Reference no: EM133202060 , Length: 20 pages.

Assignment: Integrated Marketing Plan Worksheet

Introduction

Develop a 3-year integrated marketing plan for the brand you selected. You will build on the analysis you completed and the ethical and socially responsible criteria you developed. You will need to support your marketing plan with secondary research because you do not have time to conduct primary research.

1. Marketing Plan

Write a clear, comprehensive, and cohesive 6- to 8-page integrated marketing plan that includes the following sections:

a. Executive summary
b. Research
c. Target markets
d. Product strategy
e. Pricing strategy
f. Communication and promotional strategies
g. Sales strategy
h. Distribution strategy
i. Sales forecast
j. Conclusion
k. Appendix

2. Executive Summary

This is the most important section of your marketing plan because it motivates the reader to read the rest of your marketing plan.

Summarize the key components of your marking plan in a brief but compelling manner and include the following information:

a. Project introduction: A brief overview of the company and how you decided on the brand you selected, including the products or services offered by the brand

b. Strategic objectives: These will drive your product, promotion, pricing, and distribution strategies

c. Marketing: Actions to be taken, including the time frame and costs for these actions

d. Key milestones: What are key milestones for the project

e. Projected outcomes: The sales growth, revenues, and profits from the brand; in short, how and when brand will make money

3. Research

a. Primary market research methods plan -You will not have time to conduct primary market research. However, you will design a primary market research methods plan that includes the following:

i. Qualitative research methods: Describe how you would use and implement the methods you selected.

ii. Quantitative research methods: Describe how you would use and implement the methods you selected.

iii. Secondary market research: Use internal data sources, government sources, book and periodical sources, and/or commercial sources to conduct research for your marketing plan. Include in-text citations for all secondary sources used in your marketing plan.

4. Target Markets

Identify distinct target markets for the brand you have selected, including a description of the size of the target markets, demographic and socio-economic characteristics, geographic location, sales potential, and growth, as well as other relevant attributes.
Be sure to:

a. Discuss why you selected these target markets.
b. Discuss what you learned from your secondary research about these target markets.
c. Describe these target markets by key demographic, geographic, behavioral, and psychographic characteristics.
d. Prioritize your target markets in terms of their potential and expected growth rates.

5. Product Strategy

Provide recommendations for marketing your product, including the following:

a. Brand positioning statement - Provide a positioning statement for the brand. This describes how the target market perceives the brand vs competing brands. This should reflect brand personality and value proposition for the target markets and clearly identify what makes the brand unique.

b. Plan for products or services - Provide recommendations for your brand over the 3-year planning horizon. Support and justify these recommendations with results from your secondary research. Consider any product changes, package sizes, or line extensions over the 3-year planning horizon. Be sure to include time frames and budgets for all recommendations. For example, if you recommend additional models, sizes, packages or line extensions for the brand, you need to include when you expect these to enter the market. Alsoinclude cost estimates, as well as benefits and value the brand offers to target customers. The brand's real value comes from its ability to deliver benefits to the customer or solve a customer's problems. Some considerations for the product plans include the following:

i. Consumer vs industrial products: Products fall into two general categories: consumer products purchased for personal use and consumption and business products purchased for resale, to manufacture other products, or for use in a firm's operation.

ii. Product lines: A product line consists of a group of closely related product items. A product mix or portfolio is the total group of products offered by a company. You need to describe where the brand fits in the product mix.

iii. Package sizes: Include various package sizes in which the brand is marketed, the changes you would recommend, and the reasons for those changes.

iv. Models: Include the various models that customers can buy. This is important for technical products, such as washing machines, lawn mowers, or earth-moving equipment. Address brand attributes, such as colors, flavors, aesthetic appearance, visual appeals, ability to recycle, etc.

v. Services: Customers place value on services offered by the brand. This is mostly relevant for industrial products and business systems, such as the following:

o Customer service
o Delivery
o Engineering
o Financing
o Installation
o Repairs
o Training
o Warrantees and guarantees

Note: If your brand is a service, such as a hotel chain, rental car company, cleaning service, accounting service, etc., you need to consider the training of employees because the service business involves significantly more interaction of employees with customers. You also need to think about how you plan to maintain consistency in the quality of the service offered.

