---
title: "A Plan That Concerns Your Future: Common Problems in Annual Marketing Plans"
description: "As the annual marketing plan and performance review season approaches, marketing professionals must present clear plans to their bosses and themselves. Drawing on over a decade of experience, the author shares insights on how to write effective marketing plans and highlights common pitfalls, emphasizing the importance of logical structure, data-driven analysis, and actionable execution."
author: "盛斌子"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2014-11-20"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/a-plan-that-concerns-your-future-common-problems-in-annual-marketing-pla-8ff22bd6/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/a-plan-that-concerns-your-future-common-problems-in-annual-marketing-pla-8ff22bd6.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/i9Flvh7Zi-VJu45_O1TA6w"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E5%85%B3%E4%B9%8E%E5%89%8D%E9%80%94%E5%91%BD%E8%BF%90%E7%9A%84%E8%A7%84%E5%88%92-%E5%B9%B4%E5%BA%A6%E8%90%A5%E9%94%80%E8%AE%A1%E5%88%92%E5%B8%B8%E8%A7%81%E9%97%AE%E9%A2%98-8ff22bd6.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/a-plan-that-concerns-your-future-common-problems-in-annual-marketing-pla-8ff22bd6/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# A Plan That Concerns Your Future: Common Problems in Annual Marketing Plans

> As the annual marketing plan and performance review season approaches, marketing professionals must present clear plans to their bosses and themselves. Drawing on over a decade of experience, the author shares insights on how to write effective marketing plans and highlights common pitfalls, emphasizing the importance of logical structure, data-driven analysis, and actionable execution.

Friendly reminder: Click the blue text above, "FMCG Distributor Professional Consulting," to learn more about marketing and distributor internal management.

It's that time of year again when marketing professionals write their annual marketing plans and present them (many companies do this at the end of the previous year). Marketing professionals must give their bosses or superiors a clear account, and of course, also an account to themselves and the market. Whether it's for personal promotion and salary increase, or for a thorough and clear market strategy, a good marketing plan is indispensable.

With a decade of experience in the industry, I have seen and written countless marketing plans—roughly estimated at no fewer than several hundred. It took me over ten years to go from not knowing where to start, to a vague understanding, and finally to handling them with ease.

Below, drawing on my modest experience, I share my understanding of marketing plans and common problems I've found, with fellow marketers:

**I. How Exactly Should a Marketing Plan Be Written?**

How exactly should a marketing plan be written? Is there a fixed formula? The answer is yes. Many companies provide standard templates for marketing personnel, but templates are rigid, while the market is dynamic. Providing a standard template has obvious advantages: it unifies thinking, establishes standardization, and saves time during presentations. It is often suitable for junior marketers or those who rarely write marketing plans, as it guides them to think in the right direction (a good template is a good thinking tool). However, its disadvantages are also clear: designing the format often limits the expansion of thinking, which is unfavorable for senior marketers or those in high-level positions, because some constructive and creative ideas are not easily reflected (though nothing is absolute). Therefore, the best approach is for companies to provide standard templates, but design the format according to the company's needs or purposes (different stages, departments, and positions). It should not be a one-size-fits-all application of others' so-called "standard formats." So, how do you design a marketing plan based on what the company needs at a particular stage?

From a thinking perspective, a marketing plan only needs to answer four questions:
1. Where are we?
2. Where are we going?
3. How do we get there? (Can add: Why do we go this way?)
4. How do we ensure we get there?

"Where are we?"
This describes the current situation and problems at the marketing level. Generally, it summarizes the 3-5 main problems faced in the past year, reviews the execution of key tasks from the previous year, and analyzes the completion of 5-10 key performance indicators (analyzing problems, causes, and proposing solutions). From this perspective, companies often develop different formats, such as market analysis, marketing analysis, SWOT analysis, etc. Many companies write overly lengthy market background or market analysis sections in their marketing plans. My suggestion is that if such data is truly needed, it is best to present it as an appendix. Otherwise, overly long market analysis can make readers lose direction and feel confused. Because no matter how complex the market analysis content, its logical structure should be simple and clear. As for the macro data like "politics, economy, culture, geography, population" that often appears in marketing plans, it can be included as an appendix, mentioned briefly, or omitted altogether. Generally, if it's a newly established business plan (some call it an operating plan), you can include such macro data, but for projects that have been running for years, like a marketing plan, there's no need to dwell on the above macro data.

"Where are we going?"
This describes the company's development direction for 1-3 years, and this indicator should be quantified. It mainly includes two levels of goals: first, result goals, such as sales, growth rate, turnover rate, profit margin, completion rate, market share, etc. Second, process goals, such as channel development indicators, distribution rate, number of terminal constructions, headcount, expense ratio, etc. Annual sales targets should also be broken down across five dimensions: personnel, region, product, channel, and time. Thoughtful marketers should also consider how the incremental sales will be generated.

"How do we get there?"
This describes how marketers use marketing tools in combination to develop corresponding strategies, methods, and action breakdowns to solve marketing problems and achieve annual sales targets. If detailed into a marketing template, it can generally include seven to eight parts: product and channel planning policies and action breakdowns, terminal construction planning policies and action breakdowns, market promotion planning policies and action breakdowns, key customer policies and action breakdowns, shopping guide management policies and action breakdowns, advertising and PR policies and action breakdowns, and training system action breakdowns. When presenting, marketers must also answer the question "Why go this way?" but this part can be included as an appendix. There's no need to list all the reasons in the marketing plan.

