Personal Marketing Plan Assignment
I do not agree with the customer/seller model of education. I believe we are co-producers of a product-your education and eventual career. To that end, it is essential to approach selling a product to a market-especially the job market-with a marketing plan. Since the most important product you will ever sell is yourself, best that we have a plan for to market it from the very beginning.
For this assignment you will prepare a 20-page Marketing Plan. The product you are selling is you, the buyer is your ideal employer/industry. You will treat yourself as you would any other product about to enter the market and you will apply the principles of this class to making that product a success in your chosen market.
You will analyze the current and potential market, product design process (your education), and other important factors that you identify with what you learn in this course.
Project Specs:
15-page final paper (written in pieces, see below). Double spaced, 12-point Times New Roman, no more than 1-inch margins. Text, not lists/bullet points. Tables and charts in Appendix (does not count towards page count)
Late submissions will be penalized: 10% first day, 30% second day, 60% third day. Nothing later will be accepted for credit (but will still be read and reviewed).
Pieces you will write:
PMP1. Target Market and Ideal Product Description (No less than 2 pages): Who are you selling this product to? What does the market want? What does their ideal product look like. To do this you need to identify your target job after graduation. What is your ideal job?
Does it already exist or are you trying to create something new? Do you want to work for a specific company? Particular industry? Particular field? The more detailed you are then the better you can design the ideal product. Get (or create) the job description. Learn the necessary qualifications (degrees, credentials, certification, etc). What kind of experience do you need? Your Target Market is "people who hire people for this kind of job". The ideal product is "the perfect candidate for this job".
PMP2. Environmental Analysis (No less than 2 pages): What about the market in which you will sell this product? You might conduct a Porter's Five Forces analysis to understand what the field looks like. You might use a SWOT Analysis as well to identify Opportunities and Threats in the environment. You should address all 5 market environmental factors.
PMP3. Product Description (No less than 2 pages): This piece tells me who you are. Here is where you describe the product as it currently exists. Consider a SWOT Analysis to understand your Strengths and Weaknesses.
PMP4 & 5. Gap Analysis and Plan of Action (No less than 5 pages): Clearly identify the gap between the existing product and the ideal product for the market. Here's where the advanced SWOT Analysis becomes useful. Do you have Leverage, Problems, Vulnerabilities or Constraints?
Concrete steps in your plan if action. No, "I could...". No, "I can...". Clear, definitive actions. A Plan! You will give me a blueprint for turning you into the previously identified ideal product.
How are you going to close the gaps? How are you going to prepare your product to be the ideal product for your target market? How will you use leverage you have identified? How will you address weaknesses that are causing Problems or Constraining your actions?
How can you counteract Threats creating Vulnerabilities or feeding Problems?
This is a good place to include a budget as well. No production process is without its costs. How will you pay for this production process?
In business this would be your plan for creating the ideal product. You would tell me how you're going to make something the market truly wants.
PMP6. Stitching it all together: What you have at this point is a bunch of pieces that need to be turned into a single, final document. Taking all your previous documents, and the corrections you have made to them since you got feedback on them, you are going to turn them into one coherent document. Stitch them together and add any missing pieces. What other relevant information can you add at this point? If you've been doing your work all along this should be easy-it's mostly written. This is basically your final document (once you add PMP7).
PMP7. Executive Summary (maximum 1 page): When it's all done you are going to write a 1-page-and only 1-page-summary of the Personal Marketing Plan that tells me why I want to read the whole thing (again). Your executive summary tells a reader who is pressed for time exactly what they will find inside and why they should spend the time to read the whole thing. This now becomes your cover page for the entire document.
A few writing guidelines and suggestions:
This is a plan-a document describing the way things are now and a description of how we will get to where we want to be. Many people misuse the word ‘plan' to mean ‘what they intend to do' ("I plan to make a million dollars before I'm 30", etc.) That is not a plan; that's an intention. What they should be saying is "I intend to make...". I don't want an intention, I want a plan!
This is not some giant resume and cover letter where you do everything to look your best and cover over your flaws. The purpose of this document is to create an honest assessment of the current state of the product and the plan for making it perfect. If you are already the ideal candidate then you shouldn't be in school; you're wasting your time and money. This document should be a plan for creating the perfect product.
Finally, you (or someone else) are spending a lot of money for this process we call education. You should be doing it with a purpose and direction in mind.
You should also care about the end result. You should care a lot. The hope is that this exercise will both increase your knowledge and understanding of some of the important concepts of Marketing being covered in this class as well as give you a blueprint for your future academic success.
Don't forget to include citations and references at then end. Where did you get your data? Good sources add credibility to a document. Build your credibility by showing me where your information came from?