The Brand Extension Marketing Plan

For the Brand Extension Marketing Plan Assignments, you should list, on the reference page, all of the references you used when preparing your plan. Again, you do not need to include the in-text parentheses noting references and timeframes as normally required in our APA Assignments, but you do need to use APA to format your references list. If you have any questions on this exception to using APA, let me know.

All the components of the Marketing Plan are assessed using the following:

Subject Mastery Rubric: Knowledge (Can define major ideas) or Comprehension (Can discuss major ideas) or Application (Can apply major concepts to new situations).

Beginning your Brand Extension Marketing Plan: The Product Proposal

You will be completing multiple components of a Brand Extension Marketing Plan for one new product on the behalf of an existing for-profit organization. This guide provides an outline for the components.

As you begin your Assignment, you need to first assume you have the role of a marketing manager for one, new, currently not available from your selected Brand Company, product on the behalf of a real, for-profit organization. Consider this a "brand extension": you are adding a product to an existing company's product line.

Think about your selection - the proposal is for a New Product for a New Market of consumers! Extend the Brand Name into new product markets by offering a "new to the company" product.

Companies may do this by buying an existing product, or importing a new product and putting their brand name on it - or they develop their own product to compete in the new market.

Submit your response to the following questions as a Product Proposal:
- What is the brand name of your for-profit business/organization?
- What is the new product, not currently in existence, that will generate revenue for which you will prepare a marketing plan and strategy during this class? Give the product a name and briefly describe it.
- Look up "brand extension" in your Kotler text and describe whether your product is considered a line or a category extension.
- How will you acquire information to prepare your marketing plan during this class? What research will you undertake? Be specific.
- Will your new product be marketed domestically or globally? Why?
- Describe the key customer market (who are you targeting?)

1.0 Executive Summary
In 4-6 paragraphs, summarize your Brand Extension Marketing Plan. Be sure to include:
- Product
- Benefits
- Target market
- Customer needs
- Value proposition
- How you would market on a national and global level
- Show an understanding of other cultures, global relationships, and global dynamics in the marketplace

2.0 SITUATION ANALYSIS
Write a 1-paragraph summary of the current situation - write this section after completing the following sections of the Situation Analysis, but put it in this order.
2.1 Market Summary
(write this section after completing 2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.1.3, 2.1.4, and 2.2) In a 1-2 paragraph summary, address:
- What are your target customer groups? Why?
- What are your projections for the growth of this market?
2.1.1 Market Demographics (refer to your Kotler text for helpful definitions/explanations)
- Carefully define the demographic profile of your target market.
- In a similar fashion, define the geographic target area you are choosing.
- What are the behavior factors that will influence your decision-making?
- Define the values and lifestyles (psychographics) of your target market.
2.1.2 Market Needs (refer to your Kotler text to make certain you understand these terms)
- What are the benefits that are important to your customer base? What needs do they have?
- Include both customer needs and the customer value assessment.
2.1.3 Market Trends
- Identify and explain at least three trends that will influence how your customers view your product - these should be trends going on in the industry or the environment; these are trends that your company/product can respond to in some way. Remember: Remember: Trends are long term; fads are short term.
2.1.4 Market Growth
- Is the market growing, static, or diminishing? What are the growth trends?
- What is the evidence? What research are you using to determine market growth?
- How will you address the market if it is growing, static, or diminishing?