6. Pricing Strategy

a. Provide recommendations for pricing your brand, including pricing of various models, packages, and options.

b. Describe how pricing could help capture brand value for the target markets. Pricing recommendations should be based on your analysis of customer needs, marketing costs, operations costs, capital requirements, competitive pricing, etc. In addition, address pricing to wholesalers, distributors, dealers, retailers and other supply chain stakeholders. Also discuss the use of coupons, rebates, sales promotions, long term contracts, etc.

Address the following:

a. Evaluate how a reduction in price might affect the positioning of the brand. How would it impact the perceived value of the brand?

b. Evaluate howyou would communicate the brand's value to target markets if you maintained the brand's price structure. How would competition react?

Consider the following pricing options:

a. Discounting - Temporary price reductions to attract customers and create excitement

b. Price bundling - Packaging two or more complementary products for a single price

c. Trade discounts - Manufacturers will reduce prices for certain intermediaries in the supply chain, such as dealers and manufacturers' agents, based on the functions provided by them on behalf of the manufacturer. These functions are selling, training customers, delivery, installation, repair services, etc.

d. Discounts and allowances - This is important in industrial marketing. Business customers take advantage of price breaks, including discounts for payments made within the payment terms, quantity or bulk discounts, seasonal discounts, or trade allowances for participation in advertising or sales support programs

e. Geographic pricing - Industrial firms often quote prices to reflect transportation costs, delivery options, and delivery time.

Include information from secondary research to support your recommendations. This section should clearly align with your positioning statement, product strategy, distribution strategy and promotional strategy.

7. Communication and Promotional Strategy

A. Explain how your promotional strategy relates to your recommended positioning, product, and price strategies, including your recommendations for the following:

a. Advertising
b. Sales promotion
c. Selling strategy
d. Public relations

B. Consider all the promotional tools that you could use to advertise and promote the brand, select the tools that you believe will generate the highest return on investment, and develop your promotional strategy around your chosen tools.

Be sure to:

a. Identify advertising and promotional goals.

b. Summarize key tactics for advertising, promoting, selling, and communicating your product or service.

c. Highlight key messages and describe how the individual components you recommend will work together to accomplish the brand's stated goal.

d. Evaluate how you will determine the right mix of promotions for your product or service.

e. Analyze how the company should allocate resources toward paid, earned, owned and/or shared media.

f. Analyze how promotional goals might change over the 3-year forecast window.

C. Explain how you might use some of the followingmodern methods to advertise your brand:

a. Web design
b. Social media advertising
c. Search engine optimization (SEO)
d. Brand ambassadors
e. The use of experts with a large number of followers
f. Media buzz
g. Internet
h. Banner ads
i. E-mail
j. Interactive video

D. Explain how you might use the following traditional methods to advertise your brand:

a. Television
b. Radio
c. Newspapers
d. Magazines
e. Books
f. Direct mail
g. Billboards
h. Transit cards

8. Salesforce

a. Discuss selling strategies, as well as sales messages, type of salesforce, training, size of the salesforce, compensation, etc.

9. Distribution Strategy

A. Explain how you would distribute the brand to customers. Consider the advantages of several distribution strategies, including the benefits of supply chain management, such as:

a. Means of differentiation
b. Reduced costs of transportation
c. Improved customer service

B. Examine the current distribution channels and determine whether you need to modify the distribution channels or incorporate other channels, such as:

a. Direct sales to customers
b. Wholesalers
c. Retailers
d. Distributors
e. Dealers
f. Business-to-business exchanges on the internet
g. Intensive, selective, and exclusive distribution channels

10. Sales Forecast

a. Prepare a quarterly sales forecast for the 3-year planning horizon. Break down the sales forecast by package sizes, models, geographic segments, etc.

b. Analyze the impact of your product and pricing plans, as well as your distribution strategies in your forecast.

c. Quantify the impact of your advertising, sales promotion, and salesforce strategies on your target market.

11. Conclusion

a. Explain why the marketing plan you presented for this product or service is viable and represents good market potential, and identify why an investor would be interested in this opportunity.