MKT

!

Spring 2017 Marketing Principles –MKT 301

Term Project

Develop a Marketing Plan for a company/product (new). Make sure that your plan includes the following topics:

➢ Situation Analysis: o Market Summary (Market Segments, Market Needs, Market Trends, ..) o SWOT analysis

o Competition Analysis

➢ Marketing Plan o Mission

o Objectives

o Target Markets

o Positioning

o Marketing Mix

o Researches needed

➢ A report of 10 to 20 pages must be submitted by the end of the course. ➢ This research is a team work project (4 to 5 team members). ➢ Each team project will be presented by the end of the semester in Exhibition. ➢ Due by the end of Full 2106 (Date to be specified on the Moodle) ➢ Late submission is not accepted. ➢ You can use the attached guide as an outline for your project (recommended).

!1

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:

Your work will be assessed on the following criteria:

➢ Integration of information and structure, quality and depth of discussion, creativity and overall coherence of the work submitted.

➢ A front page (Name, ID#, Course Name, Assignment#, Date).

➢ Style used is to be font size 12, Times New Roman. Within the case analysis a page must be included which states clearly that this is totally your own work and must be signed.

➢ Paragraph spacing: 1.5

➢ The main content must be in black

➢ References must be mentioned properly

• The assignment must be submitted through Moodle only. ( check the colander )

Thank You Ms. Reham Sabig

!2

Marketing Plan Guide

1.0 Executive Summary

Although this topic appears first in the plan, you normally write it last. Wait until you're almost done so you can include the main highlights. You should cover the most important facts, such as target markets, sales growth, and strategic focus, and those facts may change during the planning process.

The contents of the summary should include the main highlights of the plan. Make sure to address target markets, market needs, sales prospects, expenses, and strategy. Remember, as always, to match your plan to your purpose. This is business, not writing class.

As a general rule, your first paragraph should include what products or services you sell, to what target market, filling what target need, at what general level of sales and expenses. Make sure also to include the nature and purpose of this plan. You might also refer to the keys to success, or at least summarize them briefly.

Remember, this summary is the doorway to the rest of the plan. Get it right or your target readers will go no further. Keep it short.

2.0 Situation Analysis

This first paragraph is a summary paragraph, addressing the key points that describe your current situation.

The situation analysis sets the scene. As you develop your marketing plan, this early section is critical to bring your plan up to speed on the key points to follow. This is where you inventory what your firm offers and introduce your marketing situation and the main components of the marketing plan. These components include your markets, competition, products, distribution channels, the microenvironment, and historical results.

The most important single point is the market need. Every marketing plan should take a market- oriented strategic planning approach that focuses on the market need.

2.1 Market Summary

This first paragraph is a simple summary about your market. Assume that this paragraph might be the only one that somebody reads, so you need it to concisely summarize the rest of this section. What information would be most important if you had only one brief topic to include about your market?

!3

One effective technique is to skip this topic until you have finished the three others that follow, then come back here to write the highlights. The Task Wizard normally puts you here after the three others are already done, so you can quickly summarize them.

Be concise. Without going into great detail--leave it for the subtopics--you should generally describe the different groups of target customers included in your market analysis, and refer briefly to why you are selecting these as targets. You may also want to summarize market growth and cite highlights of some of your growth projections, if this information is available.

2.1.1 Market Demographics

Markets can be described in terms of geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral attributes. Analyzing your market from this perspective can be a useful way to categorize what you know about the people you want as clients and can lead to identifying and confirming opportunities the market presents. You may find that your information is limited, and just capture what you know. This can also be an area that helps identify areas needing additional research.

Market Geographics - This factor address where your customers are physically located. A landscape architect may serve those people within a specific climate or region. If you are marketing your services over the Internet, your client's physical location may be irrelevant.

Market Demographics - Consumer wants, preferences, and the frequency of their purchases are often associated with demographic information. Demographics consider information about market age, gender, nationality, education, household composition, occupation and income. Think about the demographics of the people in your market. Are there common demographic factors that describe the people you expect to be potential clients?

