Assignment:
You will write the marketing plan based on a business idea. If you do not have an idea, talk to your friends or family to come up with an idea.
As you are writing the marketing plan, think of ways to overcome any challenges as well as opportunities that you can take advantage of as you expand your product line and explore new pricing and promotional activities to create value for your target customers.
Prior to starting your Marketing Plan, please write a brief paragraph outlining your plan for the project. Submit the information to your instructor as soon as possible using the Marketing Plan Project Dropbox.
The executive summary section should be written once you have completed your marketing plan and a table of contents should follow it. This section will clearly summarize your objectives and strategies for the next marketing cycle. Include the key issues that will be addressed by your marketing plan as well as key strategies you will be using to address these key issues. Also, discuss your expected outcomes for your business.
For the section titled current market situation, describe the market for your lemonade. Describe your product in relation to the formula you used. Have you increased/lost market share? Has your business grown? What is your competition like?
Complete a SWOT Analysis. Talk about the current strengths and weaknesses of your company at the end of the last period of the simulation. In the threats and opportunities analysis section, refer to your experiences from the simulation as well as any outside threats and opportunities that may arise.
For the objectives section, create at least three objectives for your next marketing cycle (5 periods) and make sure you state them in specific, measureable and time bound terms. For example: Increase sales of base product (original lemonade) by 25% over the last cycle.
In the marketing strategy section, review your target market and your positioning strategy. Consider adding a secondary target market and perhaps repositioning your product. Ensure that your marketing mix strategies are working towards providing value for your chosen target markets and also reinforcing your positioning strategy.
Marketing mix decisions. This section is very important (and should make up a large part of your paper!) Outline specific activities in each of the mix elements (product, price, promotion and place) that your company will undertake in the next business cycle.
Product: What changes do you want to make to your product? When? How? Do you want to expand your product line?
Price: What type of pricing strategies will you look at? Bundling? Line pricing?
Promotion: Any new ad campaigns? What about promotional deals? Contests?
Place: New location? Expanded locations? Other ways you could distribute your product to the consumer?
Budgets and controls. Create a budget for your marketing initiatives based on what you have described in your plan. This should be a separate document included in the appendix. Also, describe your budget in this written section of your plan.
As an appendix, include your budget and any other relevant documents.
Make sure your plan is well organized and neat. It should include a title page and provide clear section headings that are easy for the reader to follow.