Situation analysis is becoming increasingly important for the development of a marketing plan. This essay aims to explain why it is so important and what factors it focuses on and finally, there is a list of corporations that justifies building an effective situation analysis for a J Boag & Son brewery marketing plan. Analysis of the situation before a strategic plan The decision is fundamental to generate or sustain competitive advantages, especially when dealing with the dynamic environmental trend that can positively or negatively influence the performance of companies. The main task of a situation analysis is to explore external factors (which can imply which opportunities a company should seize and which threats it needs to pay attention to) and internal factors (which can tell what a company can do to develop its points of strength and to avoid its weaknesses). And as Sally, Lyndon & John (1996: 3) defined, the ultimate goal of a marketing plan is to achieve a particular marketing strategy. And a marketing strategy, clearly expressed by Subash (2004: 26), requires a company to use its relative strengths to better meet customer needs and ultimately achieve maximum positive differentiation from its competitors across a range of variables internal and external. While Malcolm (2006: 376) concluded that the primary concern of a strategic marketing plan is to establish, defend and maintain competitive advantage. However, today's market environment is changing rapidly, followed by increasing fierce competition. Maintaining a certain competitive advantage is impossible in such a situation, and the only way to earn above-average performance is to react quickly with updated information from environmental scanning. Therefore, regardless of the purpose of a marketing plan, situation analysis is critical to providing an overall understanding of the existing competitive position, organizational capabilities, and market trends that are constantly evolving. For example, according to Malcolm (1989: 75), a company found itself competing unsuccessfully and without profits in the engine components market in Europe. Its strategy is to compete with a European giant on prices, a strategy adopted for some time without first analyzing the market situation. The fact in such a market is that only a company that focuses on investing in certain equipment can thrive. That is, when there is a strong competitor dominating significant market share with a cost leadership strategy, it is not wise to beat it on price. And if this company could first conduct a situation analysis, it would find that there are many opportunities for automotive products manufactured to very high technical specifications where technical reputation, rather than price, is the main concern.