Luo Marketing

School of Business and Information Technology

AM5106 Introduction to Marketing

541 Fundamentals of Marketing

Assignment 2 Marketing Plan

46% of overall course weighting 230 marks available

Covers Learning Outcomes 6 & 7 (NZ Dip Bus) / Learning Outcomes 3 & 4 (BAM)

Trimester 2, 2015

DUE DATE: TUESDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2015 (5.00PM)

Important information

 This is a GROUP assignment.

o MAXIMUM GROUP SIZE IS 4 MEMBERS.

 1 is not a group.

 The Course Facilitator will not assign you to a group unless you provide

evidence that you have tried and failed to do this yourself

o When you submit your completed assignment you will need to provide evidence

showing which member is responsible for which section of the work.

 You should aim for each member to make an approximately equal

contribution to the finished result.

 Where contributions are obviously unequal, this may have an effect on

individual marks – it should not be an automatic assumption that each

member receives the same result.

 IF YOU DO NOT CLEALRY INDICATE WHICH MEMBER IS

RESPONSIBLE FOR WHICH CONTENT, THE ASSIGNMENT WILL NOT

BE MARKED.

Suggested group approach. Create a timeline for the group.

 Assign each question to one or two people.

 Complete draft answers to questions X-X by (set this date) and give them to the other group members for checking.

 Complete draft answers to question X-X by (set this date) and give them to the other group members for checking. Assemble all the answers, review as a group and submit your assignment by the due date.

 All assignments should be typed.

o You should use 11 point or 12 point font size.

 Your completed assignment will be submitted through the MOODLE site for this course. It

will be checked for textual similarity with other published work and other assignments

using Turnitin.

o Where you are using the words or thoughts of others to support your own thinking,

you should reference these using APA format. Failure to reference words or

thoughts that are not originally yours is academic dishonesty, and carries

significant penalties.

 At this level it is expected that you will research and incorporate appropriate

theory into your answers to support your own thinking. Failure to do so will

impact your ability to demonstrate understanding and application of the

theory, and will likely impact your final marks.

o If you have any doubt about whether you are using the correct referencing style,

please check with the Course Facilitator, or with the Learning Support team. We

would much rather help you get it right in the beginning than have a conversation

with you about plagiarism after the event.

 If you are seeking feedback on your work-in-progress, make sure you allow enough time

for whoever is providing that feedback to fit this into their schedule. Not planning effectively

for this will reduce the depth of the feedback provided and may adversely affect your ability

to produce good quality work by the deadline.

 If you believe that there is an issue affecting your ability to submit your work by the

deadline, you should communicate this to the Course Facilitator as soon as you become

aware of it.

o Any application for an extension MUST use the appropriate form AND must be

supported by a medical certificate or similar documentation.

 Poor time management will NOT be grounds for an extension if you think you will be

unable to meet the deadline.

Rather than treating this as another “school” assignment”, you should treat this as a business project. Consider that you are producing a business document that would be given to the manager or owner of the organisation. That means taking appropriate care with the content and the way in which it is presented.

In this assignment you are required to produce a marketing plan for an organisation operating in the Wellington region. This may be a commercial organisation, although you should not consider yourself restricted to this type of organisation. The important thing is that all of your answers must relate to the same organisation. You may find the assignment easier to complete if you either have contacts in the organisation who can provide you with the necessary information, or if you can organise an interview with the manager or owner of the business. Where you do interview somebody, you will need to provide the following information about that person:

–

o Email o Phone Details will be checked at random to establish the authenticity of your information. Where you are working with an owner or manager, they may put limits on the information they will give you access to. Typically this is done for reasons of commercial sensitivity and you should respect their decision. Remember that you are representing WelTec to the business and wider communities through your work on this project. You should do anything that risks damaging that relationship. The important thing is that you are not just “making things up” – the assignment is an opportunity to compare the “book theory” with why managers behave in particular ways in the “real world”. Developing this understanding will help you to become a more effective manager yourself, or to become a more effective subordinate because you can ensure your actions are supportive of what your manager is trying to achieve. Use the following template to prepare the document you will be submitting to management.

Section Max. Marks

Executive Summary 5

The purpose of the Executive Summary is to outline the main features of the marketing plan. The Executive Summary may be one of the few parts of a report that decision makers read, so it needs to effectively communicate the key issues. Half to three quarters of a page will be sufficient for this – any more than a page and it is not a summary.

