mba marketing assignment

milestone 5and6/MBA 640 PROJECT 3 Milestones 5 & 6 Details.docx

PROJECT 3

MARKETING STRATEGY FOR

A NEW CONSUMER PRODUCT

MILESTONES 5 AND 6 AND FINAL PROJECT

TIMEFRAME

Week 6: Try to submit your milestones early in the week to receive feedback and submit Project 3 by the end of the week (Tuesday evening).

GENERAL OVERVIEW

Project 3 requires you to develop a marketing plan for a new cordless vacuum for the Dyson Corporation that will initially target a consumer market but eventually be adapted and marketed to the light commercial market as well.

So far, you looked at the outside environment and the internal climate for the new product offering (PESTEL, Porter, and SWOT), you have examined the buyer behavior for the product category, discussed a proposed target market, covered the positioning of the vacuum, described the product development, and stated the value proposition. This week, you move to the logistics of the marketing plan—the four P’s.

Milestone 5 is a report on your proposed product decisions (branding and packaging), pricing decisions (price strategy), place or distribution decisions (where to sell the product), and promotion decisions (which types of marketing communications to use).

Milestone 6 is a brief financial analysis of forecast sales and breakeven.

Executive Summary: You will also complete an Executive Summary and include this at the beginning of your plan.

COMPLETING AND SUBMITTING YOUR WORK

· Go to Step 7—Developing a Marketing Strategy and read all works under Branding Strategy, Pricing Strategy, Distribution and Supply Chain Strategy, and Integrated Marketing Communication (this includes 11 total sub-readings).

· Think about how you would brand the product (this can include a brand name for the model, a logo, and packaging design). Next, consider pricing strategies and whether you would recommend setting the price using a skimming strategy (at the top end of the market) or a penetration strategy (at the low end of the price scale relative to competitors). Third, decide which channels of distribution you would suggest and whether or not to use selective or more intensive distribution (making the product available at only some retail outlets or more widely available). Also, decide about your online strategy for selling the vacuum. Finally, determine which marketing communications forms Dyson should use—advertising (and, if so, in which types of media—tv, magazine, newspaper, etc.), sales promotions (such as couponing or rebates), direct marketing (using home shopping networks and/or direct mail), personal selling (using in-store experts, for example), public relations, and/or social media ads. This part of your marketing plan uses the most creativity as you are making recommendations based on the research you have undertaken and what you feel would be the best strategies.

· Prepare your marketing strategies (decisions about the four P’s of marketing) for the new Dyson vacuum in a four-page paper. Be sure to provide research sources to support your points and use both our class readings and scholarly and non-scholarly outside research. Cite all research using proper APA format.

· Submit your four-page document early in the week if possible so you will receive feedback before your complete project is submitted on Tuesday evening. I will provide you with my feedback within 24 hours so you know whether or not you should revise this part of the project. Remember, you will not receive a grade on any of the milestones—only on the completed final project.

· Your last milestone is a brief financial analysis of the new product offering. Go to Step 8—Financial Analysis, Implementation, and Control. For this milestone, you will be using the reading from the Pricing Strategy readings from Step 7.

· Produce your financial estimates the include forecast sales (unit sales and dollar sales, given your suggested price), costs, and a breakeven analysis. Of course, you will not have accurate numbers here, but use past research on sales to estimate figures and any cost data for producing and marketing the vacuums you find from your outside sources.

· Include this analysis in a one-page write-up. Also consider implementation—when you would launch the plan—and a contingency budget if consumers don’t respond as predicted and additional funds may need to be put into promotion, for example.

· Submit your one-page document early in the week to receive feedback before the Tuesday evening deadline when the entire project should be submitted. I will provide you with my feedback so you know whether or not you should revise this part of the project. Remember, you will not receive a grade on any of the milestones—only on the completed final project.

Use your feedback from Milestones 1 through 6 and assemble your entire plan by putting all write-ups into one cohesive document. Include a one-page Executive Summary at the beginning of your plan. Use headings to separate your sections (the Marketing Plan template provides appropriate headings to use as a guide).

Read over your final Project 3 for continuity, to avoid repetition, and to ensure all in-text cites are in your list of references and every reference is used in an in-text cite somewhere in the plan.

Be sure to check all in-text cite and full references for proper APA form.

Your final report will be graded on both content and form so make sure you have completed a careful proofread for grammatical/typographical errors.

Your final paper should be about 16-18 pages in length given the suggested lengths of each section that your completed.

Submit your Project 3 Marketing Strategy for a New Product by the Tuesday evening deadline (November 14th by 11:59 p.m).

You will receive a grade of “EP,” “MP,” or “NP” on the completed Project 3. If you receive a grade of “NP,” you will have up to two chances to revise the project before the end of the term.