Marketing Plan

Overview
This is group task in which you will be working in teams (3-5 people) to develop a marketing plan for a
product or service of a given Australian or global brand. It will be a specific product or service rather
than a company, as a company may have several products each requiring individual plans. It will be a
product or service that is easy to research, one that has been written about regularly in marketing
magazines or one that students have access to the information via world wide web. No direct contact is
allowed with organizations (other than the brief provided by the industry representative) unless
students have a prior personal or professional relationship. All research should otherwise be desk
research, observation and educated guesses.
Task and Requirements
Assessment 2 / Marketing plan – written report
Word count: 2500
Due: Week 12
Value: 25%
1. The report should be 2500 words long. It must be evident from the report introduction what was
contribution of each member of the group to the report. Executive summary, introduction and
conclusion do not count as an individual contribution. Refer to RMIT Study and Learning Centre online
tutorial available at http://emedia.rmit.edu.au/learninglab/content/reports-0 to assist you in
structuring the report. Investing time before you start writing will result in a better report.
2. Team leader has to submit the report electronically via Blackboard by the due date. A Turnitin
account has been set up to enable you to check your assignments for academic integrity. You
should be able to submit any number of times but will need to be mindful that after the first
submission you will get an instant report but for any further attempt the system can be slow and
take 2 to 3 days to generate a report so you are advised not to leave it until the last moment.
This assessment tasks enables you to build your ability to:
• Demonstrate an understanding of the underlying philosophy of the marketing concept and its
strategic importance for Australian business. Demonstrate an understanding of the key
marketing concepts and how they are applied within the Australian business context.
• Critically analyze marketing situations, offer marketing solutions and be able to justify and
support their recommendations with marketing theory and examples from industry.
• Respond to real life marketing problems and produce solutions that meet the expectations of
the audience.
• Conceptualize broadly the marketing process and how the various elements of the marketing
mix, specific marketing tools and related theory fit together to make up the total “picture”.
• Communicate ideas, intentions and outcomes to diverse audiences and purposes
Guidelines to Write Marketing Plan
Analysis of Current Position
1. Defining the firm’s mission and overall objectives.
Any individual product or service must be developed in line with the firm’s overall mission and
objectives. All Body Shop products, for instance, must be environmentally friendly, all 3M products
reflect the firm’s commitment to leading edge technology and the Foxtel vs. Optus Vision battle
depicts these firms’ high risk for high reward business vision.
By including the firm’s mission and overall objectives at the start of the planning process we are
establishing the framework within which our product will operate in. We are also ensuring that our
product will play its part in assisting the firm achieves its overall objectives.
As a guide you should include the following:
1. Company Mission.
Brief company background and the overall guiding vision of the company, or what this
company stands for.
2. Company Objectives.
Corporate objectives to be achieved over the next 12 months. (These are different to product
objectives – refer to the Assignment description if you are still unsure what is required). These
objectives help to set the scene that your product operates within. They will show whether the
company is looking to grow or consolidate, be innovative and take risks or be reactive and
conservative in its approach.
3. Market overview.
Describe and analyze the market place and the trends and forces operating within it. Include
analysis such as:
• Definition of the market or category
you need to very clearly define and describe the market your product operates in. The
broader the definition of your market the more competitors there are likely to be and the
narrower the definition the less scope there is for market segmentation and finding new
users for your product.
Ask yourself whether you
are analyzing the ‘confectionery market’ or only the Chocolate
Bar’ category. If you are concentrating on the Chocolate Bar category, it is very worthwhile
to show where it fits in to the overall market. You can do this by describing the
confectionery market and defining the various product categories that fit into it, such as,
chocolate bars, boxed chocolates, children’s treats (Kinder Surprise), and confectionery
bags and so on. You could then go on to describe what proportion of the confectionery
market it represents and compare
the growth trends of the total market and this particular
category. For instance, it would be significant to know that the chocolate bar market
represents
25% of the confectionery market and although the confectionery is stagnant,
Chocolate Bars
are still growing at 7-8% per annum. (You should also specify the types of
products included in your definition of the market/ category).
• Market Size
what is the size of the market? Quantify the size of the market in volume (000’s cases/
kilos) and/ or value ($000) terms.
• Market Potential
is this a growth market? Can you estimate next year’s growth rate? Is this an attractive
market to be in? What stage of the life cycle is this market in?
• Market Structure
what is the competitive nature of this market? Is it a monopoly? Oligopoly?
• Trends
analyze the macro environmental trends affecting this market place. Include only those
issues that are relevant to your market. Consider the demographic, economic, natural,
cultural, technological and political/ legal trends.
4. Competitors
• Consider both direct and indirect competitors in your analysis.
• Include information in your analysis that helps to identify not only what your competitors
are doing but how they think, how innovative they are and how they may respond to a
competitive threat. You should consider issues such as:
Market share
corporate culture
strategic alliances
international links
financial strengths
marketing expertise
innovativeness and so on ..
• You may even like to do a SWOT analysis on your key competitors.
5. Segmentation and Buyer Behavior.
In this section of the plan you are trying to understand the various customer segments in the
marketplace. You should attempt to divide the market into discrete segments.
Your aim is to build ‘profiles’ of each segment to aid in our understanding of what, where,
when, why and how often these customers buy products in this market.
You may even identify a segment that is currently not being served and in doing so you have
uncovered a major opportunity.
Discuss in this section the type of buying process involved in your market place, how decisions
are made,
who influences these decisions and any other issues that are important to the
decision making process.
6. Internal Analysis
The internal analysis is a review of the company’s performance and current marketing strategy.
The purpose of this review is to establish how well the current marketing strategy is working to
achieve the objectives set for the product. It is a review of performance against targets such as
market share, sales, profitability and so on. Your aim is to identify current areas of Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT analysis) for the firm with a view to developing
new refined strategies in Section 2 of your Report-Recommendations. You should also analyse
the company’s current marketing mix.
7. SWOT Analysis
SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The SWOT analysis is a
summary of the external and internal analyses, highlighting the critical issues that must be
addressed by the marketing plan. When the SWOT analysis is completed, the firm has a clear
idea of its:
• Strengths
what do we do better than competitors?
What advantages do we have over competitors?
• Weaknesses
In what areas do we need to improve marketing mix in order to be more competitive?
• Opportunities
what new opportunities exist in the market
place for our product?
• Threats
Can we anticipate any threats to our business from the external environment that may
challenge or weaken our position?Where do we want to be?
Recommendations- in the following section you are required to make recommendations
to the company based on their Project Brief and your research/analysis above
8. Objectives
These are specific objectives for the brand/ product / service – this plan is being developed for.
Objectives should be
SMART. (Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time frame specific).
9. Target Market Defined.
Who are you aiming your product at? Do you have more than one target market? (Mothers and
children?) Are you suggesting a new product or expanding the market for a current product?
10. Desired Positioning.
Can you create a unique position for the product in the market? What attributes/ benefits/
advantages is your positioning based on? You may like to use a perceptual map to illustrate
your positioning.
11. Strategies using 4p or 7p framework (strategies broadly describe how you plan
to achieve your
objectives).
Product.
Price.
Promotion
Distribution.
People.
Physical Evidence.
Process.
12. Action Program.
Detailed implementation program identifying what will be done, who is responsible, Marketing
Budgets and deadlines.
13. Control Program.
Defines how you will monitor your progress, including benchmarks, evaluation procedures, and
budgets and so on.