instructions:GUIDELINES FOR TERM PAPER – MARKETING PLAN1. Executive Summary

The Executive Summary “sells” the marketing plan to readers through its clarity and brevity. The summary should present a description of the product/service, its target market, and its need within the market. The summary should also provide an overview of the main points of the plan and should emphasize an action orientation.

IMPORTANT: Write this last – after all the other sections have been completed.

2. Company Description

The company description should highlight the recent history and successes of the organization.

3. Strategic Focus and Plan

The Strategic Focus and Plan sets the strategic direction for the entire organization

a. Mission/Vision

The Mission/Vision statement is a qualitative statement that specifies the markets and product lines in which a business will compete. A mission statement can dramatically affect the range of a firm’s marketing activities by narrowing or broadening the competitive playing field. An effective mission statement must be clear and direct.

b. Strategy

Explain the marketing strategy that will be used and why it was chosen. (Ex: A market penetration strategy will be used in order to increase market share from XX to XX.)
Only choose one strategy to pursue in this plan. Use the following market development grid to explain your strategy. (Remember, there must be transition sentences leading to any grids or charts used. Don’t depend just on the grid to explain your points.)

Current Products
New Products

Current Markets Market penetration:
Sell more product to current market Product development:
New product sold to current market
New Markets Market development:
Sell current product to new market Diversification:
New product sold to new market

c. Objectives (SMART)

The Goals section of a marketing plan sets both financial and non-financial targets. Goals should be in quantitative terms, where possible, to facilitate measuring the company’s future performance.

Develop three goals for the product. They must be S.M.A.R.T goals! (Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound)

• An example of a financial goal (note it is specific and measurable): “XYZ Inc. will increase sales from $10 million in 2012 to $15 million in 2016.”

4. Situation Analysis

The essence of the situation analysis is taking stock of where the firm or product has been recently, where it is now, and where it is headed.

a. Industry Analysis

The industry analysis section should provide the backdrop for a more detailed analysis of the competition, the company, and the customer. An in-depth analysis will give both internal and external readers of the plan confidence in the company’s ability to understand its own industry.

b. SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis is an effective shorthand summary of the situation analysis.
The acronym is used to describe an organization’s internal Strengths and Weaknesses and its external Opportunities and Threats.
The SWOT analysis can be effectively presented in a tabular format followed by a text discussion that elaborates on the information in the table.
Favorable Factors Unfavorable Factors
Internal
Factors Strengths:
What is the company good at? Weaknesses:
What needs work?
External
Factors Opportunities:
What is going on in the marketplace? Threats:
What should the company be wary of?

c. Competitor Analysis

An effective analysis of the competition should demonstrate that the company has a realistic understanding of its major competitors and their marketing strategies. As in with the industry analysis, a realistic assessment makes readers feel confident that the marketing actions in the plan are well grounded.

Key competitors – Name the top 3 competitors and give a brief description of their offering.

5. Market-Product Focus

a. Target Market Description

Because an organization cannot satisfy the needs of all consumers, it must concentrate its marketing efforts on the needs of specific niches or target markets. Consider why a particular target market was selected and how the product or service meets the needs of the target market.
Target market description – describe the prospective customers. They are the target market. Use demographics, psychographics, lifestyle, values, and behaviors to fully describe the ideal customer.

b. Points of Difference (vs. competitors)

Points of difference are those characteristics of a product that make it superior to competitive substitutes. The greatest single factor in a new product’s failure is the lack of significant points of difference.

c. Positioning Map (relative to competitors)

A product’s unique points of difference are communicated by way of a positioning strategy. Also include a perceptual or positioning map to help illustrate the competitive positioning. (Example below.)

6. Marketing Program

Everything that has gone on before in the marketing plan sets the stage for the marketing mix actions—the 4 Ps (or 7 Is for services marketing)—covered in the marketing plan. Product, price, promotion, and place (distribution) strategies are all detailed in the Marketing Program section of the plan.

When describing these strategies: Include these elements:
Product/Service
Fully describe the product. Include: features, brand name, packaging, services, warranty

Price
Develop the price for the product. Explain the pricing. Show how the price compares to competitor products. Include: List price, discounts, allowances, credit terms, payment period.
Promotion
Develop a promotional campaign with a minimum of three tactics: advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, publicity, and social media
Place/distribution
Determine where the product will be sold at. What are other considerations: retail outlets, channels, coverage, interactive marketing
7. Conclusion and recommendations

Now that all the work has been done to prepare the marketing plan, pull the ideas together and give the reader a final conclusion and recommendations to end the paper.

Reference List

A correctly formatted reference list must be included to show the source of all factual information.
Other notes:
• Include photos, illustrations, tables, or charts when appropriate to help explain concepts to the reader. Label and title each figure.

• Some sections could use a bulleted list rather than extensive narrative.

• Must include a table of contents.

• Running head and page numbers are required.

• Must have at least five references for this paper.

• No wikis or blogs (unless instructor has cleared the use of these for the paper).

• Write the Executive Summary last. This section is NOT an introduction. It should contain the key points from the paper to help guide the reader.

• Use APA format for all in-text citations. Use in-text citations whenever using information that was obtained from a reference source.

• Include a cover page.

• Follow APA format throughout the paper.

• Proofread and edit before submitting the final paper!