Develop a complete strategic business/marketing plan – marketing, advertising, production plans for a product/service or brand extension such as new Kodak digital cameras, HP computers, Levis jeans, Toyota.

TERM PROJECT OUTLINE
MAR 250: MARKETING PLAN

Your task for this project is to develop a complete strategic business/marketing plan – marketing, advertising, media, and financial plans for a product/service or brand extension. Due to the magnitude of this project it is necessary to assemble teams of 3 to 4 persons.

Your task for this project is to develop a complete strategic business/marketing plan – marketing, advertising, production plans for a product/service or brand extension. You may choose to do a marketing plan for an existing product or product line that you think needs a marketing/sales boost such as new Kodak digital cameras, HP computers, Levis jeans, Toyota, and so on. In other words you can choose a particular product like Dove soap or the entire line of products under the brand name DOVE and create a marketing plan for Dove. You may also choose to do a marketing plan for a service such as a bank, coffee shop (Starbucks), non-profit organization such as Red Cross and so on.

The important point here is that the product or service you choose NEEDS a new marketing plan because for various reasons (based on research you will conduct) it is not doing well in the market.

Research: Find at least 5 articles that are at least 3 pages in length focused on a single product or product line, service or idea. Magazines that are likely to contain articles that meet these criteria include Fortune, Forbes, Time and Business Week. Articles should be dated ‘09, ’10 ’11 ’12 or ‘13. These articles are to be used to conduct a situation analysis on your product/company. For example, if you choose to do a marketing plan for Sears then find and select articles about the parent company and Sears and its recent strategies regarding its brand/stores. What have they been doing, why they have not been successful competing with other big players like Walmart and try to get as much detail as possible about the company itself and its marketing/advertising strategies and also financial performance data from their annual reports and other sources including those listed below through Pace library. Remember the more detailed and comprehensive your report the better your grade. Almost everything you write should be based on facts, data and research you conduct online. Always cite your sources fully and correctly so I can access the same information quickly.

PLEASE USE DATABASES AVAILABLE BY ACCESSING PACE LIBRARY FROM ANYWHERE. DATABASES SUCH AS BUSINESS SOURCE PREMIER, BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY, ABI GLOBAL, NETADVANTAGE, MERGENT, GLOBAL MARKETPLACE INFORMATION DATABASE AND MANY OTHERS ARE VERY HELPFUL IN GATHERING INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE. I WILL POST A DETAILED LIST AND URL LINKS SHORTLY.

The number of articles you need will depend on the amount of information you find in your article (s). The more the better of course, but choose articles that add value to your project. Your assignment will be to develop/infer the marketing plan using the basic concepts of marketing learned in class. Use the headings and sub-headings as noted below.

OUTLINE OF THE FINAL PROJECT

Executive Summary:
This section should provide a brief summary of the product/service, its target market, and its need within the market. The summary should also explain the sustainable competitive advantage of the product and its likelihood of long term success in the marketplace.
PHASE I
1. Situation Analysis:
The purpose of the situation analysis is to “take stock” of where the firm or product has been recently, where it is now, and where it is going in the future. A detailed worksheet is provided in the next section.
SWOT Analysis – please review the text for a good framework.
Industry Analysis – The Industry analysis provides the context for a more detailed analysis of competition, the company and customers of the company. This section will include Macro Forces including cultural analysis, demographic trends, technological, political/legal, regulatory and economic forces.
Competitor Analysis – A company needs to have a realistic view of its competition: what their products are, how they market their products and the strengths of their business.
Company Analysis – This section explains what the company’s strengths are and how the company is able to achieve its mission and goals.
Customer Analysis – Description of the demographics and
the psychographics of its customers

PHASE II

2. Market-Product Focus:
Marketing and Product Objectives – stated in terms of volume, profit, or market share. Should be measurable, attainable and specific.
Target Markets – should be expressed in terms of demographics and psychographics (subset of the customer analysis) with product focus.
Points of Difference – sustainable competitive advantages; areas that can be leveraged.
Positioning – how the product is to be communicated to the consumer in terms of perception and relative to competition (e.g. Healthy Choice meals have recently been repositioned as great tasting food for those concerned about health and well-being – not as a diet meal).

