There were a few things I learned about marketing plans.  One thing is that the marketing plan is an essential part of the overall business plan.  The marketing plan is defined as a written document that provides direction for the marketing activities in a company for a specific period of time.  I also learned that a marketing plan will also help to ensure that a company is sticking to a schedule.  It also helps to make sure a company is spending funds wisely and appropriately. The marketing plan must be geared towards the companies mission.  It helps since the marketing plan includes a mission statement.  It also includes a situation analysis.  A situation analysis is a study of the internal and external factors that impact a marketing plan.  This sort of goes along with the SWOT analysis which analyzes the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the company.  This is what I discovered about marketing plans.