The situation analysis and SWOT Analysis are the basis for the Issues Analysis. Here the primary focusshould be on the charge for your research project. What are the most important issues and decisions that the organization is likely to face when trying to accomplish the charge? Further, if the previous research steps (situation analysis and SWOT analysis) have shown that previous marketing efforts were unsuccessful (and why), you should include the lessons to be learned as issues.

In general, issues can include, but are not limited to (the issues depend on the charge of the respective marketing plan and are likely to differ from plan to plan):

Should the company focus on the charge in question?

What rate of growth is necessary and sustainable?

Does the company need to increase promotion to thwart the competition or to successfully reach its target market?

Does the company need to develop new promotional efforts to reach the identified target market?

What would be the most promising way of communicating with the target market?

Does the company need to increase the target market’s knowledge base?

Does the company need to address/change the target market’s belief systems?

Does the company need to develop persuasive messages tailored to the specific brand at hand?

Does the organization need to work on its reputation?

Is the company’s current distribution in order?

Should the company review its pricing strategy?

Does the company anticipate any major competitive attacks in its current markets?

Note: Be realistic when proposing issues. For example, suggesting that the company should invest funds in stocks or real estate is not appropriate for the marketing plan. First, it has nothing to do with the charge at hand; second you are unlikely to have enough information to address this issue in the following sections (i.e., goals, objectives, and implementation).

Also do not list questions in your issue analysis. Instead you should list the issues in a descriptive way based on the situation analysis and SWOT analysis results.

Goals and Objectives

Both goals and objectives need to be driven by the Issues Analysis.

Establish corporate goals: qualitative statements of desired general accomplishments that are indicative of the direction and priorities of the company or the outcome that the company hopes to accomplish (e.g., to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, increase consumer knowledge, change consumer beliefs, persuade the target audience to buy the new brand, have the most-recognized and effective advertising campaign in the industry, improve service quality, have lower prices than all competitors, increase market share, produce the most loyal customers in the industry).

Set specific measurable corporate quantitative objectives: targeted dollar amount of sales; number of iPad 4 sold; targeted market share; etc. That is, you need to express the goals you have outlined above in quantitative (numerical) terms, and you also need to place them within a time frame. In other words, the objectives are driven by the goals you outlined above. Please avoid listing objectives that have nothing to do with the identified goals.

Note: If you are dealing with a new product (i.e., your charge), please do not express objectives for the first year in percentage terms. In other words, stating that you would like to increase awareness by 5% for a new product does not make sense, because a new product will start out with a market share (or awareness) of zero and 5% of zero is still zero. In such a case, please phrase your objectives differently (e.g., the objective is to increase the brand awareness among 10% of the target market within the next 6 months).

You should have at least one goal. Please make sure that those goals (and your objectives) focus on your charge and also reflect your issues analysis. You should have at least two objectives for each goal.

The format for this section should look as follows:

Goal 1

Objective 1

Objective 2 (if applicable)

Etc.

Goal 2

Objective 1

Objective 2 (if applicable)

Etc.