Introduction 10

Provide relevant background information on the organisation. This should include some details of the organisation’s history, size, locations, number of employees, products and services, revenue, and profitability. Where there are limits to the information you have been able to gather you should acknowledge these tactfully as they may affect the final recommendations you are able to make.

Situation Analysis

Political forces 10

Examine the relevant political forces affecting, or potentially affecting, the organisation. Political factors requiring consideration will include an appropriate combination of political stability, government policy, trade agreements, and taxation arrangements. The specific political forces most relevant to your organisation will vary and may be domestic or international in nature, or both.

Economic forces 10

Examine the relevant macro-environmental economic forces that influence the organisation and the market. This will include an appropriate combination of interest rates, economic growth, consumer confidence, income levels, savings levels, availability of credit, unemployment levels and exchange rates.

Sociocultural forces 10

Examine the relevant sociocultural forces at work in the organisation’s market. Social and cultural forces that may influence the organisation will include an appropriate combination of religion, subcultures, multiculturalism, beliefs, attitudes and population trends. Focus on the domestic (New Zealand) market unless the organisation does not market its products and/or services domestically.

Technological forces 10

Examine how technology can be used to offer better value to customers. This should include an examination of how technology may support innovation across various aspects of the marketing mix.

Legal forces 10

Legal forces include legislation in place locally such as, but not necessarily limited to the Fair Trading Act and the Consumer Guarantees Act, as well as international conventions and agreements. These last two will only apply if the organisation is selling its products/services outside New Zealand.

Competitor analysis 10

Examine the micro-environmental competition factors at play, including the type of competition (pure, monopolistic, oligopoly, monopoly, monopsony) and each level of competition (total budget, generic, product, brand). The competitor analysis should be broad so as to capture all relevant competition issues.

Customer/consumer analysis 10

Describe the needs and wants of the organisation’s actual and potential customers/consumers. This should include current needs and wants, preferences, possible changes to needs and wants and the extent to which the organisation can influence preferences.

SWOT analysis

Strengths The organisation’s favourable internal characteristics. Remember, strengths are factors that the organisation can directly influence.

Weaknesses The organisation’s unfavourable internal characteristics. Remember, weaknesses are factors that the organisation can directly influence.

10 (2 x 5)

Opportunities External factors that are potentially favourable to the organisation. Because opportunities are external to the organisation, they are not directly controllable.

Threats External factors that are potentially unfavourable to the organisation. Like opportunities, threats are not directly controllable by the organisation.

10 (2 x 5)

Objectives

Briefly explain TWO (2) marketing objectives that are appropriate for this project. Ensure the marketing objectives are: Specific Measurable Actionable Reasonable Timebound

5

Target market

Discuss the organisation’s target market segments, their characteristics and how the target market and market segments were selected. Be specific; for example, if the target market is urban 25–30 year old single males, then say so — do not say young single men. Be realistic about the number of different segments the organisation should be targeting

10

Marketing mix strategy

Product 15

Detail the various product features and how it will offer value to the target market. Include a discussion of branding.

Price 15

Detail the pricing objectives (e.g. cash flow, positioning and market share) and the pricing method(s) used to determine prices. Competitors’ pricing should also be discussed.

Promotion 15

Explain the promotion mix (advertising, public relations, sales promotions and personal selling). Consideration should also be given to additional marketing communication options such as guerrilla marketing, sponsorship and viral marketing as appropriate for the organisation.

Place (Distribution) 15

Detail the distribution strategy that will ensure the organisation’s products are available to customers/consumers where and when they want them. The discussion should address the use of marketing intermediaries (as appropriate).

Budget 15

Detail the budget that will be necessary to implement your marketing plan and demonstrate how the plan can be implemented with the available resources. The budget should be shown using a spreadsheet or table format.

Implementation 15

Explain how the marketing plan will be put into practice, including specific steps and milestones as well as control mechanisms to ensure the implementation is in accordance with the plan. This should be shown using some sort of calendar or timeline format, such as a Gantt Chart.

Evaluation 10

Detail the marketing metrics (e.g. return on investment, customer satisfaction) that will be used to evaluate the success of the marketing plan and inform further revision and refinement of the plan.

Recommendations 10

Provide specific recommendations for approval and action.