Reference no: EM131249141

The Marketing Plan

Every business should determine its own criteria for success when evaluating the attractiveness of a market because every industry has its own unique circumstances. Forces that shape segment attractiveness include the following:

Market growth (market size, growth rate, and market potential)

Competitive intensity (the number of companies, the ease of entry, and substitutes)

Market access (customer familiarity, channel access, and company fit)

Although an index that is based on these criteria is useful in capturing the qualitative aspects of a market situation, the profit potential must also be assessed for all of the segments that are deemed attractive based on their market-attractiveness indexes.

Part 1: Segmentation Application

Develop a product-focused business. Please do not use an existing company or a scenario that you utilized in a previous course. You will continue working with this business throughout the course. Complete the following:

Introduce the scenario of the business and the main product that it sells.

Analyze customers' needs for the target product.

Discuss segmentation strategies that are based on 2 real competitors' market positions.

Devise a niche marketing strategy that would be appropriate for your company's product.

This section of the paper should be 3 pages in length and use research from the library's full-text databases and other quality college-level resources.

Part 2: Gap Analysis, Benchmarking, and Competitive Advantage

Complete the following:

Carry out a gap analysis of 2 competitors. Discuss how the findings would be used.

Develop competitor and competitive benchmarking.

Competitor benchmarking involves identifying a business's main competitors and then comparing itself against them in key performance areas. Competitive benchmarking involves going outside a business's market or industry to study a company that excels in an area where the business is deficient.

Devise strategies to achieve a competitive advantage for the company.

This section of the paper should be 3 pages in length and use research from the library's full-text databases and other quality college-level resources.

Your assignment should contain a cover page, an abstract page, and a reference page in addition to the body. The body of the paper should be 6 pages in length, starting with a brief, 1-paragraph introduction and ending with a short conclusion. The entire submission will be 9-12 pages in length.

Objectives:

Achieve the ability to present the findings of marketing strategies via written and oral communication.

Appropriate use in how to design and conduct quantitative and qualitative marketing research to support marketing plan writing and research.

Appropriate use in integrating, extending, and applying a marketing strategy and knowledge skills in a live business context.

Compose a marketing plan that incorporates research.

Execute mastery of customer analysis, competitor analysis, branding, marketing communication, channel designs, pricing strategies, and the whole marketing environment.