MARKETING

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M003LON Coursework 2

Assignment title: Marketing plan for [company X]

Assignment Weight: 75% of your overall module mark.

Assessment type: Individual report, 2500 words including tables

Assessment deadline: See Moodle submission link

Assignment briefing: You are required to write a marketing plan assessing the current marketing strategies of an existing company. Please chose one company and assess this company in the UK. Please note your marketing plan must be UK focused. This plan should identify the current ways the company is generating value for stakeholders in the UK. The marketing plan should follow the SOSTAC model. It is vital that all students read and understand the marking rubric.

Assignment Structure: Cover page Executive summary – limit to one page providing complete converge of each section of your plan. The reader should be able to have a basic understanding of all aspects of your plan. The summary assists the reader in understanding your plan. Contents page – it includes all sections and sub-sections, it should also include the list of figures and tables Introduction – provides the background of your chosen company, including it’s mission, vision and key values. Main body – it should contain the following stages STAGE 1 Situational analysis The situation analysis should provide an overview of your organisation/market offering (product or service) by addressing the business environment, and internal and external factors impacting the business.

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The situation analysis can be organised into the following sections: • PESTEL • SWOT • STP – Helps brings to life who your existing customers are and who competitors are. A perceptual map should be used to explain positioning. Tables can be used, but a critical discussion of the most important elements which directly influence the objectives, strategy and implementation must be critically discussed. STAGE 2 Objective You are required to set two SMART objectives, these will derive from either:

a) your situational analysis or

b) the company's annual report or it’s website STAGE 3 Strategy This stage requires you to assesse the current strategies which relate to the SMART objectives you have just derived. A marketing strategy is a broad directional statement that describes how marketing objectives will be accomplished. Within our marketing plan, the marketing strategies represent a first overview of various marketing tools and how they will be used to achieve the marketing objectives. You are expected to apply Ansoff Matrix as the marketing strategic framework here. STAGE 4 Tactics Tactics cover the specific tools of the marketing mix (7P’s) that you plan to use to realise the objectives of your marketing plan. This section of a marketing plan relates to putting the strategy into action (step by step) you would be going into a lot more detail for each tactic. To help achieve the objectives above, use the 7P’s of the marketing mix to focus on the key attributes to be considered by Company X in order to meet your objectives. In addition, you need to include internal marketing in this section in order to demonstrate how this marketing plan can be promoted within the organisation.

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STAGE 5 Action The action section covers what needs to be achieved for each of the tactics listed in the previous section of the SOSTAC plan to realise the objectives of your marketing plan. Please use a Gantt Chart to help explain the actions as part of the strategy and tactics. STAGE 6 Control The final stage is to layout how you plan to monitor and measure your performance based on the objective set at stage 2. The tactics have been considered and your control section is providing you with a series of dashboards tailored for each tactic. Look to set the KPI's per tactic that tie back into the objectives set and set up a weekly/monthly set of monitoring dashboards to ensure you are on track to meet the objectives set. Conclusion – it should be the summary of your key findings and recommendations. References – Make sure you follow Harvard or APA style. Layout Your work should be word processed in accordance with the following: • Font style, Arial or Times New Roman, font size 12 • 1.5 line spacing. • The page orientation should be ‘portrait’ • Margins on both sides of the page should be no less than 2.5 cm • Pages should be numbered • Your student number should be included on every page.