oct	—
Attend Sydney fine food fair	GM + marketing coordinator	12 Nov	14 Nov	12,000
First shipment despatched	Operations manager	20 Nov	20 Nov	—
Sampling programme, Sydney stores	Distributor	1 Feb	30 Apr	15,000
Quarter 1 review against objectives	General manager	31 Jan	31 Jan	—

• (Invented business, illustrative schedule.)
• What makes an action plan sound:
  • a named responsibility on every row — "marketing" is not a person
  • dates that respect dependencies — artwork cannot be finalised before labelling requirements are confirmed
  • the review points included as activities, so monitoring is scheduled rather than hoped for
  • the critical path visible — the sequence that determines the launch date, so everyone knows which delays matter

Monitoring

• The standard requires the plan to cover implementation and future monitoring. Monitoring answers three questions:
  • What will we measure? The measures come straight from the SMART objectives — sales revenue, number of stockists, margin, repeat purchase.
  • When will we measure it? Set review points that are early enough to act on. A single review at the end of the year is a report, not monitoring.
  • Who reviews it, and what can they change? A review with no authority to change anything is a meeting.
• Build the response into the design:
  • On track — continue.
  • Ahead — check that production and stock can keep up, which is a real risk for a small exporter.
  • Behind — trigger the relevant contingency plan.
• Measure leading indicators early and lagging indicators later. Stockist numbers in month three tell you whether the revenue in month twelve is going to arrive.