Objectives

The Course Project gives students the opportunity to synthesize all of the concepts in the  Marketing course by applying them to develop a comprehensive marketing plan for a new business, product, or service.

Introduction

Product innovation and marketing are the only enduring competitive advantages that companies can use to survive and thrive in the marketplace. In the next seven weeks, you are going to participate in designing and writing a marketing plan for a business, product, or service of your choosing. Your active participation in this project is essential to building your understanding of marketing. Also, you can use a well-written marketing plan to show prospective employers a sample of your work or pitch your idea to investors who may be interested in your venture.

A marketing plan is a guide for the marketing activities of an organization for a specified period of time, typically about 5 years. The plan can be used internally to guide the marketing activities or it can be used to communicate with external audiences to raise capital. There are important questions to keep in mind as you design your plan.

Is the marketing idea valid?

What is unique or distinctive about the product or service that separates it from substitutes and competitors?

Does a viable market exist for the product or service?

Is the target market large enough, accessible, and capable of purchasing your product or service?

Are the financial projections sound?

Is the management team competent?

How will the investors get their money back with a return on their investments?

In order to help you answer these questions and many others, the course provides the following items.

Building an Effective Marketing Plan in Appendix A on page 48 of your textbook (it includes an example of a marketing plan).

Financial Aspects of Marketing in Appendix B on page 368 of your textbook.

A marketing plan outline (see Week 4: Draft Marketing Plan in the Milestone section below).

A grading rubric for the marketing plan.

Guidelines

Your final marketing plan should be between 10-15 pages and must follow all APA guidelines. In Week 1, you will submit a two-page description of your business, product, or service for instructor approval of your topic. In Week 4, you will submit a substantial draft of your marketing plan for instructor feedback. Your completed marketing plan is due at the end of Week 7.

Milestones

Topic Proposal

You will select a topic for the Week 1 assignment, and thereafter, all related assignments (the draft in Week 4 and the final marketing plan in Week 7) MUST be on the same topic. You may not change your marketing plan topic without approval from your instructor. Your topic should be for a business, product, or service that you would like to start (no multilevel marketing structures or non-profit organizations, please). Because this is an applied project and not a research paper, please do not select a corporation such as Starbucks or Coca-Cola as your topic. You are to apply the course concepts to this project. If you are interested in coffee restaurants, for example, you may wish to select your own cappuccino bar as your topic and then use information from companies like Starbucks or Seattle's Best Coffee for ideas and competitive research as you work on your project. If you have questions about your topic, don't hesitate to post them in the Q & A Forum this week.

please write a two-page description of your company, product, or service. It should be a new business, product, or service.

Discuss:

Ownership and company structure.

Describe the business, product, or service.

Write your mission statement.

Provide your marketing goals.

The marketing goals must be specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time bound.

Examples...

Company ABC plans to generate 25 leads per week as a result of our Facebook marketing campaign beginning Oct. 1, 2014.

Company XYZ plans to sell 5,000 widgets for the next fiscal year.

Discuss who a typical customer might be.

Draft Marketing Plan

At the end of Week 4, you will submit a substantial draft to your instructor for grading and feedback. Read Appendix A in the text. Be sure to download the Marketing Plan outline. It must be used! It is recommended that you start working on your draft in Week 2 after your instructor has approved your topic. Use the Marketing Plan outline as a guide to the required content for your marketing plan. Complete as much as you are able in order to get a good start and an initial draft ready to submit. Remember, the more you complete on this initial draft the greater the input that the professor can provide. Also, please include your last name within the document title.