BUSINESS PLAN: What do you want to do? How do you plan to achieve it? this plan answer the question of "what is it?"

FEASIBILITY STUDY: Is your plan or idea feasible? Is it doable with reasonable probability of success? this answers the question of "is it do-able?"

MARKETING PLAN: How do you plan to move you idea or product to the consumers, or users. This plan answer the question of "how will you turn do it?"

Very useful thanks a lot Noel Carroll,,

BUSINESS PLAN: What do you want to do? How do you plan to achieve it? this plan answer the question of "what is it?"

FEASIBILITY STUDY: Is your plan or idea feasible? Is it doable with reasonable probability of success? this answers the question of "is it do-able?"

MARKETING PLAN: How do you plan to move you idea or product to the consumers, or users. This plan answer the question of "how will you turn do it?"

Business plan is broader.  It encompasses all that is required to translate ideas into reality usually by detailing in writing.  It is the whole business but on paper because it includes all the functional areas of a business.  It is a communication to the investors and financial institution about the intentions and how it is to be operationalized.  The business plan usually follow  feasibility studies.  A feasibility study is the process of verifying the possibility of translating a given idea in terms of the strategies, objectives and resources of the organization/ entrepreneurs.

Marketing plan sometimes is incorporated as part of a business plan.  Whereas business plan embraces all functional areas of a business organization, marketing plan is specific focusing on the customer and how the needs are to be satisfied.

All of them are linked.

Feasibility describes mostly if an idea is realizable under the current circumstances of the market. It is the "logic-proof". Initial state. This is the core.

Marketing plan. Depicts how you will take your product/service to the target market. Should contain elements of the feasibility study to prove it is doable.

Business plan is the broadest picture. Contains not only feasibility and marketing but other elements about who is going to develop the plans, how, why, e.g. mission, vision, team members. In order to be sound, the conforming elements  (feasibility, marketing, etc) must be sound. 

Thank you dear all for contribution of useful knowledge , recently a new trend was raised in a conference in USA known as Startup plans , I started looking it up, anyone have research in this field, it is supposed to be simpler and to the point more than lengthy Business plans,, 

Feasibility Plan is part of a complete Business Plan.

Dito for Marketing Plan focusing on execution inside the Business Plan.

I agree with you that business plans are usually too lengthly for (SW or web) start-ups when no major investments are needed.

They should focus on how much it costs to have a first prototype (web or app) ready to show if there is enough user interest to grow the company.

For a €50k-€100k angel investment to create business plans to show, how your app/web might be the next €100 Billion Facebook replacement is really xxx.

But the moment you start a business plan, you have to do the outlooks. So yeah, right focus but way too early

Dear Nahid, 

Noel's answer is the most useful here - he has hit the nail pretty much on the head. The "Startup plan" I would imagine is somewhere between a feasibility study and a full-blown business plan, and as you say much simpler, to the point, without any waffle or padding.  

This is a very interesting question! If you have noticed something intriguing, a business and marketing plan are meant to systematically document what you have in mind with regards to P/L and marketing.. but a feasibility study involves a certain degree of uncertainty. Among the senior management that I have worked with in past years, a feasibility study can mean either confirmatory or exploratory: For example, when I feel uncertainty, is the study going to confirm my hypothesis or is it meant to explore more so to form one or more hypotheses?

The only thing I would add is that the marketing plan is linked with the business plan in terms of brand, with the business plan defining it and the marketing plan describing how to project it and position the company.  This is, I believe, pretty critical today, since brand used to relate to a product or service, but is now very often the brand of the entire company.  Plus of course, employer brand in terms of talent attraction and retention

It is possible to see things differently. The three tools have in common:

- They allow the structuring of the project

- They promote communication among stakeholders

Business Plan as such is run business, the very purpose is different. It is for the entire business. Feasibility analysis is to know whether project will be feasible or not in all aspects. Marketing plan is functional plan to run marketing unit. Thus the purposes are different.  Similarly, the objectives, structure and content will be different. 

