COURSE: BUS 343
SEMESTER: Summer 2015
TITLE:
INSTRUCTOR: Karen Robson
Introduction to Marketing
GUIDELINES FOR THE MARKETING PLAN
For the marketing plan, each student team needs to 1) identify problems facing the focal company, 2) research and analyze the situations, company, competitors and customers, and 3) formulate an appropriate marketing plan to address these problems accordingly. It is very important that your analysis provides an understanding of the problems and allows possible decisions and recommendations to flow from it. A key objective of your written report is to successfully convey that understanding to the readers.
As the problems studied in different case projects are different, it is difficult to find one marketing plan structure fitting all problems. In other words, each team will probably organize their written plan differently. MARKETING PLAN: TIPS AND HINTS
•
A good marketing plan usually starts with an executive summary, which should never be more than
1 page. This is the first thing your readers will read. However, this should be the last thing you write, as it is a summary of the whole paper.
•
Define what issue(s) or problem(s) you are attempting to address. Why would the focal company be concerned with it/them? Distinguish symptoms (e.g., declining market shares) and problems causing those symptoms (e.g., losing loyal customers to a new competitor).
•
When constructing recommendations or objectives, make sure they are “SMART”, or specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and time-bounded. When writing up your recommendations, keep pinching yourselves and ask “are they reasonable, actionable, and do they make sense?”
•
When researching and analyzing relevant environmental trends like STEP (Social, technological,
Economic, Political), you need to discuss how they are related to your focal company, its customers and/or competitors. For example, how would a new legislation on CO2 emission affect the company’s cost structure? What is the implication of a technological trend like social media on its customers? Would the recent financial crisis affect the competitors from the U.S.?
•
State any assumptions you are making and make sure they are reasonable.
•
If you identify constraints, problems, or potential issues for the focal company, your marketing plan should be responsive to these issues.
•
For segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP), it is important to distinguish what the company is doing and what it should be doing. If needed, suggest a new segmentation scheme, new prioritization for the segments, a new positioning strategy or any combination of the above.
•
It would be easier to “sell” your marketing plan by such numerical analysis as cost/benefit analysis.
You don’t need to get exact estimates for the costs – you can use ballpark figures to show that the costs of your recommended actions would provide a worthwhile payout. To take one step further, ask yourselves if the total cash required is accessible to the firm. If your focal company is a new startup, millions of dollars on marketing isn’t feasible. However, for a big multinational, millions make perfect sense.
•
Use section headings and subheadings.
•
Have brief linkages between sections. They really improve the overall flow/communicability of your report. •
You may want to have a cover page and a table of contents. These don't count towards your word limit. •
A reference section is mandatory.
•
If an appendix appears in your report BUT is not referred to in the body, it is of no use and of no relevance. •
Appendices should be supplemental materials. If comprehension of your marketing plan depends on the appendices, then those appendices will be included in the total word count (Max 2500 words). •
You may want to take a look at some general writing tips in the SFU Library University Reading and
Writing Guide: http://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/writing •
If you feel that certain team members have not equally shared the workload, discuss this problem openly in the team meeting immediately. Remind everyone that the mandatory peer evaluation for both the presentation and the written marketing plan at the end will reflect any unequal contributions by team members.
-2- 