Designing an Effective Marketing Research Essay

Marketing Plan Part 1: Proposal

Marketing Plan Part 1: Proposal

For the Marketing Plan activities, you are to assume that you are a marketing consultant with a management consulting firm. As part of your responsibilities, you monitor the business environment for business opportunities. You have been asked to come up with an idea for a new business for one of your clients.

Select a small to medium sized company that you will use for all four marketing plan activities. For Part 1, monitor its business environment for business opportunities. Then come up with an idea for a new business opportunity for the company. Outline your idea and explain why you think the new business would work.

In order to have your topic approved for this activity, you must provide sufficient information about the perceived potential for your proposed business, based on some initial market analysis. You should outline your business idea and explain why you think it would work. Your proposal should include the following:

Situation Analysis 

1.Company (background, information about the management structure, etc.)

2.Market analysis (target market, nature of the demand for the product/service) 

3.Competitive analysis (both direct and indirect competition)

4.Opportunity and Issue Analysis 

5.Strengths and weaknesses (inside the company)

6.Opportunities and threats (situations, trends, changing market conditions that are outside the control of the of the company)

7.Issues to be addressed (in the marketing strategy)

- provide a thorough and adept market and competitive analysis

- eloquently describe the strengths & weaknesses, and opportunities & threats of the company

- clearly and insightfully explain the issues to be addressed within the marketing strategy.

Part 1 should be at a minimum 1300 words (approximately 5 pages) in length. Include any charts or diagrams as an appendix (not included in the page limit).

Marketing Plan Part 2: Marketing Research

Note: For this activity, you will need to download the Marketing Plan template from the Final Project area of the course and complete the sections that are relevant to Marketing Plan Part 2.

For Part 2 of the Marketing Plan, you are to design a marketing research project to study the needs of consumers who would likely use your product/service. You are to determine the following:

1.Research objectives

2.Research method

3.Sampling method (Primary data sources)

4.Secondary data sources that would provide information about your products/services

5.Budget for the research

- thoroughly discuss and provide a well-reasoned rationale for the research method you are proposing.

Marketing Plan Part 2: Marketing Research

- astutely explain the sampling method that will be used to collect primary data.

- develop a detailed and accomplished budget.

Part 2 should be at a minimum 1300 words (approximately 5 pages) in length. Include any charts or diagrams as an appendix (not included in the page limit).

Marketing Plan Part 3: Proposed Marketing Strategy

For Part 3 of the Marketing Plan, you will build on what you’ve already completed for Parts 1 and 2 to develop the following components:

Marketing objectives of the business

1.Decision criteria that will aid in comparing alternatives

These should be reflective of the objectives, not only those related to marketing but also those that are central to the survival of your business.

Alternative approaches to establishing the business 

Consider reasonable alternative approaches that reflect the different directions in which you might guide the business. Discuss each alternative in light of the decision criteria you’ve outlined.

Marketing strategy

This should explain the “how” behind what you are doing. For example, if you are offering a new product, the strategy might be product development. Or if you are proposing a business that takes an existing product to new markets, the strategy might be market development.

Target market(s)

These should be clearly outlined in terms of who they are (appropriate and relevant demographic characteristics), what needs/benefits your business is providing and how this meets these needs, and any other relevant information about the markets you’ve selected.

Positioning objective

This should be a statement of how you want the business to be seen in the market. This may be reflective of the objectives you outlined in Part 2. For example, you may want to position your business/product as being the most competitively priced or providing the highest quality service. Remember, the position is “created in the mind of the consumer” through your marketing efforts.

Action plans 

This will be a detailed description of how you will address the 4 Ps in your business. specifically: 

how you will develop the product or decide which products to market;

the pricing strategy you will use and how you will decide on a price that will be profitable yet competitive

the distribution channels you will use and the actually "delivery" of the product

the promotional strategy you will use (including advertising plan, sales plan, etc.)

- skillfully explain the decision criteria you will use to compare alternatives; the criteria must be clearly reflective of both the marketing and general business objectives.

- effectively discuss alternative approaches to establishing the business and clearly tie them to the decision criteria.

- expertly explain the marketing strategy behind what you are proposing.

- skillfully outline the target market(s) for your product/service including the demographics and how the business will meet their needs.

- adeptly describe the positioning objective for your business.

- thoroughly and effectively describe your plan for addressing the 4 Ps in your business.

Part 3 should be at a minimum 1300 words (approximately 5 pages) in length. Include any charts or diagrams as an appendix (not included in the page limit).

Marketing Plan Part 4: Implementation Strategy and Financial Projections

Develop the following components of your marketing plan:

Implementation strategy 

This should tell the story of “what happens tomorrow morning” to begin the business. Outline the activities and responsibilities over the first year of the operation.

Financial implications 

This section should include a breakdown of costs and projected revenues for the business in the first year or two of operation. Try to be specific and detail the financing of the business as well.

Contingency plan 

The contingency plan should address how the business will react to the threats (from the SWOT section), if they should actually happen. As well, you should detail any other responses to unexpected circumstances that would threaten the operation of your business.

- expertly outline the implementation strategy including the activities and responsibilities over the first year of operation.

-diligently break down the costs and projected revenues of the business including clear information about the financing.

-skillfully address how the business will respond to threats or other unexpected circumstances.