Marketing Strategy Vs. Marketing Plan

When I looked through the course syllabus and found that this coming Monday's topic is about 'The Marketing Plan and Marketing Strategy, I wonder what is the difference between those two. After I did some researches, I'm now get some ideas about the difference so I would like to share them to all the classmates. This is the short summary. Hope that you guys will get to read this before going to class.

A marketing strategy defines objectives and describes the way the company going to satisfy customers in their chosen markets. It is shaped by the overall business goals. The marketing strategy is essentially a document that company use to judge the appropriateness and effectiveness of the specific marketing plans. In another word, marketing strategy is a summary of company's products and position in relation to the competitor. While the sales and marketing plan are the specific actions company going to use to achieve the goal of their marketing strategy.

Marketing strategy is usually written out in a marketing plan. So the company need to have a marketing strategy before they can write a marketing plan. Marketing plan may includes detail about business' unique selling proposition, pricing strategy, sales and distribution, and advertising and promotions plan. Marketing strategy is the long term goal, for a number of years, but the detail of marketing plan need to be updated every year.

sources:

http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/marketing/a/marketingplan.htm

http://www.is4profit.com/business-advice/sales-marketing/marketing-strategy.html

Sarintorn Puangyoykeaw (Tarn)