Marketing Plan Analysis and Critique The purpose of this essay is to highlight and describe key ideas presented in the book written by Alexander Chernev, entitled The Marketing Plan Handbook. This essay will present a review of this book and provide personal opinion about the reading and offer alternative suggestions critiquing the work. The critique itself will revolve around several key issues including not only the message of the book, but how the message itself is delivered.

The Book's Message

The book contains nearly 160 pages of useful information that is dedicated to the readers' curiosity regarding marketing plans. The book highlights several key aspects about the marketing industry, but essentially, the book is about how to create a marketing plan. This book serves as a guide or reference unit to those who are interested in the marketing profession or industry.

The book is premised on the idea that the marketing plan is a business document and stands to serve the company in a meaningful way when it is properly employed and viewed through this particular leadership paradigm. The author emphasized that "the marketing plan outlined in this book builds on the view as marketing as a central business discipline that defines the key aspects of a company's business model.

Strategy and the development of a marketing strategy that is interwoven with the overall company strategy serves the organization well according to this book's main message. The use of strategy to help marketers gain a competitive advantage provides the necessary empirical evidence to back up the argument throughout the early chapters of the book which focus on the topic of strategic development.

The message that the author is trying to get across is clear and concise. The book does not use complicated language and the intent is focused on simplicity and not complicating matters. The author does tend to drift away from his message at times as he constantly refers to certain demographics of the market that cannot be reached. I disagree with this idea, personally so this part of the book I feel can be changed to reflect a more positive approach when dealing with unique challenges.

Constructing A Plan

The book serves its purpose when it is viewed as a reference sheet or corresponding source of information to help construct a marketing plan. The book itself, as a stand alone document that could be used as a sole guide in...

There are several key ideas and concepts that are worthwhile in this book and provide the inexperienced marketing professionals with some helpful advice and useful models to help guide the plan.
Issues

I disagree with several key points the author delivered in this book. The tone of the book suggests that marketing professionals can follow a simple recipe that proves successful every time you prepare the recipe in a certain manner. This objective approach does not align with my own personal experiences in marketing or any other endeavor in life. Each marketing experience is different and is created on a different set of circumstances and assumptions. Chernev's book provides a set of tools to reconstruct a marketing plan based on those individual circumstances that the marketer may find themselves challenged within.

Instead, the author takes a condescending tone at times. This may be due to the lack of intelligence that the intended audience is operating at . The book would have been more helpful if it offered a set of commonly experienced problems and offered general advice that applied to the essence of those problems. The author used a very authoritative tone throughout the book that at times turned me off to the message that he was delivering.

While I understand I appreciate the message that the author was trying to convey in this book, I have personal reservations towards the words and style of the book. The language the author uses does not convey a sense of emotion that really inspired me to follow his ideas. The book was concise which helped me digest some of the more uninteresting points of the book and I appreciate that effort from the author.

Overall this book serves to stand as a complementary reference piece for marketing professionals. It does not break any new ground, but provided fundamental advice for those seeking conventional ideas about the marketing profession. The book was enjoyable to read overall and I would recommend it to anyone interested in creating a marketing plan at any level of business.

Marketing Plan Observations

MBA5220 Marketing Management

A sample marketing plan has been posted to the MBA 5220 Marketing Management course web site on Blackboard. The sample is an actual MBA 5220 marketing plan that was submitted by a student from a previous section of this course. In this assignment, you are to review the…