Essential Items When Making a Viable Budget

Objectives of the Marketing Project 

Everything in business is done towards a certain and specific objective. Even when it comes to assessing the needs of the target audience (Demographics and Segmentation; Business Plan Shop, n.d), it is usually done to achieve a specific goal. Therefore, when creating a marketing budget, it is essential to understand why the plan is being made. Once this has been outlined, the budget can not only be used as a performance measurement tool but also a marketing control tool. This is because the budget can inform on the return on investment for any marketing strategy as compared to the objectives. From my professional experience working at Emory University Hospital in the Imaging Department, we used the marketing budget to determine whether the imaging equipment should be upgraded depending on the outcomes of the marketing plan. This plan had the objective of determining if operating costs could be minimized by encouraging more imaging in the diagnostic process. 

External and Internal Analysis 

After setting the objectives of the marketing plan, the next essential part is doing an external and internal analysis of both the plan and the working environment. To prevent wastage of resources, any market analyst needs to have a comprehensive understanding of their internal and external environment. This is because the analysis will help identify the threats and opportunities within the market. Once this is done, it becomes easier to select the marketing strategies that exemplify the opportunities while complementing the threats and weaknesses. 

There are different tools for carrying out internal and external analysis of a marketing plan, but the most common are SWOT analysis and PESTEL tool. SWOT analysis is vital in making a budget since each of these categories identifies unique spending priorities that have a strategic impact. A company needs to invest in the Strengths of the company, which acts as a competitive advantage over the organization’s competitors. Also, a company can overcome its Weaknesses, thus deciding how much of the company’s budget need to be devoted to addressing the organization’s weaknesses. Also, a company needs to take advantage of its opportunities. These opportunities require expenses, while also making room in the company’s budget to invest in new opportunities, which also gives the company a competitive advantage. The company also needs to prepare for threats by setting money aside in the company’s budget to help mitigate the impact of these threats on the company’s productivity. 

SWOT Analysis Table 

References 

Business Plan Shop.  How to do a market analysis for a business plan . The Business Plan Shop. Retrieved 12 July 2020, from https://www.thebusinessplanshop.com/blog/en/entry/market_analysis_for_business_plan#demographics.