Market Psychographics - The market can also be described in terms of psychographic information. It is more challenging than the previous categories because it is less quantifiable and more subjective. Psychographics categorize people on the basis of their lifestyle or personality attributes. For example, the lifestyles and personality attributes of people in a large metropolitan city are going to be quite different from those of a small agricultural-based community. Consider the general lifestyles or personalities that best describe your market.

Market Behaviors - Buyers can also be analyzed based on their knowledge, attitude, use, or response to a product. These behavioral variables may include the occasions that stimulate a purchase, the benefits they realize, the status of the user, their usage rate, their loyalty, the buyer- readiness stage, and their attitude toward the service you offer.

Document what you know about each of these areas. If you have an existing client base or previous experience with this market, think about your "best" clients. You may want to know where they live, their age, gender, occupation, what is important to them, and why they want your services. If you do not have historical information, check to see if there are resources that you can use to help you understand and describe the attributes of your market. Complete what you can and return to this section as you learn more.

!4

For example, a market may be described in these terms: Geographic - This Chicago suburb has a population of 65,000. Demographic - The average income of this predominately female group is $40,000 and more; most have attended college, are between the ages of 35 and 50, and have children at our out of the home. Psychographic - They consider time as their most limited resource and security, both physical and financial, are important. Behaviors - After checking with people they know and trust, they choose professionals and services that have been "tested" and remain loyal to service providers that offer good value, regardless of cost. The relationship they develop with the professional is critical to a successful ongoing experience.

2.1.2 Market Needs

This may be the most important topic in your marketing plan. Always emphasize the market need that you seek to fill. What value are you providing? Your marketing efforts will always benefit from focusing on the benefits you are providing your customers, rather that the benefits you are realizing. It isn't how you sell the product; but rather, what customer needs you are satisfying.

Value is realized in tangible and intangible forms. Are you saving your clients time, effort, or money? Are you enhancing their net worth, their self-confidence, or their potential? Are you enriching their skills, their sense of security, or their self-esteem? Are you minimizing their real or perceived risks, fears, or liabilities?

Think in broad terms of the benefits you offer. An automobile, for example, provides not just mobility and transportation. Some autos offer their customers excitement, security, even status. Is a family mini-van serving the same need as a 2-seat sports car? A personal computer fills different needs as a productivity machine in an office than as a game machine at home. A computer consulting business might really provide security and reassurance to its clients, rather than simply computing know-how.

This topic is a good reminder that all of your marketing activities should be based on meeting the underlying needs of your clients. For each market segment included in your strategy, explain the market needs that lead to this group's wanting to buy your product.

If you are managing several important segments, you might use this topic as a summary topic, and then add sub-topics for examining the needs of each segment.

In any case, explain the target market needs that relate to the product you provide. Did the need exist before the product was offered? Are there other products that offer different ways to satisfy this same need? Do you have market research related to this market need? It is always a good idea to try to define your product offering in terms of target market needs, so you focus not on what you have to sell, but rather on the buyer needs you satisfy.

Use this topic to explain the needs you serve for each of your main target markets, with the products you offer.

!5

2.1.3 Market Trends

To describe market trends, think strategically. What factors seem to be changing the market, or changing the business? What developing trends can make a difference? Market trends could involve changes in demographics, changes in customer needs, a new sense of style or fashion, or other factors that may influence purchase behavior of your market. Much of this depends on what business you are in.

Understanding market trends may enable you to "get ahead" of your market and allow you to know where it is going before it gets there. Seizing a potential window of opportunity can be critical to establishing a competitive advantage. Timing is critical to any marketing strategy.

2.2 SWOT Analysis

A valuable step in your situational analysis is to assess your firm's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT). A SWOT analysis is a helpful method to complete this assessment.

