Remember: Please delete the
instructions for preparing the marketing plan, including the blue highlighted
text, before submitting your assignments.
[Provide a Title Page. Insert the title as shown in the example below.
Please
do not call this Assignment 1 or 2.]
Eureka
Inc. – Blue Widget Division Marketing Plan
[Add the required Title Page data here, centred,
including the word count.
See the Student Handbook, Section 1.3.7 for
Title Page requirements.]
Executive Summary
The Executive
Summary (ES) is to provide the reader with an overview of the plan. The reader
should be able to know what the plan is about, including the objectives,
recommendations, and conclusions, without
the need to read the full report. The ES should highlight content from each
section in the paper that follows. The ES should only reflect what is in the
plan. Do not use it to add more
information, recommendations, or conclusions. Also, do not include rationale for the statements made in the ES. The
body of the plan will contain this rationale. A common mistake is to use the ES
as an introduction to the paper; it is not
an introduction!
The final ES
should not exceed two pages in length
and should stand separate from the body of the plan. Note that the ES should
only be one page in length for
Assignment 1.
Table of Contents
.docx#_Toc386809967″>1. Situation Analysis..1
.docx#_Toc386809968″>Introduction.1
.docx#_Toc386809969″>Market Situation.1
.docx#_Toc386809970″>Macroenvironment.1
.docx#_Toc386809971″>Demographics.1
.docx#_Toc386809972″>Economics.1
.docx#_Toc386809973″>Political-Legal1
.docx#_Toc386809974″>Ecological1
.docx#_Toc386809975″>Socio-Cultural2
.docx#_Toc386809976″>Technological2
.docx#_Toc386809977″>Competitive Situation.2
.docx#_Toc386809978″>Distribution Situation.2
.docx#_Toc386809979″>2. Opportunities and Issues Analysis..2
.docx#_Toc386809980″>Strengths and Weaknesses.2
.docx#_Toc386809981″>Opportunities and Threats.3
.docx#_Toc386809982″>Issues Analysis.3
.docx#_Toc386809983″>3. Target Market..3
.docx#_Toc386809984″>Segmentation.3
.docx#_Toc386809985″>Positioning..3
.docx#_Toc386809986″>4. Objectives..3
.docx#_Toc386809987″>Financial.3
.docx#_Toc386809988″>Marketing..4
.docx#_Toc386809989″>Societal.4
.docx#_Toc386809990″>5. Marketing Strategy and Programs..5
.docx#_Toc386809991″>Marketing Strategy.5
.docx#_Toc386809992″>Marketing Programs.5
.docx#_Toc386809993″>Product/Service.5
.docx#_Toc386809994″>Pricing..5
.docx#_Toc386809995″>Distribution System..5
.docx#_Toc386809996″>Marketing Communications.5
.docx#_Toc386809997″>Advertising.6
.docx#_Toc386809998″>Direct Selling/Sales Force.6
.docx#_Toc386809999″>Direct Marketing end eCommerce/eMarketing.6
.docx#_Toc386810000″>Sales Promotion.6
.docx#_Toc386810001″>Public Relations.6
.docx#_Toc386810002″>People.6
.docx#_Toc386810003″>Process.6
.docx#_Toc386810004″>Physical Evidence.6
.docx#_Toc386810005″>Market Research.6
.docx#_Toc386810006″>6. Action Program..6
.docx#_Toc386810007″>7. Financial Impact..6
.docx#_Toc386810008″>8. Controls and Contingency..7
.docx#_Toc386810009″>9. Appendix..7
.docx#_Toc386810010″>10. Bibliography..7
Use Microsoft
Word’s Table of Contents tool to update the Table of Contents after you have
completed adding information and editing the Assignments.
Remember to use
headings for the Situation Analysis (DEPEST) factors (see the Table of
Contents).
Please ensure you use either APA format for your
citations and list of references.Consultthe Prentice Hall Reference Guide for Canadian
Writers for help on this.
1. Situation
Analysis
Introduction
Briefly introduce your organization and
place it in the context of its industry, including a brief description of the
product for which this marketing plan is being developed. Prepare the marketing
plan in the third person and develop it on the assumption that the reader,
although well read, may not be an expert in the specific business sector that
you are targeting. Avoid acronyms or “internal” company/sector-specific
buzzwords or phrases. Should you need to include a few, please ensure that you
reference or provide clarification in an accompanying footnote on first use.
