Marketing Plan for a Consumer Product: Final Project

Marketing Plan (100 Marks)

Introduction

The Final Project has been designed to help you integrate and apply the marketing concepts you have learned in the course. The Marketing Plan is a comprehensive project that provides you with an opportunity to review and apply the marketing concepts.

Terminology, and approaches you learned in this course. In the Marketing Plan, you will develop a plan for one consumer product in an existing and established organization that you select, but which your Open Learning Faculty Member must approve.

Marketing Plan (100 marks)

Introduction

You learned about various aspects of marketing through your reading, activities, discussions, and assignments in the course. Now it is time to bring it all together and develop a Marketing Plan for one consumer product approved by your Open Learning Faculty Member.

Think about some consumer products you are interested in learning more about and analyzing from a marketing perspective. Choose one of these consumer products, ensuring it is from a well-established organization that has at least two direct product competitors. This cannot be an organization for which you currently work.

Contact your Open Learning Faculty Member by email and briefly explain: 

1. The reasons why you would like to use this one consumer product.
2. The product market on which you want to focus.
3. The information sources available on which to base your analysis.
4. The names of at least two direct product competitors.

Your Open Learning Faculty Member must approve these choices so that multiple learners are not working on the same consumer product and product market, and so that they are confident that you will be able to successfully complete the Marketing Plan. We recommend you write a draft of your Marketing Plan, then edit it to make it more succinct. Also, be sure to properly cite the sources used in your Marketing Plan. 

Prepare and present the Marketing Plan in a formal manner suitable for business. Ensure it does not contain any grammar, spelling, punctuation, and/or formatting errors. Make sure it includes an Executive Summary, a Table of Contents, and appendices as per the assignment criteria, and a list of references and resources used in the preparation of the plan. 

Important:

In developing the Marketing Plan, it is critical to emphasize the justification for each action recommended. Grading is weighted heavily in favour of assignments that refer back to and/or reference course materials, including the concepts, terms, and information, as well as any other outside sources. It is important to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the course materials in the reasoning and application used in your Final Project.

Assessment: The Final Project will be assessed using the following criteria:

• Usage of marketing concepts, terms, and words from the course learning materials in your Marketing Plan
  
  
• Assessing your comprehension and ability to apply the course learning materials
  
  
• Depth of insight, analysis, and comprehensiveness
  
  
• Extent of the rationale provided for recommendations made and conclusions drawn

Table of Contents:

Executive Summary

Important

Answer the following questions:

1. Identify the key marketing decision(s) that need to be made or issue(s) that need to be addressed for the consumer product.
2. Name your target audience and summarize the rationale for your choice.
3. Summarize your positioning and marketing mix recommendation and your rationale for each.
4. Sum up your overall recommendation(s) and the expected outcome of executing your Marketing Plan.

Part 1: Current Situation (15 marks) 

Answer the following questions:

1. SWOT Analysis(10 marks)
   
   
   • Conduct a SWOT analysis of your consumer product and its organization, considering both the internal and external environments.
     
     
   • Include a marketing mix implication for each SWOT factor.
     
     
   • Include the detailed SWOT analysis as anappendix to the Marketing Plan. 
     
     
2. Five Most Important SWOT Factors(5 marks)
   
   
   • Identify what you believe are the five most important factors in the SWOT analysis.
     
     
   • Explain why you think each of these five factors is particularly important to understand from a marketing perspective.

Part 2: Target Market Segmentation (20 Marks) 

Answer the following questions:

1. Select one segmentation approach.(2 marks)
   
   
2. Justify why your segmentation approach is appropriate given your consumer product, your competitions’ direct products, and the marketplace.(5 marks)
   
   
3. Develop summary target market segment profiles for three viable target market segments and include a summary of each profile in the body of the Marketing Plan.(3 marks)
   
   
4. Develop detailed target market segment profiles for these three viable target market segments and include the detailed profiles as anappendix to your Marketing Plan. (5 marks)
   
   
5. Evaluate and select one of the three target market segments as your target audience. Explain why you chose this segment over the other target market segments.(5 marks)