The SWOT analysis begins by assisting you in conducting an inventory of your internal strengths and weaknesses. You will then note the opportunities and threats that are external to the organization, based on your market and the overall environment. Don't be concerned about elaborating on these topics at this point. Bullet points may be the best way to begin. Capture the factors you believe are relevant in each of the four areas. You will want to review what you have noted here as you work through your marketing plan.

The primary purpose of the SWOT analysis is to identify and categorize each significant factor, positive and negative, into one of the four categories and allow you to take an objective look at your business. The SWOT analysis will be a useful tool to develop and confirm your goals and your marketing strategy.

2.2.1 Strengths

Think about the strengths within your business that add value to your product or your marketing efforts. Strengths describe your positive tangible and intangible attributes.

You may want to evaluate your strengths by area, such as marketing, finance, manufacturing and your organizational structure. Strengths include the positive attributes of the people involved in the business, including their knowledge, background, education, credentials, contacts, reputation, or the skills they bring. Strengths also include tangible assets, such as available capital, equipment, credit, established customers, existing channels of distribution, copyrighted materials, patents, information and processing systems, and other valuable resources within the business.

!6

Strengths capture the positive aspects internal to your business that add value or offer you a competitive advantage. This is your opportunity remind yourself of the value existing within your business.

2.2.2 Weaknesses

Note the weaknesses within your business. Weaknesses are factors that detract from your ability to have a competitive edge.

Weaknesses might include the lack of expertise, limited resources, lack of access to skills or technology, inferior product attributes, or the poor location of your business. These are factors that are under your control, but for a variety of reasons, are in need of improvement to effectively accomplish your marketing objectives.

Weaknesses capture the negative aspects internal to your business that detract from the value you offer or place you at a competitive disadvantage. These are areas you need to enhance in order to compete with your best competitor. The more accurately you identify your weaknesses, the more valuable the SWOT will be for your assessment.

2.2.3 Opportunities

What opportunities exist in your market or the environment from which you hope to benefit? Opportunities assess the attractive factors that represent the reason for your business.

These opportunities reflect the potential you can realize through implementing your marketing strategies. Opportunities may be the result of market growth, lifestyle changes, resolving problems associated with current solutions, positive market perceptions about your business, or the ability to offer greater value that will create a demand for your products. If it is relevant, place time frames around the opportunities. Does it represent an ongoing opportunity, or is it a window of opportunity? How critical is your timing?

Opportunities are external to your business. If you have identified "opportunities" that are internal to the organization and within your control, you will want to classify them as strengths.

2.2.4 Threats

What factors are potential threats to your business? Threats include factors beyond your control that could place your marketing strategy, or the business itself, at risk.

A threat is a challenge created by an unfavorable trend or development that may lead to deteriorating revenues or profits. Competition--existing or potential--is always a threat. Other threats may include intolerable price increases by suppliers, government regulation, economic

!7

downturns, devastating media or press coverage, a shift in consumer behavior that reduces your sales, or the introduction of a "leap-frog" technology that may make your products, equipment, or services obsolete. What situations might threaten your marketing efforts? Get your worst fears on the table. A part of this list may be speculative in nature and still add value to your SWOT analysis.

The upcoming "Critical Issues" section will bring the four areas of the SWOT analysis together.

2.3 Competition

Describe your major competitors in terms of the factors that most influence revenues. This may include their size, the market share they command, their comparative product quality, their growth, available capital and resources, image, marketing strategy, target markets, and any attributes you consider important.

Use this topic for a general comparison of your offering as one of several choices a potential buyer can make.

What factors make the most difference for your business? What might make customers choose one of your type of business over another? Price, or billing rates? Reputation? Image and visibility? Are brand names important? Or is it simply word of mouth, in which the secret is long-term satisfied customers?

You've referred to competition already, in previous topics, in terms of general factors and the nature of competition. Use this topic to list your specific competitors, and the strengths and weaknesses of each.

2.4 Product Offering

List and describe the product(s) your company offers. For each business offering, cover the main points including what the product is, how much it costs, what sorts of customers make purchases, and why. What customer need does each product fill?