View the design of your assignment documents as papers that could be read by an
interested investor, manager, or external consultant, and not necessarily an expert
within the sector or industry concerned.
Market Situation
This section is about the industry. In it
you will describe the background data as they relate to the size and growth of
the industry product, in both units and dollars. Industry pricing and profitability
can be discussed if the data are available. Customer perception, needs, buying
habits etc., will also be discussed. This is the big-picture view of the
situation, and what is happening there that can affect your company, its
stakeholders and the product/service that you are offering. This establishes
the backdrop for the rest of the marketing plan.
Macroenvironment
Critically analyze your
industry/environment using macroenvironmental factors (DEPEST). You might want
a very brief overview here before you start defining the DEPEST factors. Below,
describe each factor and then relate it
to your industry. As much as possible, use external published sources for
any facts presented here and reference the source.
Demographics
Place a brief
description of the demographic factors here and describe how they affect your
organization.
Economics
Place a brief
description of the economic factors here and describe how they affect your
organization.
Political-Legal
These are the
regulators. What impact do they have on the industry?
Ecological
How does the
natural environment affect the industry and the industry’s response to the
natural environment? You can discuss any environmental special interest groups
here or in the previous section.
Socio-Cultural
Are there special
considerations here?
Technological
Is the industry
dependent on technological advancements and how current are the technological
features employed?
Competitive Situation
Identifythe major competitors and describe
their size, goals, market share, product quality, marketing strategies, and
other characteristics that are needed to understand their intentions and
behaviour. A ‘strengths and weaknesses’ list for the major competitors could
form a part of this section. There are a variety of frameworks available in the
literature that may help to guide your reasoning on this section – feel free to
use one if it provides a useful supplement to your writing.
If
there is no perceived existing competition, what might be the potential future,
direct or indirect, competition might.
Distribution Situation
This section describes the current industry
distribution mode, the distribution levels, and the typical number of levels
employed.
2. Opportunities
and Issues Analysis
The SWOT framework is a useful guide for analyzing
the internal strengths and
weaknesses and external
opportunities and threats that relate to the current industry situation.
Remember though that SWOT simplifies this information, and one has to be
careful not to oversimplify. You need
to critically think about these issues and provide clear, but concise,
analyses.
Additionally, although this type of
analysis is more commonly referred to, and followed, as SWOT, there are
suggestions that approaching this as TOWS (threats, opportunities, weaknesses,
strengths) guides the thought and analysis process in a better way. Ultimately
you need to include both the internal and external factors, and you should
really go back and forth between all of them to ensure a thorough critical
analysis. However, for the purposes of this assignment, you may present them
either as SWOT or as TOWS.
Strengths and Weaknesses
This is the first place that you will
mention your organization, since you did so in your brief introduction. Here,
you will list and explain your specific strengths and weaknesses.
Opportunities and Threats
List and explain the opportunities and threats
that exist in this industry situation. Remember that opportunities are external
factors that exist in the marketplace for all competitors, just as threats are
threats to all.
Issues Analysis
Issues are areas that the subsequent plan
must address. They are derived from the OTSW analysis and are usually couched
as questions. If you couch them as statements, they become premature
strategies.
3. Target
Market
Segmentation
In this
section you should describe the overall market, and explain how (e.g., geographic, demographic,
psychographic, behavioural, etc.) and why you will divide it up into different
segments. Then explain the specific segment you are targeting: characteristics
(how it is defined and identified) and size. Information on customer
perception, needs, buying habits and other such information should be discussed
here.
It is
advisable to select only one segment
for the purposes of this marketing plan, as it is less complex and confusing to
then design a marketing strategy and marketing programs for that one segment
versus multiple segments. Remember that the characteristics are important, as
you will need to be able to design marketing programs that will reach the
specific segment, rather than the mass market (unless you are choosing to do
mass marketing).
Positioning
This
relates to how your target segment will view your product/service offering.
That is, what will the customers think about you/your company/your product or
service? This is what you want the customer to say about you when asked the
question, “What do you think about Eureka Inc, Blue Widget Division?”
4. Objectives
Based on
your analysis above, you should put together a set of strategic objectives. A
good framework to use in developing objectives isSMART =Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Where percentages are used, a base-line number must be
provided!
Financial
Financial objectives deal with revenue,
cost, and profit, and sometimes credit.
Marketing
Marketing objectives are about sales volume,
margin (price), market share, penetration, and awareness.