All contributions are extensively useful, but does the size of the business determine to some extent what plan to start with, and going back to feasibility studies, doesn't market research comes a vital pre-requisite,,

It really depends. This is a very broad question. For example, a small size business may not need any plans - as in hardcopy documents that spell out plans - but if investors are involved in the business, a hardcopy plan may be needed. For larger businesses, some entrepreneurs or owners do not want a business or marketing plans as these plans undermine their ability to function as a domain expert in the company. On the other hand, some owners do follow strictly to the process of business plan, then marketing plan with the support of feasibility study. But the velocity of their market demand may sometimes discourage them from taking months to plan and study. So it also depends on the type of market like the IT industry.

For the feasibility studies, it also depends. If a business owners or executives know exactly how the market works and what the market lacks in, they will skip feasibility studies. Of course, theoretically speaking, feasibility study is a must for businesses that do not have a clear vision in the market. and hence market research is needed.

Business plan is  a prioritized outline of steps to be taken to execute any Business or Project successfully, Market Plan is also an outline of how and best way you could sell your product, and finally Feasibility Study has to do with investigating all the elements of the scope of your Business or Project to see how possible or feasible the Project would be successful.

Attached find a paper about business plans.

First, all they have different goals. Marketing plan takes focus on company's marketing areas and activities, even considering the entire company. Business plan, is planning how to make real an enterpreneurial idea (could be a new company, or a new business line for a previous company). Feasibility studies should be take more as how a project could be done or not.

Hi Nahid Mohammed

Marketing plan allows you to know market potential for your product or service. The feasibility study focuses on the technical side, in the estimation of resources (technical, human, equipment, tools, buildings, etc.) to carry out the project. Both the feasibility study and market plan are part of, among other studies, business plan.

Have a nice day

Business plan - includes a feasibility study and marketing plan.

Marketing Plan - includes SWOT analysis, competitor analysis and customer analysis and a plan for marketing tools, together with indicators to measure their.

Good day for You

В литературе есть разные мнения по этому вопросу. Технико-техническое обоснование проводится во время прединвестиционных исследований, по результатам которого составляется бизнес-план. Поэтому можно полагать, что в некоторых случаях проведение технико-экономического обоснования - это часть бизнес-планирования. Есть мнение, что бизнес-планирование и технико-экономическое обоснование в некоторых случаях совпадают. Маркетинговый план - это составная часть бизнес-плана. In the literature, there are different opinions on this issue. Technical and technical justification is held during the pre-investment studies, the results of which make up a business plan. Therefore it can be assumed that in some cases, a feasibility study - it's part of business planning. It is believed that the business plan and feasibility study, in some cases the same. Marketing plan - an integral part of the business plan.

Changing the order slightly... Firstly there is the strategic vision initiated by an organisation or individual... In a business context, a strategic vision usually relates to the development of products or services.....

A feasibility study occurs when you start to structure the initial vision into a rough plan identifying key elements and potential stakeholders of the project to assess their impact on the feasibility of realizing the vision, and may include recommendations on how the project might proceed.....

The next stage in the process is the development of a business plan, which should be seen more as a road map of where the company is going and how it's going to get there, and should include product/service analysis, competitive analysis, operational analysis, market research. From here the key elements and objectives to be included in your business plan should have been identified and then they form part of the project planning process designed to realize the vision. Financial management is also a very important part of the business plan and should include financial forecasts for at least a 12 months period. The marketing plan is developed around marketing the product or service which derived from the initial vision, and should not be confused with the market research conducted to support the development of the the product or service

If you are endeavoring to use the business plan to raise capital for your proposed business/project, then you will have to include a presentation section to the business plan outlining what you want and what they get out of it. However, they will also want to see you have thought the business through, which is what your road map provides them with.

 I view these matters as very useful to guide the decision to go/ no go on a new project idea. The feasibility study should assess market, technical and financial feasibility for the product or service idea. It should be robust enough to test the concept. Then business plan is needed to state the management team, advisors, the capital needs, operating plan, human resources plan, IP, marketing approach and other matters, t does need to have the owner/ proponent quite involved in this step.