BASD

For this exercise you will need to understand who your target market is, what appeals to them, and who your competition is. You will also want to establish your competitive edge – what defines you from your competition. Prepare a 2-3 page marketing plan using PICK Analysis, describing the value your business provides, your target market, your top three competitors and how your business will compare to each, addressing the “4Ps” of the marketing mix in your marketing strategy.

Then, develop a marketing tool. Your marketing tool should be creative and appealing to your target market. Additionally, a presentation pitching your product/service should be prepared with high-level attention grabbing points and visuals. It should include an advertising slogan, product/service highlights, where to obtain the product/service and contact information. Creativity is essential here! Examples of marketing tools include commercials, social networking sites, flyers, internet ads, newspaper ads, and more.

To help you in creating your paper, presentation, and marketing tools, the assignment requirements for this project, including the grading rubric and samples of best practices may be reviewed under the "assignments" quicklink in Blackboard. You have essentially three items due for your marketing project; (1) a marketing analysis addressing the 4ps of marketing, including the target market and the competitor analysis. This is your paper and should be at least two pages long, single spaced. The second part of the project is a business pitch presentation, using the template provided under the Marketing Presentation assignment. This presentation includes highlights from your paper, as well as a mission statement and will introduce your marketing tool as part of the promotion section. (3) while in both your paper and your presentation you will speak to multiple promotional strategies using course concepts from the text, as part of the marketing presentation you will also move forward with creating at least two of them (which you will also share with your presentation.

For this project, you are creating your own business. Your idea can be entirely new and innovative, it can be something you love (like a pizza restaurant!) or even an existing business you are working on. Please be sure to address the following items in your marketing projects:

• Your target market - who is your customer and why? census.gov may be helpful in determining the target market. Refer to Learning Module 9, market segmentation.

• Identify 3 top competitors by name - after choosing a location, find 3 real possible competitors in the business field and tell me why your business is better - how you differentiate. For instance, if you are opening an ice cream store in Rockville, MD, tell me that your competition may be Baskin Robbins, not just other ice cream stores. There is always competition, even if you are new to the market. If you are new, who is in a similar industry that may also enter the market, or has something similar your target market is buying?

• Your marketing plan, addressing each element of the "4Ps" as noted in Learning Module 10 in the Prezi/PowerPoint presentation. This should be the bulk of your paper (2/3 or so). Make sure you are applying textbook concepts using PICK Analysis to demonstrate your understanding of how to utilize each of the 4Ps in a marketing strategy. For instance, for the pricing section, determine which strategy/objectives you would use and why.

• Develop an advertising tool (or two) along with your business pitch presentation. (Some students have created commercial video clips, designed websites for free using www.wix.com. Others have created flyers, Facebook business pages, apps using www.como.com and more! for top points, please choose two marketing tools, one a little more in depth like a website and the other a flyer or business card etc.)

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