Developing a Marketing Plan

The following chapter was written by Simon Hudson, a Professor in Tourism and Marketing at the University of South Carolina. He has held previous academic positions at universities in Canada and England, and has worked as a visiting professor in Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Fiji, New Zealand, the United States, and Australia. Prior to working in academia, Dr. Hudson spent several years working in the tourism industry in Europe. He has written five books, numerous journal articles, and is known internationally for his work on sport tourism and film tourism.

Developing a Marketing Plan

The marketing plan is probably the most important document a film commission possesses. It assembles all the pertinent facts about the commission, its locations, the markets it serves, its products and services, and its competition. It sets specific goals and objectives and describes the precise strategies used to achieve them. It is widely used to mean a short-term plan for two years or less, and should be developed and evaluated annually or every two years. However, marketing plans should be flexible to accommodate opportunities or industry changes.