MARKETING PLAN.           25% of the total grade                Due at the end of Week 6

You are producing a Power Point presentation. The appearance of the document is VERY important, so be sure to give the presentation good ‘eye appeal’. See the two links below for guidance about slide / presentation development.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjcO2ExtHso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-ntLGOyHw4

Also, see the attached file that I use when I teach a class on development of a Marketing Plan. Also, review the two examples of Marketing Plans in our text (end of chapter two & the Appendix that follows Chapter 22). Finally, you should review the Internet for other ideas about content in a marketing plan.

There is no formal required Table of Contents—you are welcome to customize your content based on what you perceive as right for your brand.

The total slides should be in the 20 to 25 slide range—no more and no less.

You should add very brief ‘notes’ with some key slides, to let me know the data you would discuss as you present the slides to your audience. This is NOT a full speech—it is bullet points showing key items to be emphasized. This is not a separate ‘Word’ file—this is added in the “Notes” section that is attached to various slides in the PowerPoint file.

You are writing a Marketing Plan for an existing consumer brand. It CANNOT be the category leader—it must have a small market share and be fighting powerful category leaders. An example is Wendy’s fighting McDonalds and Burger King. Or Sears fighting Walmart and Target. Or Dr. Pepper fighting Coke and Pepsi. Here are some other ideas: (a) US Postal Service fighting UPS & FedEx, (b) any detergent fighting Tide, (c) Ultra-Brite fighting Colgate & Crest, (d) Curad fighting Band-Aid, (e) Yahoo search fighting Google and Bing, etc. There are many other categories—find one you enjoy and can collect good data.

You must conduct research to produce a variety of key data: (a) recent history of past 5-10 years for the brand and the industry, (b) profile of multiple target consumer groups, (c) summary of marketing events implemented in the past year or two, (d) POP and POD analysis comparing your selected brand to the leading brands, and (e) other data you need in order to produce a top-quality Marketing Plan. Some of this information is based on your personal views while other data is found in the literature and has in-text citations and full references. Try to find data in the literature as much as possible, but you are allowed to make reasonable estimates when the data is not accessible.

The key goal of the Marketing Plan is to produce a solid review of the brand and industry so excellent marketing recommendations can be made. The Marketing Plan’s key section is the marketing events that you propose for the next year. You must propose at least 4 major events, each in a different area of the marketing mix (in other words, all 4 proposals cannot be related to price changes). Consider product content changes, product line additions / deletions, change in distribution, new advertising message, new advertising vehicles, change in promotions, shift in pricing, change in target marketing, specialized PR program, new cause-marketing event, strategic alliance to advance marketing, shift in seasonality implementation, etc.

Each of the 4 recommendations should have a (a) title, (b) rationale for the recommendation, and (c) a few sentences about how and when the program is implemented. A timetable / calendar is often a good item to give the recommendations an easy way to be summarized together.

You are encouraged to propose more than 4 programs. This is essential if the first four are minor events.

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT BUDGETING. I do not expect students to know the costs for various marketing tools (media costs, etc.). You should have a section for ‘Budgets’ in the Marketing Plan but insert this single line: Exacting budgets continue to be refined. Costing details will be submitted and approved prior to formal program implementation.

GRADING:  This is graded in several ways: (a) quality of the presentation [25%],

(b) depth of analysis about the brand’s recent history and relationships with consumers and key competitors [25%], and (c) strategic alignment with the brand’s heritage, creativity, and likelihood of success of the recommendations [50%]. Clearly, the quality and quantity of your recommendations are the most important part of the document and warrant careful design and communication.

CLUES TO SUCCESS:

1. You have very limited slides, so it is impossible for you to cover every section in a traditional Marketing Plan—you must determine what is most important and avoid wasting slides on minor things such as old history.
2. The 4 (or more) recommendations are the most important part of this document, so be sure to allow about 2 slides for each concept being proposed.

To submit your assignment click the Upload a file button and follow the directions.