Societal
These are typically related to the social
responsibility of the organization. They may be stated in terms of
environmental activities and impact, or human rights terms, or in terms of
contribution to society.
End of
Assignment 1
5. Marketing
Strategy and Programs
Marketing Strategy
Summarize the overall, high level strategy
for achieving the objectives you listed in the previous section. This should
include an overview/summary of your plan to create, communicate and deliver
value to the target segments. You can also indicate how the marketing will
affect other stakeholders.
Marketing Programs
The
marketing programs section is the detailed description of the mix of marketing
elements you will use to achieve your objectives. Traditionally this has been
the ‘4 Ps’ (Product, Price, Promotion, Place). However, in more recent years
there have been variations on this, depending on contextual factors such as
whether you are offering a product or a service, or how complex your offering
may be. Consequently it is also permissible to use the ‘7 Ps’ (Product, Price,
Promotion, Place, People, Process, Physical Evidence) to layout your marketing
programs. Whichever you use, it needs to
make sense in your context.
Ensure that
you provide enough detail here to fully explain these marketing programs.
Product/Service
Describe
the product, including its packaging. Highlight any changes or modifications.
Describe the branding and customer benefits included in the offering.
Pricing
This is an
important section and you should describe the pricing objective and pricing
method here, as well as consider the value cost and competitive pricing levels.
Not-for-profit
organizations may have problems with this section but the pricing method is
usually break-even pricing. There may, indeed, be no actual prices but
somewhere there will be a desire to cover costs with some kind of revenue.
Discuss that here.
Distribution System
Describe
the distribution chain, and determine the levels and direction involved.
Marketing Communications
Provide an
outline of your communications and promotions plan. There are many different
types of communications and promotions tools that companies use depending on
their context. That is, there is a lot more than advertising and selling that
can be done. Ensure that you provide enough communications and promotions
programs, and details about them to achieve your objectives and fit with the
rest of your marketing program elements.
Some
methods you may wish to include – although this list is not meant to be
exhaustive, nor are you required to use all:
Advertising
Advertising is a communications plan that uses some paid media mode for its
distribution, outdoor, print, radio, TV, and third-party Internet.
Direct
Selling/Sales Force
Direct
Marketing end eCommerce/eMarketing
This includes mail (snail mail and
e-mail), telemarketing, and Internet presence.
Sales
Promotion
Sales promotion includes data sheets, product brochures, sales giveaways
(TNT: Trinkets aNd Trash), sales incentive plans, trade shows, customer perks,
etc., but not advertising.
Public
Relations
This is third-party print media that is unpaid, typically using press
announcements.
People
With
services the role of employees in interacting with customers is critical.
Choosing and properly training the employees who deliver the services should be
described here.
Process
There is a
typically a lot more variability in delivering services. Thus accurately and
thoroughly defining and describing the process is important.
Physical Evidence
By their
very nature services are intangible. However, often there are tangible aspects
that surround the service (e.g., interior design of a restaurant or bank, the
type of food available in a movie theatre) that directly impact the service
quality and delivery. Describe and justify your choices of the tangible,
physical evidence.
Market Research
What type
of market research do you propose and at what cost?
6. Action
Program
Each
marketing strategy element must now answer: Who will do what, by when,
and at what cost?
7. Financial
Impact
This
section is a pro forma income statement covering at least one year, showing the
forecasted sales revenue and the cost of production, physical distribution, and
marketing. You need to identify the specific costs of the action plan in this pro
forma so that they can be monitored. It is often useful to include a break-even
analysis in the marketing plan; do so in this section.
8. Controls
and Contingency
This
last section outlines the controls for monitoring the plan’s progress. Typically,
the goals and budget are spelled out for each month or quarter. Management can
review the results each period and identify shortfalls or exceptional
performance.
The
contingency section outlines the steps that management would take in response
to specific deviations, both positive and negative. Since any plan is only a ‘best
guess’ situation, the purpose of contingency planning is to prepare for the
deviations that will lie ahead.
You
can also identify a ‘worst case’ scenario, and should one arise, what
alternative strategies would you implement.
9. Appendix
This is not
a required section but it is a place for you to put backup data, if you so
desire.
10. Bibliography
Be sure your
references use the APA style. Seethe Prentice
Hall Reference Guide for Canadian Writers for help on preparing the list.
End of Assignment 2
The appendix and
bibliography can appear in both Assignment 1 and Assignment 2.