It is always a good idea to think in terms of customer needs and customer benefits, as you define your product offerings, rather than thinking of your side of the equation -- the products you sell -- first. For example, a flower shop is selling a lot more than flowers, it's the message the flowers transmit, and the convenience of transmitting those messages. A gasoline station is selling transportation. A grocery store probably sells service and convenience, and in some cases pricing. A health foods store is selling a different set of benefits from a convenience store.

2.5 Keys to Success

!8

The idea of keys to success is based on the need for focus. You can't focus efforts on a few priorities unless you limit the number of priorities. In practice, lists of more than three or four priorities are usually less effective. The more the priorities (beyond three or four), the less chance of implementation.

Virtually every marketing plan has different keys to success. These are a few key factors that make the difference between success and failure. This depends on who you are and what services you offer. In a manufacturing business, for example, quality control and manufacturing resources might be keys to success for one strategy, and economy of scale for another. In another example, the keys might include low cost of assembly, or assembly technology in packaging kits. Frequently the channels of distribution are critical to manufacturers. You might also depend on the brand or the franchise.

Think about the keys to success for your marketing plan. This is a good topic for a discussion with your management team. What elements are most important? This discussion will help you focus on priorities and improve your plan.

2.6 Critical Issues

Now we will bring the four areas of the SWOT analysis together to formulate critical issues affecting the marketing plan. The objective is to leverage the strengths of the business to take advantage of the available opportunities, offset or improve the stated weaknesses, and minimize the risk of potential threats. Your marketing plan should address the critical issues to place you in an optimal position to succeed--optimizing revenues with the allocated marketing resources.

As you look at using your strengths and consider your weaknesses, it may be helpful for you to consider placing your business in one of four categories. Is your business ideal, speculative, mature or troubled? - Ideal; High in major opportunities and low in major threats has great promise for success. - Speculative; High in major opportunities and high in major threats describes a risk situation with potentially large returns. - Mature; Low in major opportunities and low in threats indicates limited growth potential with relatively low risk. - Troubled; Low in both opportunities and high in threats raises serious questions about the potential and requires immediate reconsideration.

This discussion may also include an assessment of your ability to compete in the market, the fit of the products you offer based on the needs of the market, your price and promotion policies, or investment in the research and development activities to enhance your products.

3.0 Marketing Strategy

This is a summary chapter, introducing the discussion of strategies to follow. The strategy chapter normally includes objectives, mission, target market strategies, product positioning, strategy

!9

pyramids, and detailed discussion of the marketing mix.

As a summary paragraph, this topic should introduce the others to follow. You should include the most important highlights, for sure, because this first topic might be used to summarize the whole chapter.

Remember, strategy is focus. It isn't a complete list of what you want to do, but rather a prioritized list of your main items of focus. You will go into detail in your positioning, mission statement, and the other topics included in the chapter. Don't try to include everything here, just the highlights.

3.1 Mission

A brief mission statement will keep your plan focused. Use your mission statement to establish your fundamental goals for the quality of your business offering, customer satisfaction, employee welfare, compensation to owners, and so forth. A good mission statement can be a critical element in defining your business and communicating to employees, vendors, customers, and owners, partners, or shareholders.

The mission statement is also a good opportunity to specifically define what business you are in. This can be critical to understanding your keys to success. For example, many experts say railroads suffered badly in the 1930-1960 period because they thought they were in the business of trains when they were really in the business of transporting goods and people; as a result, competition from highway transportation was brutal.

As another option, experts in value-based marketing recommend a mission statement that includes what they call a "value proposition." The value proposition summarizes what benefits you offer, to whom, and at what relative price. Using this reasoning, a tire company might be selling the benefit of highway safety to safety-minded consumers (especially parents) at a price premium. A luxury car might actually be selling the benefit of prestige to status-conscious consumers at a price premium; or the benefit of reliability to value-conscious consumers at a price premium.

