SITUATION ANALYSIS

The Situation Analysis involves analyzing a number of internal and external factors. Important internal factors to analyze include the organizational structure, the resources at hand, and the personalities involved in the decision-making. Externally, you should analyze the organization's positioning relative to the competition, the size and characteristics of various target audiences, consumer attitudes toward the product or service, the nature of the purchase/consumption function, the salient attributes of the product or service, and the threats versus opportunities posed by the various elements of the environments (i.e., social, political, legal, technological, and economic).

Secondary sources should be used for this section of your paper. Assumptions based on logic may be appropriate, if stated as such. Remember, an advertising manager will never have all the information he or she would like in order to make a decision.

1. External Environment
   1. Relevant economic, social, political, legal, technological trends
   2. Nature and extent of demand

a.       demand elasticity

b.      size of the market

1. 1. Industry structure

a. entry/exit barriers

b. competition

(1)   nature of competition

(2)   profile of competitors (background, resources, etc.)

(3)   market shares

(4)   stage of product life cycle

1.  
   1. Communication environment (main promotional media utilized)

1. Internal Environment
   1. Organizational structure
   2. Resources

a.       top management

b.      marketing

c.       production

d.      research & development

1. Brand diagnosis

a. current brand positioning

b. current pricing strategy

c. current distribution strategy

d. current promotions strategy

Problem definition and Critical Factors

Identify the major and minor problems existing for the brand. This can be the most difficult part of the analysis, and the most important. You may have to search to find the problem behind the symptoms. Because the remainder of the work centers around solving the defined problem, it is important to think the problems out carefully. An analysis built around solving an unimportant problem is not worth much. The rest of the analysis will center around what you define as the one "major" problem.

Then, discuss a number of critical factors that may impact on your approach to the case.  Discuss why they are "critical" and how they might impact on the later analysis of alternative solutions. Be sure to explain the critical nature of any factors, rather than simply listing them.

 SEGMENTATION, TARGETING, POSITIONING

 This section begins with a detailed analysis of the market for the company's products and services. This analysis should logically lead to the segmentation of the market and to the decision on the target audience to which your integrated marketing campaign will be directed.

This section also includes a statement of the communication objectives you are setting for the campaign.

1. Market Analysis and Segmentation

(Not all questions will be equally useful for your case. Use your judgment on what to address.)

1.  
   1. Who is/are the market?
   2. What does the market buy?
   3. When does the market buy?
   4. Where does the market buy?
   5. Why does the market buy?
   6. Who are involved in the buying process?
   7. How does the market buy?

1. Market Targeting

Who is/are the target audience(s)?

Be specific about the target(s) for the IMC campaign, and give a justification for your recommendation. Use both demographics and psychographics to describe the target(s).  Including 1 or 2 prototypic profiles wouldn't hurt either. 

1. Market Positioning

Proposed brand positioning

Communication objectives

This is another critical section. Be sure to set out the objectives of your IMC campaign in terms of communication goals. Do not focus on marketing goals here.  A statement of objectives that says "the goal of this campaign is to increase sales by XX percent" is of little value to a communications plan. 

MESSAGE STRATEGY & TACTICS

State your advertising strategy (key focus of campaign). Spell out your creative strategy, providing illustrations wherever appropriate. The creative strategy should be described in enough detail to give a general idea of what the ads will look/sound like and what the copy points will be. Describe the specific copy points, support, and tone. You don't have to provide finished artwork - storyboards or rough sketches will do.

You should propose at least 2 viable message strategies for addressing the Communication Objectives. The one(s) you do not choose to recommend will serve as your "back-up strategy(ies)" that will be presented to the client in case the main strategy is rejected. Be ready with sketches, etc, for these just in case. 

1. Key Focus of Campaign

1. Creative Strategy
   1. Copy points
   2. Support
   3. Tone

MEDIA STRATEGY & TACTICS

What is the overall strategic thrust of your media plan?  Which types of vehicles do you intend to employ (e.g., prime time TV, drive-time radio, etc.)? You may provide this information at the strategy level, rather than listing all the specific vehicles and insertions, but give some specific examples of vehicles. As always, justify all of your decisions. Also, propose a media schedule. Indicate when and on what schedule you want your campaign to run.

Propose a media budget. More importantly, make decisions on the proportion you plan to allocate to each target, objective, medium, and time frame. Make these decisions based on your analysis of the available data. Explain how you arrived at your decisions. The total budget includes media, promotion, and direct mail (do not mention the agency commission or compensation).

A.    Media Strategy

B.     Media Schedule

C.     Media Budget and Allocation

NON-ADVERTISING PROMOTIONS

In this section, you should discuss your non-advertising promotional recommendations (consumer and/or trade promotions), direct marketing recommendations and other advertising-related ideas designed to tie in with your campaign.  Provide illustrations. Remember: This is an integrated marketing communications campaign.  Everything should be designed to mesh seamlessly and support the campaign's goals.

1. Consumer/Trade Promotions

1. Non-traditional Media

1. Direct Marketing

INTEGRATION AND EVALUATION

This final section of your campaign plan should include a timetable of activities. Address how you would integrate the various elements of your integrated marketing communication campaign.

Also, propose an effectiveness feedback mechanism to evaluate the success of your campaign approach. The evaluation of your plan should be a brief description of how you will test your plan. You should explain what will be measured, when it will be measured, and how it will be measured. This may entail a research instrument that you design. Also, you need to explain what your results will provide for the client, or the agency, and how these results will be used.

A "trouble-shooting" plan is also required, describing the steps to be taken in the event that objectives are not met at particular stages in the implementation of the plan.

1. Timetable of Activities
2. Evaluation
   1. Criteria to be used for evaluation
   2. Kinds of data to be collected
   3. Timetable for data collection
   4. Methods of data collection

1.  Trouble-shooting plans