Rough Draft Assignment: Marketing

1. Cover Page (see RD1 assignment details)

2. Table of Contents (see RD1 assignment details)

3. Body / Narrative (discuss the following)

A. Revised Business Description (update it from RD1 with more information on product, location, staffing, etc)

B. Target Market

• This should be a significant, well thought out portion of your draft. Choose from appropriate demographics (age, gender, education, geography, religion, income, etc). Be as specific as possible. Describe your target market as if they are a person sitting next to you.

• What do your customers read? What do they want? Why is that important? What do they like? Why will they buy your product or service? How do you know this? Where do they hang out? What do they do in their leisure time? How many of them are in the Portland area?

• Provide backup information on how many customers meeting this criteria are in your chosen area. (see weblinks)

• If you have more than one target audience (for example: ages 18-35 are very different), describe them separately.

• Make sure you state the business reason for each of the above.

C. Competitor Analysis

• Start with a summary paragraph about your 3-5 top competitors. (To be a competitor, they do not have to be an identical business, but simply offer services that would take away from your customer base.)

• +'s and -‘s of each competitor compared to your product or service.

• Visit yelp and other sites to see what customers are saying about these businesses, and how that might impact your business.

D. Pricing

• State your pricing strategy (see text). (This is different than what price you'll charge for each product.)

• State your business reasons for this strategy, i.e. why you think this strategy will be successful for your product or service

• State your overall prices for your products or services, and why you chose these. It would be nice to include a price list that your customers could choose from (but in the appendix, it's too much detail in the body).

• This narrative should include your competitors' pricing.

E. Promotional Plan

• What is your promotional budget total for the first year?

• Planned promotional mix and the business reasons as to why you chose it. Why do you think it will reach your target market? Give specific publications and prices for each. How do you get the most bang for the buck?

• What will be your online presence? Must show at least 3 different digital methods of promotion.

• Where and how do your competitors advertise?

• Show creativity of ideas, working cheaply.

4. Chart Section

A. Show your promotional budget (totaled by each month for 12 months, with yearly and monthly totals) for each publication or activity. See below for worksheet example. Must include cost of all promotion, and show at least 3 different digital methods of reaching your target market.

Appendix Section--Optional

B. Any other pieces of research or information that you feel is pertinent to this draft of your particular business plan, such as a menu, or advertising, price list, target market worksheet, webpage, etc.

5. Research

Must have 5-10 cited sources. (MLA), including demographic research, competitor research and your specific industry. Your research must include every aspect of the assignment.

Example*

*Monthly cost = yearly cost divided by 12, regardless of frequency.
*Must show 3 or more examples of digital marketing (social media, etc).