01Why marketing plans die in a drawer
Almost every mid-sized Dominican company has a marketing plan. Few use it. Someone in the department or an agency wrote it in December, it was presented to a warm reception, and by March nobody opens it. It does not fail because it is badly written. It fails because it decides nothing, assigns nothing and measures against nothing.
What Google returns today for "plan de mercadeo", as marketing plan is called in the Dominican Republic, confirms it: university theses and articles that repeat the textbook structure. Environmental analysis, SWOT, SMART objectives, the four Ps, budget and control. It is a fine structure for passing a course. To run a company, it is missing three things.
- A choice. The typical plan describes the whole market and wants to be everywhere. A plan that gets executed says which segments come first and, just as clearly, which ones do not.
- One owner per action. "Strengthen our presence on social networks" is not an action. An action has an owner, a cost, a date and an indicator that will say whether it worked.
- A measured starting point. Without a baseline, six months later nobody can say whether the plan moved anything, and the argument is settled by opinion or by rank.
A marketing plan is not measured by what it analyzes. It is measured by what it forces people to do.
There is a fourth cause, and it is less comfortable: the plan is written far from whoever decides. If the general manager or the owner has not signed off on the bets, the plan competes every week with the day-to-day emergencies of the business. And the emergencies always win.
02Marketing plan, sales plan and playbook: three documents, three questions
In many companies the three names are used interchangeably. The result is a hybrid document that does none of the three jobs. Separate them.
| Document | Question it answers | Horizon | Natural owner | What it contains |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing plan | Who we go after, with what promise and through which channels | 12 to 18 months, reviewed by period | General management with marketing | Diagnosis, segments, proposition, channels, budget, KPIs and governance |
| Sales plan | How much we will sell, to whom and with which team | Fiscal year, with monthly quotas | Sales leadership | Quotas by territory, rep and account; portfolio; routes; commercial policy |
| Playbook | How each action is executed, step by step | Living document, updated every period | Whoever directs execution | Action sheets, talk tracks, materials, dashboard and decision rules |
Order matters. The marketing plan sets the bets. The sales plan translates them into quotas and accounts. The playbook turns both into weekly work for the in-house team, the agency and the distributors. When the sales plan is written first, quotas come from last year's sales plus a percentage, and marketing ends up as the department that makes brochures.
A practical rule to classify any decision: if it changes who you sell to or what you promise them, it belongs in the marketing plan. If it changes how much is sold and who sells it, it belongs in the sales plan. If it changes how the work is done, it belongs in the commercial playbook. The commercial strategy is the umbrella that keeps all three aligned.
03Before you write: the one-page thesis
The most common opening mistake is to grab a template and start filling it in. The plan is written last. First you write one page.
That page is the one-page thesis, and it follows the structure Richard Rumelt proposes for any strategy: a diagnosis that names the problem, a guiding policy that says how it will be tackled and a set of actions that are coherent with each other. Rumelt insists on something academic plans ignore: bad strategy mistakes goals for strategy. "Grow by some percentage" is a wish. Strategy explains why that growth is possible and what you stop doing to get it.
Our adaptation adds a fourth line: what we will not do. In a Dominican company with several product lines and commitments to customers, distributors and family, that line is the hardest to sign and the one that saves the most time later.
Two tests before you go on. If the thesis does not fit on one page, there is no thesis yet. If leadership will not sign it, the plan is not worth writing: it will be written, approved and never executed.
04Plan structure (I): diagnosis, segments and proposition
The plan we propose has eight sections. Each one ends in a table you can copy as is. The first three decide who you go after and with what.
1. Diagnosis
The diagnosis is not a SWOT. A SWOT lists; a diagnosis chooses. Its deliverable is one sentence that names the main problem and five or six facts that support it, each with its source.
| Fact | Source | What it means for the plan |
|---|---|---|
| E.g.: sales are concentrated in a few distributors | Invoicing for the last 24 months | Dependency risk: a second distributor or an own route is needed in some territory |
| E.g.: competitors are gaining space in supermarkets and we are not there | Chain listings and store visits | Decide whether we go in, with what assortment and at what margin |
| E.g.: shelf price varies widely across colmados | Sample of points of sale | The channel is ignoring the suggested retail price; review margins along the chain |
Cutoff rule: if a fact does not change any decision, cut it. A forty-page diagnosis usually hides the fact that nobody dared to write the sentence.
2. Segments
This is where you decide who comes first. Each segment is scored on volume (how much is there), winnability (how much we can really win with what we have) and value (how much it leaves). It is the logic of the winnability matrix: it takes the attractiveness and position axes of the GE-McKinsey matrix and adds winnability as an axis of its own, because a large, profitable segment you cannot reach is not an opportunity. It is a distraction.
| Segment | Volume (1-5) | Winnability (1-5) | Value (1-5) | Decision | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neighborhood colmados in Greater Santo Domingo | Wave 1 / Wave 2 / Not going | ||||
| Independent supermarkets in the Cibao | |||||
| Hotels and restaurants in the East |
The "Why" column is mandatory. A year from now it will be the only thing that explains the decision to whoever was not in the meeting.
3. Proposition
One promise per segment and the proof behind it. Without proof, the promise is a slogan. The proposition is built from the job the customer is trying to get done, along the lines of Jobs to Be Done: the owner of a colmado (the neighborhood corner store) does not buy a brand of cooking oil. He buys turnover, margin and on-time restocking. The tool is promise and proof.
| Segment | Job they are trying to get done | Promise | Proof | Message by channel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colmado owner | Sell fast without tying up cash | A product that turns and is restocked on a fixed schedule | Route frequency agreed with the distributor | Route salesperson and point-of-sale material |
| Chain buyer | Margin per shelf meter with no stockouts | Promotional calendar delivered and reliable restocking | Service record in other stores | Category meeting with sell-out data |
| End consumer | Put the day's meal on the table without overspending | Whatever the diagnosis says | Whatever can be proven | Point of sale, radio, social networks |
05Plan structure (II): channels, actions, budget, KPIs and governance
The next five sections turn decisions into work, money and measurement. This is where the academic plan falls short.
4. Channels
For each segment there are two questions: through which channel does the product arrive, and through which channel does the message arrive. The typical plan answers only the second. In the Dominican Republic the first one is usually decisive; we develop it further below and in the guide to distribution channels.
| Segment | Sales channel | Who runs it | Message channel | Condition to switch it on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colmados, territory 1 | Distributor with a route | Distributor, with our own supervision | Route salesperson and display | Coverage agreement signed |
| Independent supermarkets | Direct sales or distributor | In-house sales team | Category visit and in-store promotion | Numeric distribution in territory 1 on target |
5. Actions
Every action goes on an action sheet: owner, cost, KPI and date. If a field is missing, it is not an action. The sheet combines RACI's assignment of responsibility with the outcome measurement of OKRs, and it adds a rule RACI does not impose: one single owner per action.
| Action | Segment | Owner (one) | Executes | Cost | KPI | Review date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E.g.: display program in route colmados | Colmados, territory 1 | Marketing management | Materials supplier and distributor | Points with display | End of period 1 | |
| E.g.: entry into independent supermarkets in the Cibao | Cibao independents | Sales leadership | In-house team | Active stores | End of period 2 |
Rule of thumb: a mid-sized company rarely sustains more than ten or twelve active actions at a time with the attention they deserve. If the draft has thirty, it is time to prioritize.
6. Budget by period
Not by year. An annual budget is approved as a block and spent by inertia. Budget by period, quarterly or every four months, with one part committed and another conditional on the previous period's result.
| Period | Action | Committed | Conditional | Condition to release | Who decides |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | Display in colmados, territory 1 | Not applicable | General management | ||
| Period 2 | Extension to territory 2 | Numeric distribution in territory 1 on target | Period committee |
The conditional part is not distrust. It is how the plan learns without having to be rewritten.
