An example of a marketing plan for one goal for a church nursery school is as follows:

Goal: Increase overall enrollment from 40 to 60 children within 18 months.

Product/Service Offer: A Monday-Friday nursery school and day-care program, open from 7:30 am to 6:00 pm for children two to five years old. Either half-day or full-day registrations are accepted.

Comment: This represents a big change -- 50% increase in enrollment, change in number of open hours (formerly program was only half-day).

Target Audience: This program is being marketed to three primary publics. The benefit each public is expected to value is provided below.

Price: $55 per week for half time; $100 per week for full time.

Place: The nursery school is in the church building with a fenced-in outside play area.

Comment: This location gives parents a feeling of confidence and security.

Meeting Demand: To prepare for the increased enrollment, we will increase the number of paid staff hours and pursue greater volunteer involvement from church members.

Comment: The new church board president has a grandchild in school and will probably assist in volunteer recruitment.

Promotion: The major features to promote are:

1. High-quality program
2. Low teacher-to-student ration
3. Reasonable price
4. Religious values are taught (Comment: Growing interest in values education is a helpful trend)
5. Convenient hours

Our basic approach to promotion includes: announcements in the church bulletin on a regular basis, encouragement of word-of-mouth among families currently enrolled ("Tell Your Friends"), development and distribution of new brochure.

Comment: Ask parents for other ideas.

Implementation of Plan: Some of the major steps that have to be accomplished are:

1. Get provisional permit and file for permanent change in licensure under state guidelines.
2. Decide date new hours will start.
3. Recruit staff and volunteers to cover extended hours.
4. Set up volunteer training sessions.
5. Develop in-house flyer to announce new hours and survey families currently enrolled to determine how many will register for full day.
6. Write news article for church bulletin and neighborhood paper.
7. Inform day-care placement and referral services.
8. Develop and distribute new brochure.
9. Plan all-school party for first day with new hours.

Assigning Responsibility. Determine who will take responsibility for ensuring that each step in the marketing plan is accomplished. Being responsible may lead to putting together a committee, hiring or finding outside help, or delegating parts of the job to other appropriate volunteers or staff. Make sure there is a clear chain of command. Sometimes group consensus is necessary; other times it holds things up needlessly. Define at the outset what will work for you.

Setting Deadlines. Before filling in deadlines, decide what the priorities are. Some steps may be urgent or naturally come first. If you are doing marketing planning for a special event or need things in place in time to open a new program or show, then deadlines are already set. Other situations are more flexible.

Confirm Budget. Some steps have associated costs. Make sure those responsible know the parameters of their budgets.

Implementation Table. It may be useful to show your implementation plan as a table with the following headings:

Promotion Campaign. More about this aspect later.