Week 11 Discussion Question Marketing 500

Part C: ABC Marketing Plan (Change to your name of business here)

Your Name

MKT500 Marketing Management Strayer University

Dr. Rachel Burger

Date submitted

Do not use a heading here. An introduction is a given in APA. Just start your paragraph.

Remind the reader who, what, where, etc. of your company. Follow with an introduction to Part C that includes branding, pricing, and distribution strategy; competitive analysis; differentiation strategy; company’s position intentions; social media plan; and integrated marketing plan. All paragraph must be at least three sentences to make a complete paragraph.

Branding, Pricing, and Distribution Strategy

Develop the company’s branding, pricing, and distribution strategy. Suggestion, use elements from Discussion Week 6 to help you with this section.

Write an introduction here. Minimum of three sentences.

Branding Strategy

Text starts here (use information shared in Part B here)

Pricing Strategy

Text starts here (pricing strategy should be in comparison to your competition – example, do you plan to do a penetration or skim strategy? Relate this to your readings and learnings from text book).

Distribution Strategy

Text starts here (discuss how customers will buy, are you multi-channel? Omnichannel? What’s your supply chain management strategy (i.e., who are your vendors and how will you interact with them, will you use wholesalers, will you have dealers/retailers)?

Competitor Analysis

Classify the company's major competitors as inter- or intra-competitors. Categorize the competitors' major strengths and weaknesses. This means more than one competitor and more than one strength and weakness per competitor. Examine why how these strengths and weaknesses compare to yours. Do not lump competitors together. There may be similarities, but each company has its own unique strengths and weaknesses. You should know them and exhibit this knowledge in this section.

Differentiation Strategy

Develop the differentiation strategy in relation to the closest competitor. Good section to remind the reader of the positioning statement “fill in the blank” from discussion post Week 3: “For customers who want [segment], our brand is the best at [unique selling proposition—competitors and competitive advantage].” From this statement and the section above, it should be obvious on sharing how you will market your company, so the company stands out.

Leader or Follower Intention

Establish whether the company's intention is to be a leader or follower within the industry. Caution, most of you will say you will be a leader. Be realistic! How competitive is your industry and how likely is it for a start-up business to be a leader? Think about how sustainable it might be to be a leader (i.e., how easy is it for competitors to copy your USP).

Social Media Plan

Specify two (2) social media and / or media tools that you would use as you develop your plan. Justify each of your chosen tools, do not just list these. How will these media tools be used to influence your target audience? This is a good section to use references to speak to the validity and choice of your social media choices (i.e., use an academic resource that shares their research on demographics and metrics of the use of Facebook. For example, Facebook has xxx number of followers that are between the age xx and xx with income level of xx –xx, and like to share xxxx --- then cite/reference the source).

Integrated Marketing Communications

Suggest the integrated marketing communications that are most relevant for your marketing plan. Relate each marketing communication to your company's advertising strategy. Use your Discussion Week 7 to help you with this section (e.g., use AIDA – describe how you would draw attention, interest, desire, and action (be specific and use text book for clarity) and use different media in describing the promotion (print ads, TV, social media (email campaigns, community boards, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.), billboards, signage, etc.)).

Your conclusion goes next. Do not use a heading. A conclusion is a given in APA.

Summarize the plan to this point (minimum of three sentences) and you should not include any new thoughts (just summarize).

References (note this is centered and not bold and on a separate page)

Use at least five (5) academic resources that address sustainability and monitoring of effective marketing plans and determine the applicability for your hypothetical company. These resources should be industry specific and relate to your chosen product / service. Note: Newspapers, magazines, and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources. Quality references are peer-reviewed, scholarly journal published in the last 5 years. A good way to incorporate is by using Journal of Marketing for your theories and consumer behavior observations.

Listing your references without applying them in your text (citations) is not acceptable!!! See proper formatting in APA hints on page 8 of this document.

Tips and APA Formatting (delete this from your paper)

Below are tips and notes to guide you writing an APA paper. Use this information as a reference and ask if you have any questions.

Tips and Notes:

1. NEVER plagiarize: Plagiarism: act of using someone else’s ideas, words, figures, unique approach, or specific reasoning without giving appropriate credit.

2. Always include an introduction for your Heading 1 topic (example: Environmental Analysis) to explain to the readers what they learn in the section you are introducing.