"How do we ensure we get there?"
This refers to marketers using management systems, monitoring systems, information systems, and incentive systems to ensure the effective operation of the marketing plan. In terms of marketing plan modules, it mainly includes: organizational structure, staffing, KPI breakdown, time schedule and task breakdown for key tasks, and budget details.

Above, I have briefly explained the thinking approach and detailed modules of a marketing plan. Below, I will elaborate on common problems in developing marketing plans:

**II. Examples of Common Problems in Marketing Plans**

**1. "Logical Confusion, Incoherent Statements"**
Almost all marketing plan templates include a market analysis module, but marketers often don't understand why, analyzing for the sake of analysis, making it lengthy and tedious. The earlier analysis of the market and problems may seem reasonable, but the specific strategies and methods later do not correspond one-to-one with the earlier market analysis (especially the problem analysis). If the analysis of problems and their grasp cannot be solved in the later strategy section, what is the point of such problem analysis?

**2. More Narration, Less Data**
Whether in the market analysis section or the strategy and action breakdown section, large paragraphs of text description make readers drowsy. In fact, the best descriptions are data, tables, and processes.

**3. More Ideas and Concepts, Fewer Action Breakdowns**
The core part of a marketing plan—strategy and methods—has many ideas and concepts, but few corresponding action breakdowns. After reading, you still don't know what marketing wants to do. So, what are ideas or concepts? Just read People's Daily and the News Broadcast. What is an "action breakdown"? If a strategy or method can be implemented into action breakdowns, it must include key parts like "quantified goals, prioritization of key tasks, quantified implementation details, evaluation standards, responsible persons, promotion timeline, and required resource allocation."

**4. Covering Everything, Unclear Key Tasks**
There are many ideas, good points, and plans emerging one after another, but after reading the report, you don't know where the annual key tasks are. It seems everything is a key task, yet nothing is. In fact, at the marketing level, there are problems that can never be solved, problems unrelated to your work, and also limited corporate resources. The focus of marketing work is to solve the main problems that hinder sales targets. As the saying goes, "Once the main rope is pulled, the net opens." When the main problems are solved, secondary problems will naturally be solved. Therefore, the execution plan in a marketing plan must be a deep grasp and solution of the main problems.

For example, in marketing work, the main problems facing sales are often channel structure and channel policies. Channel structure mainly refers to channel width (effective coverage of the flat market), depth (effective coverage of markets at all levels), and saturation (density of outlets and output per unit area, etc.). Channel policies are key to driving channel operations. However, when planning their annual key tasks, our marketers often overlook this most critical point, instead avoiding the important and dwelling on the trivial, talking at length about market promotion, advertising investment, distributor meetings, channel promotions, etc. It should be known that all promotional activities are like flowers and plants, only decorating the facade. If channel structure and driving policies are not solved, all promotional activities can only be "beautiful on the surface," spending money to attract attention, but not generating sales.

**5. Lack of Support Systems**
Although the plan looks beautiful, the support system is nowhere to be found. It should be known that human nature is "you get what you measure, and you don't get what you expect." The most critical modules of the support system are the information system (reports) and the evaluation system. Any key task, if it cannot be implemented into evaluation, will ultimately not be effectively executed. As for human nature, people only work for money and ideals, not for the "expectations" of leaders or colleagues. Therefore, how the KPI indicators in the support system are designed is key to whether the marketing plan can be effectively executed.

**6. Many Problems, But None Are Their Own**
When writing plans, marketers like to list a bunch of problems, but upon careful analysis, they find these are all objective problems, such as market problems, competitor problems, related department problems, etc. Their own subjective problems are not deeply explored, either touching on them lightly or avoiding the important and dwelling on the trivial.

**7. Sticking to Old Ways, Few Innovations**
Marketing plans may seem reasonable, but in fact, they are conservative. This year and last year, Brand A and Brand B are mostly the same, with only quantitative differences, no qualitative changes. If you change the time, quantity, and brand name, they can be completely interchangeable. Such marketing plans completely repeat the past, with no innovation or uniqueness.

Strategic innovation in marketing plans is key to whether marketing can win, and it is key to the quality of corporate competitiveness. Therefore, for a marketing director's marketing plan, innovation plays an indispensable role. Marketing innovation mainly includes two levels: system innovation and tool innovation. System innovation mainly refers to innovation in profit models, such as Gree's joint venture company model. Tool innovation mainly refers to innovation in marketing methods, such as promotion model innovation, shopping guide model innovation, terminal model innovation, etc.

**8. Working in Silos**
Marketing plans only reflect the thinking of one's own department or position, working behind closed doors, lacking communication with horizontal or vertical departments. In fact, from an integrated marketing perspective, the key tasks of all functional departments in the entire marketing system can be integrated and carried out in a rhythmic and strategic manner, rather than working in silos. Only by integrating can the work of each other achieve twice the result with half the effort, thereby creating systemic advantages.

**9. Busy Only Once a Year**
A good marketing plan is key to guiding the year's work, but in many companies, the marketing plan is a flurry of activity for a while, then shelved after completion, only to cope with presentations or superior inspections, and completely unused afterward.

**10. SWOT Analysis, Boston Matrix, McKinsey Methods**...
They look beautiful, especially SWOT analysis, "almost everyone uses it, almost no one uses it well." In marketing plan templates, the most designed tool seems to be SWOT analysis, but as far as I know, almost no one uses it well. The main reason is that they analyze for the sake of SWOT analysis, filling in the blanks mechanically. At the same time, the conclusions drawn from the tool have no correspondence or necessary connection with the subsequent execution content.

--------------------------------------------


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671