Marketing plan

MARKETING PLAN CHECK LIST

This checklist should help your group ensure that you include every area necessary for a thorough plan. Remember that just inclusion of a topic will not necessarily lead to a good grade. Evaluation of each area is based on your clarity and quality of your information and your discussion of that information.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

MARKETING PROGRAM

REVISED situation analysis (use the feedback from grader, survey data and/or your own improvements). YOU MUST make the appropriate changes!

PRODUCT (ADD TO WHAT YOU HAVE AT THE END OF YOUR SA PAPER)

New Product/Service and Product/Service Line

Unique product quality, attributes and benefits to target market

Consider the potential impact on other products in the portfolio

Packaging (If applicable)

PRICING

Pricing Strategy

Specific Price for the new/revised product/service

Consider competitors’ pricing

Consider cost

Ensure that pricing is consistent with company brand equity & product’s positioning

PROMOTION

Describe whether you recommend a push or pull strategy and explain why

Choose a combination of promotion mix elements and explain WHY they are appropriate

Provide detailed information (costs, timing, expected reach, etc.) about the message conveyed via EACH ELEMENT CHOSEN

Describe how the promotion mix is integrated: all elements reinforcing each other (consistency & complementarity)

PLACE (DISTRIBUTION) STRATEGY

Describe any distribution strategy you are recommending

Ensure that distribution is consistent with target market

Ensure that distribution is consistent with product positioning

MKT304 – Prof. Sean Keyani Last Revised: 1/14/15

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MARKETING PLAN CHECK LIST

FINANCIAL DATA AND PROJECTIONS

ORGANIZATION

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

CONCLUSION

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

FORMAT OF PAPER

Past (Historical) Sales Revenues (Based on similar products if available)

Five Year Projections (Show the logic and include calculations in appendixes)

Existing Organization

Any recommended Changes (New Position(s), Business Units etc.)

Describe a time line for implementation and main tasks

Gantt Chart showing the implementation plan (In the appendixes)

Evaluation (How you will you assess the success of your proposed plan)

The conclusion serves to summarize the marketing plan and reinforces the benefits of the plan for the organization

Two-page, double space, executive summary is given at beginning

Summarizes the whole document CLEARLY AND CONCISELY

Doesn’t exceed two pages

Does not exceed the page limits (40 pages excluding cover page, table of contents, executive summary, references page and appendixes)

Pages have numbers (Page X of Y format)

Appropriate 12 point font size, double-spaced, one-inch margins

MUST CITE ALL INFORMATION (otherwise = plagiarism!)

Provide a reference section at the end of the paper in correct style/format

Edit/proofread and use correct Spelling and Grammar

Use tables/charts/graphs effectively to present information

Use an appropriate tone and write clearly

MKT304 – Prof. Sean Keyani Last Revised: 1/14/15

MP Checklist: Page of 2 4

MARKETING PLAN CHECK LIST

Notes:

Be consistent with your references. You may use any professionally accepted format (this is noted on your contract) as long as you use it consistently throughout the paper. I would highly recommend using the automatic “References\Citations and Bibliography – \Table of Contents” in MS Word (“Reference tools” for Macintosh computers). For web reference guidance for both MLA or APA format, you may look to: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

For library resources; please use the following links: http://library.calstate.edu/northridge/databases/subject/business-economics http://library.csun.edu/ResearchAssistance/AskUs

When using web sources, remember to reference the actual source of your data or information, not the search engine you used to get to the source. GOOGLE, for instance, is NOT a source, nor is library.csun.edu. They are the vehicles you used to find your source. Any web citations should include the full URL address as well as the date you received information from that URL address. Sources should also be CREDIBLE. For instance, Wikipedia should not be used as a source in your paper – it is not a credible source for information (this doesn’t mean that you can’t use it, you just need to go to the direct source to find the credible information).

MKT304 – Prof. Sean Keyani Last Revised: 1/14/15

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MARKETING PLAN CHECK LIST

Important Reminders:

• Be sure to cover all the items on the SA+MP checklist. You may want to use items of the checklist as a headings/sub-headings in your paper. As discussed in class, Situation Analysis is a part of Marketing Plan paper. You are expected to make corrections/revisions to your Situation Analysis paper based on the feedback your instructor provided or you will lose points in your Marketing Plan paper as well.

• Your feelings, perceptions and experiences as a consumer are not necessarily facts. This is a research-based paper so, it cannot be based on what you feel or assume is true. It MUST be based on research and facts. In other words, DO NOT ASSUME because you and/or your team have a certain perception about a product, market, company, etc. all consumers will have the same perceptions as you do.

• Your paper MUST have in-text citations throughout the paper and a reference page at the end of the paper.

• Be sure to follow the formatting guidelines listed on page 2 of the MP checklist.

• Be sure NOT to copy and paste material from internet or other teams' work(s) into your paper. Please note that you will submit this paper on Turnitin too and note that “plagiarism=F"

• Your paper does not have to be 25 pages, 25 is the maximum number of pages allowed for this paper.

• If you have problems within your team, I expect you to be able to resolve any conflict as adults. It is important that you focus on the goal, work together and complete the paper in time. All students in this class will have a chance to review their teammates and provide a peer evaluation to me at the end of the semester. I take peer evaluations very seriously.

• Tone of the paper: if you're not sure, you can assume that you are a consulting firm creating this SA for the company you're working on.

• Please refer to syllabus for important information regarding late submissions.

• Each team needs to submit ONE copy of the SA paper on Turnitin and ONE copy of the paper for grading. There are two separate links for these two on moodle and their deadlines are different. Only ONE person per team will upload the two copies of the paper into moodle.

• Files MUST be in .doc or .docx format.

• First upload, into Turnitin, must to be done by 11:00 p.m. the day before the due date.

• Second upload, for grading, must be done by the beginning of the class (11:00 a.m.) on the due date (Please refer to syllabus for due dates)

MKT304 – Prof. Sean Keyani Last Revised: 1/14/15

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