Marketing Plan vs. Marketing Communications Plan

My sophomore year at Western New England University I took a Principles of Marketing class just to fulfill a requirement. Little did I know, marketing would become my area of interest as a grow into my career. The first thing that Professor Elam asked my class was: "What is marketing? What comes to mind when you think of marketing?" Some answers were advertising, promotions, commercials, etc. I agreed with my classmates, but marketing is so much more than I have learned. So, the first concept we learned was the 4 P's of the marketing mix. They are price, product, promotion, and place (distribution). However, as the semester in Professor Elam's class progressed, I realized I was not interested in the pricing of products or where to distribute them. What was I interested in? I wanted to learn more about how to promote the product successfully. This when I was taught the difference between the marketing plan and the marketing communications plan.

What is the marketing plan? The marketing plan consists of concrete points that we, as marketing communications consultants, cannot change. As marketing communications consultants, we must ask questions. The questions never end. Essentially, our client is the marketing team, and the marketing team's client is the brand. The marketing team outsources to us, the marketing communications consultants. It is then that we meet with the marketing team and ask questions. These questions include: How are you positioning the brand? What are you trying to accomplish? That is where we can determine which areas of the consumer pathway the product is trying to achieve, which ultimately leads to the communications objectives. However, it is important to note that when asking the marketing team such questions, that you make them say it to your face. This is a topic that Professor Spotts touched upon. If the marketing team says "it's in the documents," that is not acceptable. The marketing communications team must get the answer out of them from their own voice. This allows for the the marketing communications team to hear their plans with the emotion they want to evoke. 

What is the marketing communications plan? A lot. I don't really know how else to explain it. In my opinion, my Campaign Planning and Management class should be a year long course. The best way to describe the marketing communications plan is by the creative brief. This document covers all of the important aspects when developing a promotional campaign. There is collecting the backstory, the who, what, why, how, where, when, metrics, budget, and mandatories. Don't think that if you develop a creative brief then that is your campaign. It may seem like an easy outline to fill out, but the depth of research and analysis required to get the best understanding of the product's layers is just the beginning of a great campaign. There's a lot that goes into it.

The overall difference between the two is that the marketing plan consists of the price (how much to sell the product for), product (packaging), and place (where to distribute it). The marketing communications plan solely focuses on the promotions piece. Now, it is important to understand that just because the marketing communications plan is just one P of the marketing mix does not mean that it is less work. My Campaign Planning and Management class has made sure to inform me that a lot goes into planning a promotional campaign for a product. Ultimately, without the marketing plan there is no marketing communications plan and without the marketing communications plan there is no marketing plan.