You should choose a product, not a brand (do not prepare a project that talks about an existing brand). This means that, for example, you can choose "ice cream," but you cannot choose "Ben & Jerry's," or you can choose a "restaurant," but you cannot choose "Olive Garden." You will be creating a marketing plan for your own brand from scratch! Do not copy any other brand's mission statement, goals, objectives, etc.

You will submit the assignment online at the end of the semester (August 15). Late assignments are not accepted!!! Please, do not wait the last minute to work on it. If you do so, your assignment will not be insightful. This is a comprehensive project covering all the materials you learn throughout the semester. Your marketing plan will follow the exact structure (and content) outlined below. This outline is parallel to the topics we will cover on Discussion Board as we progress throughout the semester, so each week you will learn something new to apply to and progress with your marketing plan. You can also see the Marketing Plan Rubric for assessment criteria.

OUTLINE

• Introduction
  • You should state why you have chosen to market certain product or service in RGV. Explain in half a page what motivates you?
• Mission Statement
  • Your mission statement should have a market orientation, stating not only what business you are in, but also its benefits for consumers, talking about the competitive sphere and the values of the company. Please check the guidelines provided in power point slides (Chapter 2) about writing a good mission statement.
• Marketing Objectives
  • Your objectives must be clear, specific, and aligned with the business mission (like saying "we will open two more stores by the end of 2020"). You should explain how you decided about these objectives. What makes you think that you can achieve them?
• Marketing Environment Analysis
  • Detailed Analysis of the Marketing Environment (MICRO and MACRO) is the most crucial part of your Marketing Plan since you will base all your strategies (Marketing strategy, STP strategies, and 4 P Strategies) on this analysis, so this part must be very much detailed under each sub-section (suppliers, competitors, consumers, etc. in the micro environment and demographic, political, economic, etc. factors in the macro environment), explaining how each factor will affect
  • your Marketing Plan. For example, it is not enough if you only talk in general about your competitors, instead you must mention their names and talk about their strengths and weaknesses, collect information from their websites. Same goes for suppliers/intermediaries, consumers etc.
  • You must talk about all of the micro and all the macro factors you will learn in class and already mentioned in power point slides. Do not omit any of them.
  • You must provide all supporting citations/references here (competitor websites, government statistics, etc.).
  • You can conduct a realistic SWOT analysis only after your marketing environment analysis. Strengths and Weaknesses are internal to the company versus Opportunities and Threats are external factors. When you talk about S and W, you must talk in relation to your competitors. For example, when you have an ability that others do not have, this may be a strength. In case you need, there is more information about SWOT in your power point slides and the textbook.
  • You need a detailed section about Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning Strategies (each under separate sub-title). Please, do not simply say "the company is targeting this type of customers." Here, I expect you to explain in detail the segmentation criteria (demographic, psychographic, behavioral, and/or geographic, etc.), targeting strategy (multi-segment, mass marketing, or niching), and positioning strategy you choose. You will learn more about these in class.
  • For the Marketing Mix, do not simply say what product, what price, which channels, and what kind of communication tools you choose, but explain "why?" in detail. In the Marketing Mix section (as well as others), I expect you to apply the things you learn in class. Your Marketing Mix section will evolve much better as we will talk about each P after mid-semester.
  • For Product, do not forget to talk about features/benefits, new product development, product/service strategy and competitive positioning.
  • For Price, do not forget to describe and justify your pricing strategy. Talk about the internal and external factors affecting your pricing decisions. Why do you choose one strategy and not the others? The pricing strategy must be realistic. It is not enough to say, "we will charge this price."
  • For Place (Distribution) strategy, justify the choice of channel members. Include details about channel partnerships and relationships.
  • For Promotion (Communication), please provide the promotional objectives and the justification behind the use of the various promotional tools (advertising, PR, sales people, promotion, direct marketing, social media, etc.). The promotional objectives and promotional tools must be integrated and consistent with each other.
• SWOT Analysis
• Market segmentation, Targeting and Positioning strategies
• Marketing Mix Strategies: