The marketing plan should be guided by the following outline (see also the slides):
Title Page
- Executive Summary (Less than one page!)
- First paragraph giving a quick presentation of proctors and gamble (when, who, what), include their mission statement
- Second paragraph summarizing the main goals and recommendations for senior managers who will read and approve/reject the marketing plan (only once the entire plan is done!!)
- Analysis of the current marketing situation
2.1. Analysis of the larger external environment, choose only the factors that are relevant to your product
- Political factors
- Economic factors
- Socio-cultural and demographic factors
- Technological factors
- Ecological factors
- Legal factors
- Analysis of the immediate external environment: Competitor analysis
- Direct and Indirect Competitors given your product idea (list according to market share)
- Analysis of the competitors’ strategic movements and how to counter them
- Market description: the consumer
- Needs Analysis: Do consumers seek to fulfill utilitarian, emotional, symbolic or social needs with this product?
- Types of Decision Making given your product idea? What is people’s level of involvement in the product category? What is the type of buying decision behavior? Will emotions play a role in the decision-making process? Overall, what is there for you to anticipate for your marketing-mix when it comes to consumer behavior?
- Conclusion regarding the current marketing situation
- Why will your idea continue to stay successful in the long term? (Opportunities)
- What risks do you see in your idea? And how to limit those risks? (Threats)
NB: There is nothing new here. This is a summary from the above.
- The marketing strategy
- The target market(s)
- How meticulously the market should be segmented given your product idea? In other words, what type of marketing strategy will you use (undifferentiated, differentiated, concentrated, or customized)?
- If your strategy is not based on undifferentiated marketing, what segmentation dimensions do you think are relevant for your product market?
- Describe your chosen target market(s) using the segmentation dimensions.
- Assess the value of your target market(s) in terms of potential customers.
- The value proposition
- Describe your positioning strategy.
- Provide a positioning map and position yourself.
- Product and Branding Strategy
- Specify the core, actual and augmented product.
- Outline the branding strategy.
- Pricing strategy
- Estimate (roughly!!) the price elasticity given the product category.
- Explain your price range based on the positioning of your product, your competitors’ practice, and your estimated costs?
- Marketing Communication strategy
- Structure your proposition according to the five steps for effective marketing communication
- Notably, regarding Step 4: What mix of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, sponsorship, direct response marketing, public relations/publicity will you use?
- Develop examples of your communications with reference to the five steps for effective marketing communication
- Distribution strategy
- How to deliver the product(s) to the final customers? Which channels will you use? Your own stores, intermediaries: hyper/supermarket, convenience stores, online sellers, vending machines?
- Explain your distribution channel. Consider whether the distribution channel should reflect the brand’s positioning.
- What is the underlying distribution strategy: intensive, selective, exclusive?
