Post your answers to the discussion board. Choose either Scenario 1 or Scenario 2, not both.
Scenario 1: Imagine that you are the newly appointed Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Big Established Company Inc. (BEC). BEC has been around for more than 50 years and has many well-known brands, the majority of which command large market shares. Your first task is to develop a marketing plan. What kinds of things will you consider? How would the types of products or services affect your answers? How might your approach differ from what would be proposed in Scenario 2?
Scenario 2: Now imagine that you have been appointed the CMO at Small New Start-Up Company, Inc (SNSU). SNSU is a new company which hopes to challenge the entrenched players. Again, your first task is to develop a marketing plan. What kinds of things will you consider? How would the types of products or services affect your answers? How might your approach differ from what would be proposed in Scenario 1?
HINTS:
Be sure to address the strategic, functional, and operational aspects of a marketing plan.
The brief scenarios have been left purposefully vague; feel free to add in further creative details about the types of products BEC or SNSU produces or other aspects of the company (as long as in doing so it helps market planning).
Step 2 Read and respond to other students' posts.
For subsequent posts, imagine yourself in the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the BEC or SNSU. Respond to initial posts of your classmates in which they played the role of CMOs of your company.
What kinds of questions would you have for the CMO? What additional information would you want to have as you and your CMO discuss the development of the marketing plan? How would you evaluate your CMO's work? Do you think that they did a good job and are on the right track or would you send them back to the drawing board?
Be professional in your comments but remember you are the CEO and ultimately responsible for company performance. If you believe that your CMO is off the mark, it's your job to provide appropriate feedback to get things right.
If differences of opinion occur, debate the issues professionally and provide examples to support your opinions.