Contemporary Marketing

Spring 2016

FINAL PROJECT

Textbook:  MKTG, by Lamb, Hair, McDaniel—9th edition

The project design is as follows:

You will look at a marketing need for a Fictional Business or organization and present the MARKETING problem and solution in your paper.  Your project should draw from concepts from your textbook, particularly what areas of price, product, place, and promotion.

For my paper, I would like you to create a popular theme park, located in Lexington, Kentucky.  Its competitors would most likely include Kings Island, Cedar Point, etc.

You must do a paper of at least 15 pages. Of the 15 pages, 7 of them must be diagrams, charts, and financial statements.  Any information (diagrams, charts, etc.) must also be discussed in the paper, both so the relevance is clear and to demonstrate you understand what you’re presenting.  Irrelevant information will hurt your grade, and the burden of proof will be upon you to establish that it’s relevant.  The paper will include an environmental analysis to demonstrate that you’ve looked at different opportunities, and you see potential in this area.

Your paper should have the following information:

An elevator pitch, no longer than one paragraph (and no longer than half a page), describing the opportunity and how you plan to take advantage of the company.

An analysis of the environment (political, legal, technological, social; whichever of these is relevant.)

An analysis of the competition (including total budget competition and what the product can substitute as relevant.)

A cost-benefit analysis and/or other financial analysis, showing that your marketing plan will be profitable and beneficial for everyone involved.

A strategic plan of how your product will be successful, based on the above and the 4 P’s of marketing.

A contingency plan, in case some element of your initial plan does not perform as expected.  Given the rapidly changing market, the more flexibility your plan has, the better.

A short oral description of what your project has been about.

A bibliography of all sources sited throughout the paper (though information not common knowledge must be cited in the body of the paper as well.)—although there are no extra points for this section, it’s a minimum requirement of academic work.

NOTE: INFORMATION THAT GETS REPEATED MORE THAN ONCE WILL NOT COUNT TOWARD YOUR PAGE TOTAL, AND MAY RESULT IN A LOWER GRADE, REGARDLESS OF THE OTHER QUALITY OF YOUR WORK.  Note also that spelling and grammar mistakes will hurt your grade.

Failure to properly cite your sources will be grounds for failure for the course, and may result in additional disciplinary action.  You are responsible for knowing what proper citation is, so if you are in any way unsure, please ask the instructor in class.  Improper citations are the most common cause of failure for this course.