7. KPIs and baseline
Few indicators, each with an exact definition, a source and a data owner, and measured before you start. This is the signed baseline: the snapshot of the starting point, signed by leadership before anything moves. Without it, the result is argued. With it, the result is read.
| KPI | Exact definition | Source | Data owner | Baseline | Measurement date | Period target |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Numeric distribution | Sample points carrying the product / points visited | Route audit | Marketing | |||
| Sell-out by territory | Distributor sales to the point of sale | Data agreed with the distributor | Sales leadership | |||
| Observed shelf price | Price on the shelf or counter versus suggested price | Route audit | Marketing |
The product-school North Star metric helps set priorities, but in Dominican mass consumer goods a single metric is rarely enough. Sell-in to the distributor can rise while the product piles up in the distributor's warehouse. That is why the plan always separates what is invoiced to the channel from what the channel sells.
8. Governance
Who decides what, how often and with what information. Without this section, the plan depends on everyone's memory and goodwill. The centerpiece is a period committee with a fixed date, a fixed agenda (result against baseline; what continues, what changes and what stops) and minutes.
| Decision | Who proposes | Who decides | Cadence | Information needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Release the conditional budget | Marketing | General management | Every period | Result against baseline |
| Add or stop an action | Action owner | Period committee | Every period | Action sheet with its KPI |
| Change distributor in a territory | Sales leadership | General management or family council | Exceptional | Sell-out, coverage and contract |
Results against baseline
Signed baseline
Result
Committee
Committee
Committee
Periods →
06How to prioritize in a Dominican family business
A large share of mid-sized and large Dominican companies are family-owned, often with two generations at the table. That changes how priorities get set, and the textbooks do not cover it. Three traits weigh on the plan.
- The person who decides does not always hold the title. The org chart says marketing management decides; in practice, the founder or the family council has the last word. If the plan does not go through them, it is approved in the meeting and undone at Sunday dinner. Building an internal decision-maker map before presenting the plan saves months.
- Product lines have godparents. Behind each line there is usually a family member or a long-serving manager. Prioritizing one means demoting another, and that is taken personally. That is why the criteria are signed before anyone sees the scores, not after.
- Channel relationships are family assets. The distributor has been with the company for years, knows the family and owns the route. Any plan that touches distribution touches a relationship, not just a contract.
With that in mind, the prioritization method that works is short:
- Sign the criteria before the bets. Volume, winnability and value, with their weights. Deliverable: a criteria table signed by leadership and, where relevant, by the family council.
- Score with the company's own data. Invoicing by customer, territory and line for the last two years, plus whatever the point-of-sale sample shows. Deliverable: a completed winnability matrix.
- Choose three bets at most per period. Everything else moves to maintenance, with an explicit minimum budget. Deliverable: a list of bets and a maintenance list.
- Name one owner per bet with real authority. If they need permission for every expense, they are not the owner. Deliverable: action sheets with an owner.
- Set the date of the first committee the same day. Deliverable: the year's committee calendar.
The maintenance list is the most useful tool in a family business. It lets you say no to a line without abandoning it, and that defuses half the conflicts before they start.
A priority that is not signed before scoring gets renegotiated after every result.
07How the plan connects to the channel
In the Dominican Republic, mass consumer goods pass through many hands before they reach the consumer: manufacturer or importer, distributor, wholesaler, route, colmado. At each link someone decides what to push and what to leave in the warehouse. A marketing plan that speaks only to the end consumer gets halfway.
According to the Kantar Worldpanel household panel, colmados are the channel with the highest penetration in Dominican households, ahead of hypermarkets and chain supermarkets. The plan has to treat them for what they are: a primary point of sale with its own decision-maker, the colmado owner, who does not behave like a chain buyer.
| Link | What it needs from the plan | What the plan asks of it | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Distributor | Margin, turnover, route support and predictable orders | Agreed coverage by territory and sales data by point of sale | Actual versus agreed coverage; sell-out by territory |
| Colmado and wholesaler | A product that turns, payment terms, useful materials | Display, shelf price respected, space | Numeric distribution, display, observed price |
| Modern trade | Margin per space, planned promotion, reliable restocking | Listing, space and delivery on the calendar | Stockouts, share of shelf, sell-out by store |
Two practical consequences. First: part of the marketing budget has to go to the channel (distributor incentives, display, route materials, salesperson training), not only to media. Second: the plan's KPIs must include at least one sell-out or point-of-sale presence indicator, because sell-in can be manufactured with a good end-of-quarter negotiation.
