Maryland Zoo Marketing Plan

Assignment

Throughout this course, you will be gaining practical knowledge of how executives develop marketing

plans. To help you get a better understanding of the principles and concepts of developing a marketing

plan, you will have an opportunity to

creat

e

a Market

ing Plan for the Maryland Zoo. Your audience is the

marketing department at the Maryland Zoo. They want to

an

8

-

15

plan with at least 2

recommended

marketing campaigns for how you plan to increase membership sales at the Maryland Zoo.

To help guide you thr

ough the process creating a marketing plan, the textbook offers a sample plan in

Appendix A at the end of Chapter 2 of your textbook. We will also be working on several major portions

of the marketing plan in 3 separate phases

(see below)

. Each phase is wo

rth 10 points and is an

opportunity for you to receive feedback on your progress as you work on your marketing plan for the

Maryland Zoo. It's important that you work on your marketing plan as

you progress through the course.

Each phase is designed to

buil

d the plan as you'

re working through the course readings and

assignments.

At the end of the semester, you will submit a final 8

-

plan that MUST include the following.

E

xecutive Summary

(5 points)

: summarize each section of your report (1

-

)

Description of

the Maryland Zoo

(5 points): include a brief background about the zoo

and the

market situation

(half

-

full page)

Strategic Plan/Focus

(15 points)

: include the mission, goals and competency/sustainable

competitive advantage of the Maryland Zoo

.

Situation Analysis

(15 points)

: Include a

SWOT Analysis and Environmental Scan and discuss the

Industry Analysis

-

trends in zoo membership, Competitor Analysis, Company/Organization

Ana

lysis and Customer Analysis (1

-

2

pages)

. A full chart deta

iling your SWOT Analysis and

Environmental Scan should appear in the Appendix.

Market

-

Product Focus

(15 points)

:

Summarize

the Marketing and Product Objectives and discuss

in detail the following

-

Target Market Segments, Points of Difference and Positio

ni

ng (1

-

2

pages)

Market

ing Program

(15 points)

: Discuss at least 2

of the seven elements of marketing a service

that you are recommending for the Maryland Zoo as part of your strategy to incr

ease

memberships to the zoo (1

-

2

pages)

Financial Data and Projecti

ons

(10 points)

: Summarize your projections based on the

recommendations you discussed in the Marketing Program. Be sure your projections are

realistic

.

IMPORTANT: Your data and projections must be developed in Excel and copied and

pasted into your Word do

cument.

They should include all relevant costs and should show the

net profit gained or lost based on your recommendations. This section should also include at

least 2 graphic elements

(i.e., graphs, tables, bar charts, etc.)

that illustrate the data. (1

-

Implementation Plan

(10 points)

: Discuss your recommendations for implementing the

Marketing Program (1

-

Evaluation

(10 points)

: Discuss how you plan to monitor results from your recommendations

and evaluate

their performance. (Note: A simple two

-

sentence statement as shown in Appendix

A is not sufficient.)

Be specific as to how you plan to monitor the performance of your campaign

so you can track the results.

(1

-

The assignment must be presented in a

professional format using proper grammar and sentence

structure to ensure the ideas are presented with clarity. The ideas must also be supported with evidence

and research using proper APA reference citations throughout the document.

The final report is w

orth up to 100 points, which accounts for nearly 15% of your total grade.

Phase 1

-

Creating a Situation Analysis (worth 10 points)

In this assignment, you are ready to a SWOT Analysis and an Environmental Scan based on your

readings in Chapters 2 and

3.

You will notice, that the text treats the two analyses separately. However, there is some overlap. For

example, Opportunities and Threats in a SWOT Analysis, are external factors to an organization much in

the same way that an Environmental Scan are ex

ternal to an organization. That is why the model SWOT

Analysis in Appendix A of your textbook also includes an Environmental Analysis.

Use the model in Appendix A of the textbook to create SWOT Analysis for the Maryland Zoo. You will

also notice that th

e textbook only includes

one

very brief statement for each factor in the analysis.

These statements are only for illustrative purposes and is not sufficient for an actual marketing plan.

Therefore, you will need to provide a deeper level of analysis that i

s supported by research data and

supporting evidence.

