Term Paper - BMS 314- Managing the Marketing Mix

Objectives

Behind every successful product or service is a good marketing plan. The purpose of this

assignment is to enable students to understand the importance of strategic marketing

planning and to become familiar with major components contained in a marketing plan. This

assessment item relates to the course learning objectives numbers 1, 2 and 3 as stated on

the course outline. Additionally, this assignment will give students practice in researching

and writing.

Question

Create a Marketing Plan for a product, service, or company that you want to introduce into
the market.

Details

The basic marketing plan should contain:

a. An executive summary which provides an overview of the content of the report (note

this is not an introduction – do not state what sections the report contains. You need to

discuss the major points/findings of your report; any recommendations, conclusions and any

implications for management and the ES should cover the total plan.

b. Style features including a Table of Contents, Reference List, a Table of Figures & Tables,

Appendices, diagrams, figures and tables where necessary.

c. An introduction which provides the aim and structure of the total plan.

d. a concise description of the firm and it’s mission and vision, analysis and choice of target

markets, competitive analysis, environmental analysis and a SWOT analysis on the firm

presenting any competitive advantages.

e. Develop a product (or brand or company) lifecycle analysis (whichever is appropriate).

f. Develop a BCG or a GE/McKinsey matrix and position your products on it. While the BCG

and the GE/McKinsey matrices are usually for portfolios of products or business units, if you

are developing a marketing plan for a single product or brand then you can put this on the

matrix.

g. Using the outcomes of the PLC and the BCG (or GE/McKinsey) develop 4 main

marketing objectives (as a minimum) that will fall into line with the company’s corporate

mission and objectives (where these have been established) and take advantage of the

organization's strengths and opportunities while avoiding or minimizing the weaknesses and

threats.

h. Develop a minimum of 4 higher level strategies based on your objectives, stage of

the PLC and position in the BCG or GE/McKinsey matrices.

i. Develop a branding strategy and a brand positioning strategy. Discuss whether

you will develop a brand identity for an individual product or product portfolio or whether

you will use umbrella branding. Develop a brand positioning map.

j. Select 1 target market and develop customised marketing mix strategies for the

segment. Consider the 7Ps.

k. Develop a framework of marketing metrics for your strategies - determine how you will

measure the success of your strategies in terms of the activity, the cognitive responses,

conative responses and financial outcomes.

Remember this assessment is practically based and students are expected to show a degree

of realism in their analysis and options.

Criteria for awarding marks

1. Executive Summary – covering the entire document /5

2. Introduction – covering the entire document – aim and structure of the report /5

3. Product Lifecycle analysis (or brand or company whichever is appropriate). /5

4. Develop a BCG or a GE/McKinsey matrix and position your products on it. /5

5. 3 main marketing objectives (as a minimum) /10

6. A minimum of 3 higher level strategies tied to the objectives, PLC and BCG or McKinsey. /

10

7. Branding strategy, brand positioning strategy and brand positioning map /10

8. Selection of target market and development of customized marketing mix strategies

using the 7Ps.

/20

9. Develop a framework of marketing metrics for your strategies - cognitive responses,

conative responses and financial outcomes. /20

10. Conclusion /5

11. Report Structure, presentation, clarity, realism, content, completeness and organisation.

Includes spelling, grammar and references. /5

Total /100

Marks to be reduced to a grade out of 40

There is no specific required length for the marketing plan. Length will be a function of the
product, service, or company selected and the amount of information available.