- References (not if you provided footnotes throughout the report)
GROUP GRADING RUBRIC
| Key components | Exemplary (A) | Accomplished (A-, B+, B) | Developing (B-, C+, C) | Beginning (C-, D+, D) | 0 (F) | Mark |
| Executive Summary | Executive summary: Summarizes all major findings concisely. | Executive summary: Summarizes most major findings concisely. | Executive summary provided but some difficulties in respecting the guidelines. | Executive summary provided but very poor quality | Not provided. | /5 |
| Analysis of the larger external environmental | Extensive outline of relevant changes/trends in the macro- environments and implications for the industry of fast moving consumer goods | Outline of relevant changes/trends in the macro- environments and implications for the industry of fast moving consumer goods | Outline of some changes/trends in in the macro- environments and some implication for the industry of fast moving consumer goods | Outline of few or irrelevant changes/trends in in the macro- environments. Implications for the industry of fast moving consumer goods | Not provided. | /10 |
| Competitor analysis | Thorough analysis of the competitive situation and specific competitors using appropriate analysis tools and concepts | Adequate analysis of competitive situation and of specific competitors using some analysis tools and concepts. | Some analysis of competitive situation; identification of some relevant competitors | Inadequate analysis of competitive situation; lacks identification of relevant competitors | Not provided. | /10 |
| Market description | Identification of all relevant needs via a needs analysis. Excellent description of type of buyer behavior and conclusion regarding the product idea Integration of relevant consumer behavior concepts (emotion, involvement…) | Identification of key needs using needs analysis. Adequate description of each of the consumer’s decision-making process stages. Adequate description of type of buyer behavior. | Identification of some needs provided. Basic description of the decision-making process. Basic description of type of buyer behavior. | Poor level of identification of relevant needs, showing limited application of consumer decision making process and type of buyer behavior. | Not provided. | /10 |
| Conclusion | Excellent conclusion of the analysis of the current marketing situation Identification of opportunities and threats | Adequate conclusion of the analysis of the current marketing situation | Basic of the analysis of the current marketing situation | Poor conclusion of the current marketing situation | Not provided. | /5 |
| Marketing strategy | Identification and description of all market segments using relevant dimensions. Logical and in-depth description and justification of the company’s target segments. Concise positioning statement and perceptual map showing in-depth understanding of positioning in relation to competitors and consumer segments. | Identification of most market segments. Adequate description and justification of the company’s target segments. Clear positioning statement and adequate perceptual map showing understanding of positioning | Some description and justification of the company’s target segments. Positioning statement and adequate perceptual map showing some understanding of positioning but lack of clarity | Poor level of description and justification for company’s target segments. Positioning statement and adequate perceptual map are not provided or show misunderstanding of positioning. | Not provided. | /10 |
| Product and Branding Strategy | Excellent use of all relevant concepts and thorough justification of the product and brand strategies. | Adequate use of relevant concepts and relevant justifications of the product and brand strategies. | Use of some relevant concepts and some analysis of the product and brand strategies. | Limited or poor use of the product and brand strategies. | Not provided. | /10 |
| Pricing Strategy | Appropriate use of all relevant concepts and in-depth justification of pricing strategies. | Adequate use of relevant concepts and adequate justification of pricing strategies | Use of some relevant concepts and justification of some pricing strategies | Limited or poor use of relevant concepts and limited justification of pricing strategies | Not provided. | /10 |
| Marketing Communications Strategy | Appropriate use of all relevant concepts and in-depth justification of distribution strategies using examples to demonstrate concepts. | Adequate use of relevant concepts and adequate justification of communication strategies | Use of some relevant concepts and justification of some communication strategies | Limited or poor use of relevant concepts and limited justification of communication strategies | Not provided. | /10 |
| Distribution Strategy | Appropriate use of all relevant concepts and in-depth justification of distribution strategies. | Adequate use of relevant concepts and adequate justification of distribution strategies | Use of some relevant concepts and justification of some distribution strategies | Limited or poor use of relevant concepts and limited justification of distribution strategies | Not provided. | /10 |
| Evidence to support discussion | Excellent use of data, information and evidence within context, arriving at valuable marketing decisions. All good quality references. | Satisfactory use of data, information and evidence within context, arriving at suitable marketing decisions. Mostly good quality references. | Limited use of data, information and evidence within context; limited translation to marketing decisions. Some references are of suspect quality | Limited evidence provided; difficulties in using data, information and evidence within context; no translation to marketing decisions. Use of bad quality references. | Not provided. | /5 |
| Presentation of Marketing Plan | The marketing plan is effectively organized so that it is easily understood and is visually appealing. Graphics are relevant, explained and support the written text. | The marketing plan is organized so that it is relatively easy to understand and has some visual appeal. Graphics are generally relevant to the topic and support the written text. | The marketing plan is poorly organized and has limited visual appeal. Graphics are sometimes relevant to the topic. | The marketing plan is very poorly organized. There is a lack of graphics and visual appeal. | The guidelines were not at all respected. | /5 |
| Total | 100 |
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