For example, if a social trend is

the increase in

incomes in northern Baltimore City

and southern Baltimore County, you would want to state, "Median income levels rising 6.8% since 2015,

the largest gro

wth in annual income in 10 years, within a 5

-

mile radius of the Baltimore Zoo based on

201

9

Census Bureau data." It's important that your analysis is based on statistical and reliable trend data

-

and not on your opinion. It's also important that you have

at least three statements for each factor to

receive full credit.

For guidance on how to develop a SWOT Analysis go to:

https://w

ww.breakthroughpros.com/post/how

-

to

-

easily

-

create

-

a

-

swot

-

analysis

-

to

-

give

-

your

-

a

-

competitive

-

adantage

For guidance on how to develop an Environmental Scan go to:

https://www.break

throughpros.com/post/environmental

-

scanning

In your final report, you will include a written summary of your SWOT Analysis

and Environmental Scan

and you will include a chart version of

each

in the appendix of your final report.

For this assignment, create

a

Situation Analysis

in a chart format as shown in Appendix A with at least 3

statements for each of the factors in your analysis. Be sure to includ

e the sources for your research

indicating that your analysis is based on reliable data

-

and not your opin

ion.

Additional Resources:

http://guides.matc.edu/marketingplan

http://www.doh.wa.gov/portals/1/documents/mtgs/2011/20110214

-

pr

-

pmc

-

mod

-

02

-

14

-

11swot08.pdf

http://horizon.unc.edu/courses/papers/enviroscan/

Phase 2

-

Creating Target Market Segments

(worth 10 points)

One of the most important steps in developing a marketing plan is identifying a target market. It's

important to understand what market seg

mentation means, why segmentation is important and how it

is done. Be sure to review Chapter 9 before completing this assignment.

For guidance on the market segmentation process, go to:

https://www.breakthroughpros.com/post/market

-

segmentation

-

4

-

easy

-

steps

-

to

-

apply

-

a

-

market

-

segmentation

-

strategy

-

for

-

maximum

-

roi

Then, review the Maryland Zoo's most recent annual repo

rts and publications (available at

www.MarylandZoo.org

) for a better understanding of the various segments the Maryland Zoo targets

for its marketing.

Questions:

1.

What is market segmentation?

2.

Why would the Maryl

and Zoo want to segment its target market?

3.

Consumer market segmentation is typically based on four factors: geographic, demographic,

psychographic and behavioral bases. What

segmentation

variables and breakdowns would you

recommend to the Maryland Zoo fo

r

marketing

membership sales

? Be specific and support you

r

recommendations with evidence

-

based research.

Phase 3

-

Developing an IMC Program for the Maryland Zoo

(worth 10 points)

For your marketing plan, you must include

at least 2

of the seven elements of marketing a service

(Chapter 12) that you would recommend to the Maryland Zoo as part of your strategy to increase

memberships. For each element, you will need to discuss the tar

get audience, the promotional

objectives, the amount of money

that

should be budgeted, the kinds of promotions to be used, where

the promotion should be run and when.

Each Target Market MUST have a different promotion objective

and Promotional Element.

See

Appendix A and review Chapter 1

8

(Developing an IMC Program LO 1

8

-

4)

for more background details you will need to complete the assignment.

IMPORTANT

:

The following chart is for illustrative purposes onl

y to help guide you as you consider

each Target Marke

t, the Promotion Objective and Type of Promotional Element you would

recommend

and the questions you must address

. DO NO

T USE THIS CHART IN YOUR REPORT because

you will need to discuss each item in detail.

Target Market Segment

1

i

Promotion

Objective

ii

Type of

Promotional

Element

iii

How much

should be

budgeted?

iv

Where will

the

promotion

run?

v

When will

the

promotion

run?

vi

1.

Target Market #1

2.

Target Market #2

i

Be specific. Include the

geographic, demographics, psychogr

aphic and behavioral variables.

ii

Explain how you would achieve one of the 5 promotion objectives.

iii

Explain the kind of promotion to be used from one of the 7 elements.

iv

Explain your reasoning. Include specific

dollar amounts and explain how you arrived at your figures.

v

Be specific. For example, if you choose TV advertising explain which channels you would choose and why.

vi

Be specific. What dates and time of day would your promotion occur? W