Part 3: Marketing Objectives (5 Marks) 

Answer the following question:

1. Develop and state three marketing objectives to be achieved by your Marketing Plan for your target audience.

Part 4: Product Positioning (10 Marks) 

Answer the following questions:

1. Recommend a positioning strategy for your consumer product, the target audience, and the marketplace.(3 marks)
   
   
2. Illustrate the intended positioning strategy with a positioning map.(2 marks)
   
   
3. Explain what allows this consumer product and organization to defend this positioning strategy and/or what competencies need to be developed, enhanced, or maintained to support this positioning (in the internal and external environment).(5 marks)

Part 5: Marketing Mix (25 Marks) 

Develop a comprehensive set of marketing mix (4 Ps) decisions for this consumer product, providing a rationale for your recommendations based on your analysis of the consumer product, the target market audience, and the marketplace. Your rationale should include statements that indicate why you think your approach is appropriate for achieving your marketing objectives. 

Answer the following questions:

1. Product: Objectives, product concept (core, actual, augmented), product line strategy, service strategy, brand name and branding strategy, and packaging and labelling (10 marks)
   
   
2. Price: Objectives, price policy and points strategy, tactics, and terms and conditions (5 marks)
   
   
3. Distribution: Objectives, channel strategy, channel management strategy, distribution tactics, and CRM (5 marks)
   
   
4. Communication: Objectives, positioning, key message, communication mix media types and media classes, creative strategy, and budget and budget allocation tactics (5 marks)

Part 6: Implementation Plan (10 Marks) 

Provide recommendations for how your Marketing Plan should be executed. The recommendations should include a discussion of each of the following items: 

1. Implementation schedule(2 marks)
2. Measurement and evaluation(2 marks)
3. Implementation(2 marks)
4. Contingency plan(2 marks)
5. Research plan(2 marks)

Part 7: Overall Recommendation (10 Marks) 

Answer the following questions:

1. Recommend whether or not your Marketing Plan should be executed, and explain why it should or should not be executed.(5 marks)
   
   
2. Support your recommendation through the use of your SWOT analysis.(5 marks)

Part 8: Report Structure and Presentation (5 Marks) 

Remember, you will be judged by the structure, clarity, presentation, and quality of your work, which in this case consists of your assignments and your Final Project. The assignments are to be prepared and presented in a formal manner suitable for business. 

To ensure the quality of your written work, refer to the Completion Guidelines below. 

Assessment Criteria

The Final Project will also be evaluated using the following performance criteria:

Content:— Address all points of information as outlined in the criteria and content for the Final Project. Incorporate specific references to readings, theories, ideas, and feedback that assisted you in rethinking your experiences and increasing your awareness of your marketing skills. 

Knowledge:— Demonstrate your knowledge, understanding, skills, and perspectives on the course’s learning materials by applying them in the Final Project. Link theory and practice by applying what you learned from the readings, reflections, and practical application of your new marketing skills and from discussions with your fellow students. 

Theory & Practice:— Demonstrate the connections between the work of others (course materials, readings, activities, and discussions) and actual organizational principles, practices, and processes. Go beyond general descriptions. Be thoughtful and critical in your analyses, conclusions, and recommendations. 

Critical Thinking:— Use reflective, logical, and rational thinking to gather, combine, process, interpret, and analyze the information to develop a reasonable conclusion. Provide examples to support your comments and observations. Be specific and concrete. Tell a complete story. Avoid generalizations. Support a statement with a specific example that demonstrates your understanding and skill. 

Completion Guidelines 

Submit your Final Project using the submission tool provided below. You can submit these as one PDF document. Be sure to name your Final Project as: 

Reminders before submitting assignment:

• Did you put your name, student number, and course completion date on the cover page of the document?
• Did you submit all parts of the assignment in one PDF document to your Open Learning Faculty Member?
• Did you complete all the required elements?
• Did you use concepts, information, and terminology learned in this course?
• Did you support your statements with specific examples?
• Did you cite references, using correct referencing APA style format?
• Did you ensure that there are no spelling mistakes?
• Is your report grammatically correct, clear, and well organized?