Marketing yourself plan

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Assignment: Personal Marketing Strategy

Due at end of term as part of the Final Marketing Yourself Plan

When marketing a product, brand, or organization, marketers must always consider the need to

continuously improve their product offerings in order to elevate, or even just maintain, their

position in the marketplace. Such a continuous improvement process starts with understanding

where you currently are in the marketplace (i.e., how your product is perceived in comparison to

other products) and what is desired by your target audiences. At that point you have the

challenge to choose which goals to set and how you’ll try to reach them.

If you’ve completed the assignments thus far, you’ve already evaluated Product You with your

Raw Materials Assessment. You also have assessed your target audiences with the

Product/Audience Match Strategy. Now it’s time to set strategic goals and contemplate the

actions to reach those goals.

Setting goals is a difficult process, mainly because there are so many options available to you.

Your personal and professional branding options are not limited to a mere fork in the road with

two choices (à la Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”). It’s more like hundreds (or even

thousands) of choices if you really open up your thinking about what your future could hold.

Thus, this assignment will require some degree of self-reflection to determine where you would

like to move your personal brand and/or professional brand over the next one to five years.

Self-Reflection, Objectives, and Strategies

The best way to start this particular goal-setting process is to consider the values you assessed in

your Raw Materials Inventory. If your aspirations for your personal brand and professional

brand are developed with your values in mind, you’ll be more likely to feel motivated to work to

achieve them, and you’ll be more likely to be satisfied when those goals are reached.

The next step is to consider how you would like to be perceived by others as you develop your

brand. What would you like people to think about you a year from now? Two years from now?

Five or ten years from now? What type of brand would you like to develop? As you consider

these questions, keep in mind the idea that you want to change not only the “perception” of your

brand, but also the underlying “reality” of that brand. For example, if you want to be perceived

as being an expert in mobile marketing, then develop your knowledge and skills pertaining to

mobile marketing and then market that expertise. Always remember that the best way to be

perceived as an expert in a particular area is to truly become an expert in that area.

Once you start to have general ideas or goals of what you want for your brand, set specific

objectives with those ideas in mind. Remember to use the SMART method (as explained in one

of the assigned videos for this module) to set useful objectives.

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Finally, list some strategies, tactics, or actions that will help you reach your objectives. The

more descriptive you are when listing the strategies (as well as the objectives), the more likely

you’ll be to complete them.

Specific Assignment Elements

After you have completed the above steps, create a document as follows:

1. Cover Page: Name, Panther ID, Major, Minor, Certificate(s), Assignment Title 2. Introduction: Discuss the purpose for having a personal marketing strategy. 3. General Branding Goals: Discuss your brand aspirations for one, two, five and/or ten

years from now. Describe how you will want people to perceive you.

4. Specific Branding Objectives: Using the SMART goals method, write at least 5 clear and achievable objectives that align with your general branding goals.

5. Strategies/Tactics: To reach your objectives, you’ll need specific strategies or tasks that clearly lead to those objectives. Discuss the strategies or tactics that will help you reach

the objectives that you listed in Part 4. Have at least two strategies/tactics for each

objective.

6. Synthesis/Summary: Summarize your personal market strategy, and provide a synthesis of how the pieces fit together.

By the due date shown on Canvas, submit the final assignment (as part of your Final Marketing

Yourself Plan) as a Word or PDF file (PDF is strongly preferred) with Times New Roman 12-

point font, single-spaced (with spacing between sections and/or paragraphs as desired),

appropriate headings and subheadings, and page numbering.

Grading Criteria:

 Directions were followed.

 Information is presented clearly.

 All sections/steps/parts are included.

 Objectives follow the SMART method.

 A thorough synthesis/summary is included.

 If used, charts, graphs, figures, and/or bullet points are used appropriately.

 Proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation

 Proper formatting, appropriate page length to complete the assignment

 No plagiarism, copying, or cheating

 Note that “A” grades are for “outstanding” work, not for work that only meets minimum requirements.

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