2.2 SWOT Analysis (refer to your Kotler text for a thorough explanation of a SWOT analysis) 2.2.1 Strengths - list and describe at least three positive internal aspects that add value
2.2.2 Weaknesses - list and describe at least three negative internal aspects that place you at competitive disadvantage
2.2.3 Opportunities - list and describe at least three opportunities external to your business that will lead to your success
2.2.4 Threats - list and describe at least three threats external to your business that will threaten your success (e.g., it is common to include unexpected acts of nature, government and regulatory concerns, and competition in this section of the SWOT)
2.3 Competition
- Describe your competition.
- Why will customers prefer your product?
- How will you compete with your competition and win?
- What is the marketing mix (price, place, promotion, product, you know them as "the 4 P's of Marketing") of at least one of your competitors?
2.4 Product Offering (refer to your Kotler text to make certain you understand these terms)
- Product/features/benefits (we particularly care about benefits as these are from the perspective of the target market)
- Describe your Brand Equity Model and say how you will build brand equity for this product/service.
2.5 Keys to Success
- List and describe at least three factors that will determine your success. 2.6 Critical Issues
- How will you leverage your SWOT strengths and opportunities to your advantage?
- How will you lessen the impact of your SWOT weaknesses and threats?
- Where is your product in the product life cycle and why? Refer to your Kotler text for a definition of a product life cycle.

3.0 MARKETING STRATEGY 3.1 Mission
- Establish the fundamental goals for the quality of your business/product offering and customer satisfaction.
- Define your business/product offering.
- What are your fundamental goals? (Fundamental goals are those that you would like to achieve with your new product, either as an individual product or as part of the overall company mission. These are directional goals that provide the overall strategic direction for management planning.)
- State the value proposition. Be sure to look up this term in your Kotler text if you don't fully understand it.
3.2 Marketing Objectives
Include a sentence or two about each of the following:
- What are your specific marketing objectives?
- Market share: what is your growth objective by quarter?
- Market penetration: how do you plan to gain a share in this market?
- Awareness: how do you plan to gain awareness for your product?
- Customer acquisition: how do you plan to grow your customer base?
- Identify a specific, measurable market share and size.
Remember that your objectives need to be quantifiable. In other words, objectives need to have a base point, end point, and time frame so you can research to see if you have reached your benchmarks or if your plan needs adjustment.
3.3 Target Markets (refer to your Kotler text to make sure you fully understand what is meant by target market segments)
- Identify the specific target market segments you have defined. What are the market niches you hope to capture? Describe.
- Include the rationale behind why these are the optimal target marketing segments. Be specific.

3.4 Positioning (refer to your Kotler text for definition of terms in this section)
- Describe how your product/service meets the need(s) of your target market segments.
- Describe how you are different from your key competition. What is the most distinguishing feature of your new product?
3.5 Marketing Mix
Product
- What makes your product different from the competition?
- What gives your product more value than the competition?
Price
- How will you determine what price to charge for your product?
- How will go determine what your product is worth?
- How will your pricing strategy set you apart from your competition?
Place
- How do you plan to distribute your product? Do you have alternative delivery methods in mind? If so, describe in detail.
- Will you take responsibility for distribution, or will you reply on an outside firm? How will you decide?
Promotion
- What kind of promotional tools will you use? Describe in detail.
- How will you determine what promotional tactics will work best?
- With a limited promotional budget, how do you plan to gain market share?
- How will you go about evaluating the results of your promotional campaign?
3.6 Marketing Research
- What type(s) of marketing research to you think will work best to get you the information you need to make informed decisions?
- How will you evaluate whether the research is providing you with the results you need?
- Will you conduct the research yourself, or hire an outside firm? Explain why.

4.0 FINANCIALS
4.1 Break-even Analysis
- When you will break-even?
- Break-even Table/Chart
- Explanation of the Break-even Table/Chart
4.2 Sales Forecast: 1st year by month; 2nd and 3rd years by quarter
4.3 Expense Forecast
List your expenses for the following items for the next 3 years:
- Website
- Advertising
- Printed Material
- Development of retail channel
- Other (list)

5.0 CONTROLS
- How will you monitor expenses/revenue? Identify what methods/reports and how often?
- How will you assess marketing effectiveness?
- How will you assess changes in the market environment?
5.2 Marketing Organization
- Roles and Relationships in Your Marketing Functions (who will be responsible and who will implement this Brand Extension Marketing Plan?)
5.3 Contingency Planning
- Identify risks in this plan strategy.
- How you will monitor the risks?
- How you will adapt to adversity and changes? What options will you have?