3. Marketing and Media Program:
Product – features, idea behind the product, brand name, packaging, service warranty.
Price – list price, discounts, allowances, credit terms, payment, top pricing in category vs. moderate price vs. lowest price.
Promotion – advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, publicity, social networking (which of these are used most and why, do you have examples).
Place – outlets, channels, coverage, transportation, stock level (do the distribution channels fit the type of product and price?).

Examples/Tactics/Activities of the Marketing Program
Make sure you provide examples of the 4P’s noted above.
Address issue of how and what is being done if possible.
Indicate the activities that will have to be undertaken in order to execute the strategies (4P’s).

REFERENCES
Include complete bibliographic references for your articles at end of your paper. Paper should be a minimum of 10 double-spaced pages. Please use Microsoft Word to type your paper in a font no larger than 12.0. The paper will be in essay format and not PowerPoint.

PHASE I “Key Factors” Worksheet
Once you have decided on the product or service and the market(s) to be served, you must begin to estimate the demand for this product, anticipate the market’s acceptance, and assess various other aspects related to competition. The following is a list of key areas to which you should devote attention:

SITUATION ANALYSIS

 SWOT ANALYSIS:
 Objective: To identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT)
 S&W are internal (within management control)
 O&T are external (outside direct management control)

 Identify industry/market trends
 Total size of market
 Trends in sales
 Socio/Economic/Political/Lifestyle trends
 Areas/ segments of growth/ lack of growth
 Seasonal/ timing factors
 Changes in consumers’ relationship with product category (e.g. cell phones, computers), needs and wants etc.

 Industry structure/competition:
 Who are the main players (direct/indirect competition)?
 What are their market shares (and other relevant comparison data like revenues/sales)?
 Are there significant differences in the 4 Ps?
 What are the trends in ad/ IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications) spending?

 Identify (internal) company trends
 Trends in sales/ market share
 Specific segments which exhibit growth/ stagnation
 Trends in ad/ IMC
 How is the brand currently positioned?

 Target audience analysis
 Who are the current users of the brand?
 Bases for segmentation:
 Demographic,
 Psychographic (lifestyle analysis),
 Geographic,
 Actual or potential usage
 Is the user different from the buyer/payer?
 How do people use the product/concept/ brand? Has this changed over time?
 How does the product/concept fit into their lifestyle?
 Timing/ purchase cycle issues:
 How far in advance do consumers shop?
 How often do they repurchase?

PHASE II MARKETING AND MEDIA PLAN WORKSHEET

 Positioning
 Definition: the desired perception (in the minds of consumers) of the product concept/brand relative to the competition
 Considerations
 The inherent drama of the product/concept/brand
 The needs and wants of the target audience
 The competition and share of voice
 How is the brand currently positioned? Is there a need to reposition it?
 Creative strategy flows from positioning – what is the theme of the advertising campaign?
 What is the nature of distribution and how does it relate to:
a) point-of-sale advertising and promotion
b) pricing practices
 c) sales goals (unit sales and dollar volume at retail and wholesale)
 Visibility: What are the visible advantages and benefits of this product?
 Media Plan: Justify choice of media vehicles to be used for the campaign with the use of MRI data.
 IMC: Present a cohesive and comprehensive plan for your advertising and promotion campaign with preferably an idea of the timeline.

NOTE: THIS IS AN OUTLINE MEANT TO HELP GUIDE YOU ALONG YOUR PROCESS. BE CREATIVE AND MODIFY THESE FACTORS TO SUIT YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE’S NEEDS. THE IDEA IS TO DEVELOP YOUR INDEPENDENT AND UNIQUE THINKING SKILLS. MOST IMPORTANTLY, HAVE FUN WITH THIS PROJECT!


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