3.2 Marketing Objectives

Use this topic to set specific marketing objectives. Think about sales, market share, market positioning, image, awareness, and related objectives.

Remember to make your objectives concrete and measurable. Develop your plan to be implemented, not just read. Objectives that can't be measured can't be tracked and followed up, so they are less likely to lead to implementation. The capability of plan-vs.-actual analysis is essential.

Sales are easy to track and measure. Market share is harder, because it depends on market research. There are other marketing goals that are less tangible, harder to measure, such as positioning or image and awareness. Remember though, as you develop the objectives, that it is much better to include the measurement system within the objective itself. This is especially true when they aren't

!10

obvious.

Financial objectives are very different from marketing objectives. A financial objective might be to increase 1999 profits by 10%. The associated marketing objective to attain the profit goal might be to increase market share by 3%.

3.3 Financial Objectives

Financial objectives are very different from marketing objectives, and generally easier to measure. A financial objective might be to increase 1999 profits by 10%, or sales by 10%, or contribution margin by 5%, or gross margin by 10%. Financial objectives might also be holding spending to a specific level, as a percent of sales.

In all of these cases, the achievement of the objectives is measurable. As you develop the objectives, keep the measurement and tracking in mind. As always, make sure your objectives are concrete and measurable.

3.4 Target Markets

In this topic you should introduce the strategy behind your market segmentation and your choice of target markets. Explain why your business is focusing on these specific target market groups. What makes these groups more interesting than the other groups that you've ruled out? Why are the characteristics you specify important?

This is more important for some businesses than others. A restaurant, for example, might focus on one set of upper-income customers instead of another, for strategic reasons. An accounting firm might focus on certain business types whose needs match the firm's expertise. Some fast food restaurants focus on families with children under driving age. A graphic design firm might specialize in small or medium businesses that need Internet Web sites. Strategy is focus; it is creative, and it doesn't follow pre-written formulas.

3.5 Positioning

Use this topic for your marketing positioning statements. The positioning statements should include a strategic focus on the most important target market, that market's most important market need, how your product meets that need, what is the main competition, and how your product is better than the competition.

Consider this simple example:

!11

For [target market description] who [target market need], [this product] [how it meets the need]. Unlike [key competition], it [most important distinguishing feature].

3.7 Marketing Mix

Marketing mix is the combination of your marketing programs, including your product positioning, pricing, distribution channels, advertising and promotion, service, delivery, and other factors. The tollfree telephone number, the Web site, the sales literature, the advertising, and many other marketing programs are all part of the marketing mix.

Product, price, place, promotion, and service are all standard components of the marketing mix.

3.8 Marketing Research

Explain in this topic what market research you need. Think about what market research you need on a regular basis. This might include customer surveys, market surveys, market forecast reports, market share reports, trends, etc.

Are there specific market research projects that need to be conducted for the ongoing development of the marketing plan? Explain the objectives, scope, and implementation plan for the research.

5.0 Controls

As your strategy is implemented, you will need to track your results and monitor new development in the internal and external environments.

What is happening in the market environment? You want to know as things change and how quickly those changes take place. A static internal and external environment will not be as demanding as those that are rapidly evolving. If these factors have changed since you created your marketing plan, or have not evolved in the direction you anticipated, you will want to review your plan to make certain it is still viable.

5.2 Marketing Organization

This is a text section describing your sales and marketing organization. It describes roles and the relationship of those people and their responsibilities. You can also use the graphic import facility to import a picture of your organization chart, and link it to the text. For that, use the Text Manager tab and specify the file you want to import.

!12

How is your sales and marketing management structured and organized? How will this marketing plan affect your organization? How will your organization be able to implement this plan? What are the key management responsibilities? Are they properly distributed? How are you going to be sure they are properly executed? Are there implications from the critical issues or keys to success that impact the marketing organization?

Addressing these questions will allow you to make certain your marketing organization aligns with your marketing plan. Compare this information to marketing management and skill strengths you may have identified in your SWOT.

!13