The purpose of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to apply the concepts you have learned in this module and to discuss some of the key ideas of the module in your own words. Follow the instructions provided and respond to each of the following questions:

What is the name of the company you have chosen, where is it located, what area does it serve and what industry sector is it in?

How is your product positioned in the market? (Include the customer segment you are targeting and a unique characteristic, the product and what benefits it provides.)

Explain your product; is it a start up or established and why? What is the objective of your communications plan (e.g. increase brand awareness by x%, increase market share by x% etc)?

Which communications channels will you use to reach your target and why? (Please outline an integrated marketing communications solution that will help achieve your objective, including where, when and how your target consumes media.) Please list 4 different channels and say why you have chosen them.

Outline a message that will resonate with your target audience using the ADPLANE framework.

Using what you have learned on this course and the interview with Steve Raquel, President of IOV Media, please answer the following questions for your current company or a company that you have access to a significant amount of information on. This a required activity for this module.

Submit your memo on the My submission tab. Enter your submission directly in the spaces provided in the My submission tab. You may save a draft of your work as you go, and you can come back later to continue working on your draft. When you are finished working, click the Preview button, verify your identity, and then click Submit for review to submit the assignment.

Review criteria

You are required to evaluate the submissions of at least one of your peers based on the instructions and rubric provided. You may begin giving feedback to other students as soon as you submit your assignment; click the Review classmates page to begin. Feel free to provide additional reviews beyond the one required!

Recommendations for Fair Peer Review:

For subjective questions, the score should not be based on whether or not you agree with the answer but rather on whether the answer is complete and well-supported.

Both content and organization are important components of a response. Good writing is confident and clearly focused with relevant details to enrich the content. Good writing also follows instructions, such as word limits, and offers requested information.

A clear and concise answer is preferable to a long response that lacks coherence. Focus should be on content; try not to unduly penalize responses for spelling or grammar.

Note: These are content elements, not page format elements. The assignment should contain several parts (no need for headings or sub-headings):

Part 1: Major Problem / Summary of Recommendations:You must identify what you perceive to be the major problem facing the company in this first paragraph. You must summarize in specific terms your proposed action and the benefits such action will bring to the organization. Present recommendations in precise enough terms for a manager to make a decision after reading the first paragraph if the case situation were real and s/he agreed with your proposal.

Part 2: Rationale behind Recommendations: In this section, you will provide more specifics about your recommendations; including any pertinent background information that caused you to draw the conclusions that you did. For example, you could summarize the market, competitive, and internal factors behind your decision, giving a rationale for adopting your action plan in Part 3 and discarding alternatives.

Part 3: Action Plan:How will you achieve your goals? How will you bring these recommendations to fruition? This could include specifics about distribution, pricing strategies, advertising and promotion, or other marketing strategies that specifically address the problem in the company.

Other Important Points:

Include any quantitative analysis (profit calculations; break even; etc.) that you believe would be important for the reader to understand the case that you are making.

Exhibits should be used judiciously. Use them to communicate detailed calculations (such as the quantitative analysis above) and to explain concepts that supplement your recommendations. This also gives you more space in the memo to make your case.

This is a business memo. As stated earlier you should NOT use a conversational style and do NOT include personal information. (E.g., "When I was in Europe, they purchased these items everyday.")

You could address the memo to the relevant protagonist in the case - the person who needs to be convinced. If there is no such individual, address it to the professor.

You assume the role of the main character who has to address the major issue; however, some students prefer to take the role of an outside consultant. Either is fine.

Final Thoughts:

The first paragraph needs to contain the problem and a summary of your recommendations. After the first paragraph, you do not need to have a FIXED format. As long as you include all of the relevant info - background, recommendations, action plan - then you should receive a good grade (if your submission makes marketing sense...of course). The order in which you include it is not that important; it must flow and your ideas must make sense. Note though...it does seem logical to include the action plan at the end, after your recommendations. Do not be too descriptive. The reader (your peer reviewer) knows what has transpired in the case; thus, reiterating information clearly stated in the case is not satisfactory. Please use facts and descriptive data sparingly, and only when it is relevant to your point and would bolster your case. Ask yourself, "Would this information shed light on why I chose the course of action I did?"