Instructions

This assignment will help you to explore the marketing plan development process including target markets while building your marketing vocabulary and your awareness of marketing trends. It will also prepare you for the final team project as you will begin using a Marketing Plan template.

You will develop a profile of the organization chosen by your team for the final Marketing Plan Part 1 project including basic profile information, segmentation and targeting, company situation with SWOT, and mission objectives and goals. See Brightspace (Assessments > Rubrics) for a rubric. You should briefly review Assignment #3 (Information Sources) before completing Assignment #2 (Company Profile) as there is a strong relationship between them. Your work is focused on the current situation. You are not expected to make recommendations at this stage - that comes later. Your profile is based on what you see now - what is.

INSTRUCTIONS

Identify your team members as confirmed in Brightspace (Communications > Groups) and reach out by email to plan the assignment. If you would like to be re-assigned to another team let me know by email (cc your current and proposed team members) and I will do my best to make adjustments. Review the assignment rubric together.

Working in your assigned teams, to the best of your ability, complete the below elements of the marketing plan company profile for the organization and products and/or services as agreed by your team. You should expect to do research to answers the questions. Later in the course you will do more extensive research - this is a start.

Be sure the organization and offering you select will 1) remain interesting to you for the duration of the course, and 2) have sufficient information available for you to conduct research and make informed observations/ recommendations in your final marketing plan project.

Submit a three page (minimum - no maximum i.e. 1,500 plus words) single spaced file to the Brightspace folder by the due date shown in Brightspace. Submit in pdf format. You should edit the template as not all sections are required in this submission. Be careful to avoid spelling or grammatical errors. All team members are required to submit. This is an individual assignment.

Use the following as guidelines for your submission. You will further develop this profile in the final group submission. This is a start. You should have content for each heading below but you are not expected to answer every question below only those that are most relevant to the organization you choose to analyze.

Company Profile

Company Name:

Industry:

Major products and/or services (names, types):

Products and/or services your marketing plan will focus on:

Target customers:

Distribution channel(s):

Headquarters (city, state, country):

Year founded:

Number of employees:

Annual revenue (estimated)

Key competitors:

Market Segmentation and Targeting

What problem does your product or service solve?

Describe the total market for your solution: Who are potential customers?

What are the key segments within this market?

Identify and briefly describe 1-3 segments that this company serves.

Which segment does this marketing plan focus on, and why? Why do you believe this segment will offer growth and profit opportunities?

Situation and Company Analysis

Economic Environment: Discuss factors that affect your consumers' purchasing power and spending patterns. What is the economic environment that you are operating in? Is it a growth, recovery or recession? Will it be easy to find staff? What is the current interest rate, is it increasing or decreasing and how is consumer confidence?

Technical Environment: The technological environment changes rapidly. You need to make sure that you are aware of trends in your industry and other industries could affect your business. New technologies create new markets and can influence you consumers and competitors.

Industry environment: What are the trends in your industry? Are there new entrants in the market? Has a substitute product been introduced? Are there changes in industry practices or new benchmarks to use?

Competitive Environment: How many competitors do you have? Who are the key competitors? What are the key selling points or competitive advantages of each one? What is your advantage over competitors? Is the market large enough to support you and competitors?

Political Environment: Consider the political environment for the areas that your business will trade and operate in. Is there a stable political system? Are there any licenses and regulations that you should be aware of? Do you need to win support to be able to operate?

SWOT Analysis

Develop a SWOT like the one in the template. Base your SWOT on the following questions. Try to make your SWOT specific but brief using bullets or key phrases to describe each SWOT line item.

Strengths

Does the organization have a strong brand presence?

What resources are available for marketing activities?

Does the company have unique products or services that satisfy the needs of their target market?

What makes the company's products or services unique?

What value is brought to customers?

Weaknesses

Does the organization have a weak brand presence?

Are resources insufficient for marketing activities?

Does the company lack distinctive products or services?

Do current products or services fail to satisfy the needs of customers?

Do current products or services fail to bring value to customers?

Opportunities

What is the unique opportunity that the company is trying to take advantage of?

Does the target market have any unfulfilled needs that the company can satisfy?

Are there emerging target markets with needs that the company can satisfy?

Are there ways the company and its competitors can benefit by working together?

Are there opportunities for collaborating with customers to build brand presence?

Describe and analyze if market demand is increasing?

Are there changes in the government regulations that will affect the company?

Describe any emerging global issues that will affect the company?

Threats

What are the tactics that competitors use to pursue customers?

What are the strengths of the company's biggest and or emerging competitors?

In what ways are the competitors' products or services superior to the company's offerings?

How are competitors likely to respond to any changes in the way the company markets?

Is the company behind in adopting new technologies for marketing?

Describe any ways in which international competitors are taking away market share?

What do customers dislike about the company?

Describe and analyze if market demand is decreasing?

Mission, Objectives, and Goals

State the mission or business purpose as you understand it: what the organization wants to achieve, in market-oriented terms. (Example: Disney's mission could be, "We create happiness by providing the finest in entertainment for people of all ages.") Not all organizations publish these so if needed propose them.

List 1-3 objectives that move the organization a step closer to achieving the mission. (Example: A Disney objective could be, "To be the most popular theme park for international visitors.")

Convert objectives into specific marketing goals that are easy to measure and evaluate. (Example: Our goal is to increase market share of international theme park visitors by 10% in the next two years."). Again these may not be published so you may need to proposes what you believe their goals to be at present.

Grading will be according to a rubric published in Brightspace and will consider: 1 - submission professionalism and following the directions; 2 - Company Profile Section content; 3 - Segmentation and Targeting Section content quality; 4 - Situation, Company Analysis and SWOT section quality; and 5 - Mission Objectives and Goals Section quality