Assessment - Individual Marketing Plan Report

Learning Outcomes - The completion of this assignment requires you to demonstrate the ability to:

• Identify and critically evaluate environmental factors that can affect organisational success. Categorise and analyse the environmental factors at play and consider their impact on the Organisation under consideration.
• Undertake a marketing audit of an organisation. Identify and critically assess in a comprehensive fashion the current strengths and weaknesses of the organisation relative to its external environment.
• Apply consistently in-depth knowledge and reference relevant marketing management theories/concepts. Generate a variety of ways of tackling a selected problem and identify options that have a chance of success in the organisation under consideration.
• Identify quantitative and qualitative "information gaps", and the relevant sources needed to fill such lacunae. Prepare and use IT to aid efficient searching, evaluation and selection of information, exploring alternative lines of enquiry where appropriate. Present information effectively, including evidence to support your conclusions.
• Identify and critically assess in a comprehensive fashion the current marketing strategies employed by the organisation in its market. Evaluate and synthesise information from different sources, theories and principles, and communicate relevant information effectively, and with accuracy. Put forward relevant and robust strategic recommendations for the organisation.
• Critically analyse the effectiveness of your strategy, including factors that had an impact on the outcomes, and identify ways to take the firm/organisation forward, and ways of further developing problem solving skills

Individual Marketing Plan Report - Marketing Plan for Toyota Prius (Oman).

The Marketing Plan Task:

Over the years, the Toyota brand has been managed by the Saud Bahwan Group(SBG) in Oman, who continue to build on the brand by ensuring that it does not only excel in product excellence, but also in customer satisfaction. Toyota is now considered to be one of the most trusted brands in Oman.

In keeping with its brand promise of 'exceeding customer expectations', Toyota has introduced an innovative and class-leading Hybrid sedan, the Toyota Prius, spearheading a new era in hybrid technology across the Middle East.

As a Marketing Consultant, you have been approached by the CEO of the Saud Bahwan Group (SBG) to develop a Marketing Plan for the Toyota Prius Brand which will enable the company to achieve even better customer satisfaction over the next three years.

To help with the development of your Marketing Plan Task, you have been provided with a case study generated from recent articles on Toyota in Oman.

Your Marketing Plan must include the following:

• Executive Summary
• Introduction and objectives - Your introduction should include relevant background information on Toyota in Oman
• Current market and company situational analysis, including the competition (apply Porter's Five Forces model), consumer behaviour, SWOT and/or PEST analyses.
• Market Segmentation- this should emanate from your market situational analysis. You must identify current and possibly new market segments for Toyota Prius
• Marketing Plan Objectives - must be specific and realistic. Apply the SMART Rule.
• Marketing mix strategy recommendations- Note that you will need to recommend your marketing mix strategy for Toyota Prius. Your recommendations should stem from the market and company situational analysis. Your strategy recommendations must be relevant to the segments identified in your market situational analysis. You are also expected to use relevant strategic marketing planning tools to inform your recommendations.
• Evaluation and Control - how would the plan be monitored? What tools would you employ? Consider the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
• Budget- provide a costing for each of your marketing mix strategy. I do not expect you to come up with specific figures, but your costing should be based on research.

Additional Guidance on the Marketing Plan Report

1. Objectives - objectives need to be SMART but it is unnecessary to explain in detail how smart they are.

2. The balance between market analysis and the actual planning/actions- ensure that your submissions are balanced with regards to analysis and planning. For example, do not use a lot of space summarising the analysis, at the expense of setting objectives and planning objective-specific marketing strategies and tactics.

3. Vagueness - planning needs to be very specific; stating that you will use 'social media' for promotion because it is the 'most efficient tool' is not enough. You need to explain the social media tool (s) - what they are, why you are using them and how you would use them.

4. Academic content - you are expected to apply models, and not just describe or define them. For example, your SWOT or PEST analyses should not read like textbooks in which you explain what SWOT or PEST are - this is essentially incorrect. You need to apply them and not describe them.

5. Executive summary - an executive summary should be written in a way that allows the executive who reads it to know what the problem is and how it is to be solved. Essentially, it is a summary of your problem statement, objectives and how to achieve them (i.e. how to solve the problem).

6. Secondary data use - Analysis should be supported with secondary data (from the literature). You should demonstrate wider reading and acknowledge the sources of your information, both in the main body and in your bibliography. Avoid making very bold but not substantiated statements, such as 'the only motor car company' in Oman' or 'massive campaign' or 'massive customer segment'. Give numbers if you think the segment is large and compare it to other segments to give an idea of the size of it. Worth noting that your product offerings must relate to your chosen segments.