3. Paragraphs should be complete, such as a minimum of three sentences:

a. “Put only one main idea per paragraph.

b. Aim for three to five or more sentences per paragraph.

c. Include on each page about two handwritten or three typed paragraphs.

d. Make your paragraphs proportional to your paper. Since paragraphs do less work in short papers, have short paragraphs for short papers and longer paragraphs for longer papers.

e. If you have a few very short paragraphs, think about whether they are really parts of a larger paragraph—and can be combined—or whether you can add details to support each point and thus make each into a more fully developed paragraph.” ( https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/606/02/ )

f. http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/12/the-long-and-the-short-of-it.html

g. http://arc.aje.com/editing-tip-sentence-length/

4. Don not use (or minimize):

a. they (minimize, pronouns, use actual names/titles for clarity)

b. these

c. there are

d. thing

e. it

f. this

g. I

h. we

i. you

j. one or ones

k. some

l. a lot

m. a ton

n. really

o. very

5. Use of contractions – spell out

6. Use of conjunctions: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/598/1/ An independent marker word is a connecting word used at the beginning of an independent clause. These words can always begin a sentence that can stand alone. When the second independent clause in a sentence has an independent marker word, a semicolon is needed before the independent marker word.

Ex. Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz; however, it was hard to concentrate because of the noise.

a. Some common independent markers are: also, consequently, furthermore, however, moreover, nevertheless, and therefore.

7. Findings: are past tense

8. Use of italics: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagement/2/1/45/ : only Italicize the titles of magazines, books, newspapers, academic journals, films, television shows, long poems, plays, operas, musical albums, works of art, websites.

APA Guidelines:

1. American Psychological Association (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

2. APA Website: www.apastyle.org

3. Updated APA guideline notes on ELCSE website under Student Resources (http://www.aug.edu/elcse/ELCSE_APA_Guidelines.pdf)

4. Sample paper – guideline to Headers: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

5. Numbers: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

6. Formatting Tables and Figures

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/19/

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/20/

7. How to cite: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

· Paraphrasing within text:

· In a 1989 article, Gould explores some of Darwin’s most effective metaphors.

· Author cited in text:

· Gould (1989) attributed Darwin’s success to his gift for making the appropriate metaphor.

· Author not cited in text:

· As metaphors for the workings of nature, Darwin used the tangled bank, the tree of life, and the face of nature (Gould, 1989).

· Multiple works within the same parenthesis:

· Several studies (Balda, 1980; Kammil, 1988; Pepperberg & Funk, 1990) confirm the use of metaphors increases learning.

· First citation in text:

· Wasserstein, Zappula, Rosen, German, and Rock (1994) found. . .

· The use of metaphors was found to be helpful (Wasserstein, Zappula, Rosen, German, & Rock, 1994)

· Subsequent citations (3 or more authors):

· Wasserstein and colleagues (1994) found

· Wasserstein et al. (1994) found

· The use of metaphors was found to be helpful (Wasserstein et al., 1994)

· Authors With the Same Last Name: To prevent confusion, use first initials with the last names.

· (E. Johnson, 2001; L. Johnson, 1998)

8. Direct quote from author: (use sparingly):

a. Gould (1989) explains that Darwin used the metaphor of the tree of life “to express the other form of interconnectedness-genealogical rather than ecological-and to illustrate both success and failure in the history of life” (p.14).

9. Direct quote without name of author:

a. Darwin used the metaphor of the tree of life “to express the other form of interconnectedness-genealogical rather than ecological” (Gould, 1989, p.14).

10. References:

· References are listed on separate page, header is centered, do not bold

· Notice no first names used, only initials and in alphabetical order.

· Only citations that appear in the text should appear on the reference page

· Everything cited in the text should appear on the reference page.

· References are double-spaced, flush left with subsequent lines indented 5 spaces

· Examples:

· Online Periodicals General format:

Author, A. A. (date). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(number), page numbers. doi: xx.xxxxxxx

· Example:

Herbst-Damm, K. L., & Kulik, J. A. (2005). Volunteer support, marital status, and the survival times of terminally ill patients. Health Psychology, 24, 225-229. doi: 10.1037/0278-6133.24.2.225

· Book General format:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (number ed.). Location City, State Abbreviation: Publisher.

· Example:

Anderson, A. B., Smith, S. D., & Jones, J. C. (1978). A distant mirror: The calamitous fourteenth century (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Knopf.

· DOIs are unique strings of numbers used to identify online articles’ content and provide a persistent link to their location on the Internet.

· When DOIs are present, no longer have to include URL.

· When DOIs are not present, include URL

· https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

· Finding DOIs: http://www.crossref.org

· Example without a DOI:

Sillick, T. J., & Schutte, N. S. (2006). Emotional intelligence and self-esteem mediate between perceived early parental love and adult happiness. Applied Psychology, 2(2), 38-48. Retrieved from http://ojs.lib.swin.edu.au/index.php/ejap