Group Project

Overview

You will work with the group to develop an abridged version of a marketing plan for the chosen company and product. The written project is worth 40 % of the total grade.

GROUP PROJECT

The Report will include:

o A cover page, a table of contents and an executive summary: An executive summary previews the aim, the main points and key findings of your report, and should be single spaced and not be more than one page.

o A description of the product itself from marketing, not necessarily a technical, perspective.
o Describe the product and its primary benefits to the consumers.
o Describe the brand perception and any relevant brand related issues/challenges?
o Why would consumers choose this product over those of the competitors'?

o A description of the firm and its strategy. You need to examine and should be able to derive:
o The strengths and weaknesses of the company as well as the products under investigation.
o The overall strategy and sustainable competitive advantage of the company as to illustrate what makes this company successful overtime.

o A description and analysis of the market trends.
o What are the major current and emerging market trends impacting on this type of products?
o Derive the opportunities and threats to this type of products. The key opportunities and threats will be integrated into the SWOT table later.

o A description and analysis of the industry dynamics.
o What are the industry dynamics?
o Use the Porter's Five Forces to help determine whether or not the impacts of these forces are favorable or unfavorable to the bargaining power and profitability of the company under investigation
o Derive any relevant opportunities to be integrated into the SWOT table later.

o A description and analysis of the competition
o Who are the direct competitors?
o What are the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors at the company level?
o Construct a capability profile of the competitors and draw implications based on this profile.
o Derive any relevant opportunities and threats to be integrated into the SWOT table later.

o A concise SWOT table and analysis.
o This is a summary table of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats derived from the previous sections of products, company, market trends, industry dynamics and competitor analyses. Do not construct a summary SWOT table without ensuring that the key points you put into this table are fully integrated with these previous sections.
o Analyze and discuss the interactions among the SWOT as to leverage the strengths to capture emerging opportunities, turn weaknesses into strengths, use strengths to fend off threats, and etc.
o What conclusions can you draw from the analysis of the SWOT table?

o Segmentation and Targeting.
o Discuss what segmentation approaches would be used to derive potential segments
o Once the potential segments are derived, discuss what criteria for evaluating the segment attractiveness have been used to select the final/chosen segment(s). Clearly substantiate the criteria that you have chosen and use available statistics on market size, market growth and etc.
o How will you target the chosen segment(s) and what targeting strategy will be used and why?

o What is the positioning for your product?
o Develop a perceptual map using the key determinant attributes that are important to your customers for making purchasing decisions
o Discuss the perceptual map and determine whether or not the product is currently at the ideal point
o If the product is at the ideal point, what would be your positioning strategy and why?
o If the product is not at the ideal point, what would be your repositioning strategy and why?
o Either way, come up with a positioning statement. The positioning statement should include the target audience, the category in which the brand competes, the point of difference or differentiation, and the convincing proof that the brand delivers what it promises.

o Marketing Mix. Based on the overall positioning strategy and positioning statement describe the elements and implementation of the marketing mix, explain how the marketing mix reinforces the positioning?
o In terms of product strategy, describe how the product and its features support the overall positioning?
o In terms of pricing strategy, describe the price differentials to those of the key competitors. Explain the unique value proposition in terms of value versus price. Use real prices to substantiate your discussion.
o In terms of distribution strategy, explain what distribution strategy you would use and why? What tradition channel as well as online distribution would you use and why? Give real life examples.
o In terms of promotion, what would be the purpose of your overall promotional campaign and why? What would be the central message? Any slogans or tag lines? What would be the promotional schedule and other related promotional tactics to support your overall promotional campaign?

o Marketing Metrics
o Based on your proposed marketing mix, what marketing metrics will you use to measure the success of the implementation of the proposed marketing mix? And why?
o Do not discuss what happened in the past. Your metrics are based on what you anticipate might happen in the immediate future once you have implemented your proposed marketing mix.

o Competitor Reactions
o What do you expect will be the competitive reactions in response to your proposed marketing mix?
o How will you handle their reactions?

YOU CAN CHOOSE ONE CONSUMER PRODUCT IN ANY OF THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES:

• Consumer electronics, including smart phones, introduced in second half of 2014 and 2015
• Cars introduced in the second half of 2014 for 2015
• Entertainment, hotels, travel products
• Household goods and home appliances
• Baby, Oral, Personal and Home care products
• Sporting goods or shoes.