Assessment:
You are required to assume the post of Marketing Manager for Ooredoo (telecom company in Qatar) with a remit to critically review the current marketing and promotion policies of your organisation with respect to a particular product/service or line of products/services. Specifically, you are required to prepare a marketing plan to amend, improve and/or extend the existing policies/practices of your organisation. Your plan should include a section dealing with promotion policy in particular.
Key Requirements
The plan should be in business report format and not exceed 4500 words in length.
The plan should specifically include:
- An industry/market/competitor analysis
- A justification for the launch/re-launch of the amend, improve and/or extend product/service
- An outline of major marketing opportunities for the new/modified product/service
- A recommended marketing strategy based upon segmentation, targeting and positioning (with reflective reference to the Marketing Game simulation exercise)
- The marketing strategy to detail marketing mix variables (with reflective reference to the Marketing Game simulation exercise)
- The proposal of a promotion plan and the promotional mix
- A draft marketing budget detailing categories of expenditure and a notional financial profile of the contribution of the new product/service
- Demand forecasts based upon known demand for the organisation's products/services allied to sales targets
- Some contingency considerations
- A Conclusion - also reflecting critically on the experience of the Marketing Game simulation exercise
- A Bibliography (Harvard system of referencing)
- Use of course material and models from recommended and additional sources
Breakdown of Assessment:
Content, style, relevance, originality - 50% of marks
Marketing Plan structure:
Industry/market analysis
Competitor analysis
Marketing objectives
Segmentation, targeting and positioning
Marketing strategy formulation
Marketing and promotion mix variables
Promotional strategy
Business report format required which requires succinct expression of ideas and facts, structured progression of stages of analysis, executive summary and conclusion.
Referencing requires correct citing of references throughout the report. Each reference's source should be listed in the bibliography. The bibliography should identify each reference source formatted in the Harvard system.
This involves selection of appropriate models, comparison of results, analyses of market data, critical review of current operations. Through critical review of the application of marketing theory into practice, the analytical quality and the credibility of the proposed launch/re-launch can be heightened. Critical reflection of the Marketing Game simulation exercise is required to demonstrate the transference of learning to the practice setting.
This assignment is intended to assess each of the four Learning Outcomes for this module, which are:
1. Demonstration of an understanding of the theoretical basis and principles of marketing planning.
2. Application of the principles of marketing planning to the circumstances of particular organisations.
3. Analysis of the theoretical and practical factors underlying relations with customers and methods of improving customer communications.
4. Analyse the nature of promotion policy and the ways in which the various constituents of the policy can be organised to interact to maximise effectiveness.