To first develop a successful business plan for an organization, it is important to know how the organization benefits potential customers. You need to answer the questions of why someone should use your specific product or service and whether your product or service better serves your potential customers rather than the competition and how? The second point in establishing a successful marketing plan is to identify your potential customers. Since there are so many potential customers in most markets, it is important to research your potential customers and identify their characteristics as well. Within the article a customer study is stated. The study involves creating an imaginary avatar/persona with all the attributes and characteristics of your prospect and researching what that prospect would do, think and feel over the course of a day. After you have researched and identified your potential customers, you need to identify your competition. You need to know your product/service and know your competitor's product/service and identify the differences between them so you can improve. When researching your competition, you should find out if your competition is offering price reductions and sales so your business knows how to respond accordingly and find an advantage. After researching your target customers and competition, it's now time to discover your company's marketing approach. Your marketing strategy depends on your target customers. If your target market was an older audience, your marketing approach probably wouldn't be as social media-oriented as if you were targeting younger children. With the increase in technology in recent years, more and more people are using social media more than just associates...... middle of paper ...... in detail when it comes to staff duties. Another thing the textbook covers that the article doesn't cover is what to do after you're done with marketing. Apparently marketing doesn't stop in textbooks. It is important to review and analyze sales revenue graphs to discover any deviations and then correct them. The textbook shows something called marketing diversification analysis, which allows a company to grow and attract new markets. The first is market penetration, which is a strategy used to increase sales of a product. The second is market development, which is a strategy for selling current products to new markets. The third is product development and this strategy is used to sell new products in the current market. The ultimate marketing strategy is diversification. This is the most difficult and potentially riskiest strategy. This strategy is used to sell new products to new markets.