If the product sells in different territories, the local layer captures what changes from one to the next without touching the plan. Greater Santo Domingo, the Cibao and the East have different decision-makers, routes and buying rhythms, and a single plan with identical actions treats them as the same market. For the country detail, see the Dominican Republic.
08A marketing plan example: an illustrative scenario
Take a hypothetical case: a second-generation Dominican family food company with three lines: packaged rice, canned beans and a new line of snacks. It sells through four regional distributors and has an uneven presence in supermarkets. Every year it prepares a forty-page marketing plan that nobody consults after February.
Here is how it changes when it is built with this structure:
- Diagnosis. The problem is not the brand. It is coverage. The snacks do well where they are sold, but they are in few colmados because distributors earn less per trip on them than on rice.
- Segments. Wave 1: high-turnover colmados in two territories of Greater Santo Domingo. Wave 2: independent supermarkets in the Cibao. Hotels in the East are off the list this period, even though the line manager asks for them.
- Proposition. To the colmado owner: a fast-turning product with its own display unit and weekly restocking.
- Channels. The distributors stay, with a coverage agreement by territory and an incentive tied to active points of sale, not to cases sold.
- Actions. Seven sheets, each with one owner. The display unit is executed by an outside supplier directed by marketing.
- Budget. A committed portion for the first period; the second wave is released only if numeric distribution in territory 1 hits its target.
- KPIs and baseline. Numeric distribution, sell-out by territory and observed shelf price, measured in a fixed sample of colmados before starting.
- Governance. A quarterly steering committee with the second generation; the founder attends the first session and receives the minutes of the rest.
The final document runs to twelve pages. Length is not the point. The point is that every page has an owner and every number has a starting point.
09Common mistakes and their cause
The mistakes repeat so often that you can see them coming. Each one has a specific cause, and the cause is what needs fixing.
- Copying the structure of a thesis. Cause: the only reference at hand is academic. Effect: a hundred pages on the environment and five on decisions. Fix: one-page thesis first; analysis goes in only if it changes a decision.
- Objectives without a baseline. Cause: measuring the starting point feels like a waste of time when you are in a hurry. Effect: six months later nobody knows whether there was progress. Fix: no KPI enters the plan without its starting value and its source.
- Confusing sell-in with results. Cause: invoicing to the distributor is the only clean data the company has. Effect: you celebrate a quarter that actually filled warehouses. Fix: at least one sell-out or point-of-sale presence indicator.
- One plan for the whole country. Cause: planning is done with aggregate data. Effect: the Cibao and the East get actions designed for the capital. Fix: a local layer by territory.
- The agency's plan. Cause: the company has no strategy function in-house and asks whoever runs its communications for the plan. Effect: the plan recommends, quite logically, what that agency knows how to do. Fix: separate whoever defines the strategy from whoever executes it. The client decides, someone leads, third parties execute.
- An annual budget in one block. Cause: that is how everything else in the company is approved. Effect: money is spent the same way even when the actions do not work. Fix: budget by period with a conditional portion.
- No review date. Cause: everyone assumes someone will review it. Effect: the plan ends up in the drawer. Fix: a period committee on the calendar before the plan is approved.
10What to do this week
Five actions that need no budget and tell you where your plan really stands.
- Audit the current plan. Count how many actions have a named owner, a cost and a date. Deliverable: that number, against the plan's total number of actions.
- Write the one-page thesis. The main problem, how you will tackle it, three actions and what you will not do. Deliverable: one page to take to whoever really decides in the company.
- Pull 24 months of data. Invoicing by distributor, territory and line. Deliverable: a first scoring of your segments by volume, winnability and value.
- Measure three KPIs today. At least one of them on sell-out or point-of-sale presence. Deliverable: the value, source and data owner for each.
- Put a date on the first committee. Within three months at most, with leadership invited. Deliverable: the invitation sent.