- Chapter 9 of the course text, Principles of Marketing
- Chapter 10 of the course text, Principles of Marketing
- It is recommended you review the course text and other resources read or watched throughout this course.
Instructions:
Throughout this course you have explored all elements of a marketing plan. Now it is time to put your marketing plan together for the company you selected for your marketing manager internship.
Part A – General Information and Situational Analysis
Section 1 – Company Background
- Describe the selected company and brand and a brief history.
- Summarize the core products and services the company offers.
- Identify direct current competitors and explain why they are direct competitors.
Section 2 – SWOT Analysis
- Complete a SWOT analysis.
- Propose the product or service line you want to develop a marketing plan for.
- Justify your proposal with a SWOT-based argument for why it warrants marketing investment.
Section 3 – Macro- and Microenvironment
- Analyze at least two elements from each quadrant of Table 8.1 in the course text as the micro- and macroenvironment factors that affect the company’s overall marketing strategy.
Part B – The Marketing Plan
Section 1 – Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning (STP)
- Describe your segmentation approach for your proposed product or service and provide rationale for this approach.
- Describe the target audiences or markets.
- Create a positioning statement.
Section 2 – The Marketing Mix
- Formulate the four Ps for your proposed product or service:
- Product
- Describe your core product, extended product, and the product concept.
- Explain how you plan to achieve competitive differentiation through creating customer value in four areas
- Branding
- Packaging
- Support
- Quality
- Price
- Place
- Promotion with a special focus on digital media and integrated marketing communications (IMC)
- Product
Section 3 – Global and Ethical Considerations, and Conclusion
- Identify three business or sociocultural considerations in translating your marketing plan for use in a foreign market.
- Discuss the company’s policy or philosophy on one of the areas below:
- corporate social responsibility (CSR
- green marketing practices
- ethics
- ethical marketing
- diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices.
- Conclude with a summary of your plan and why it deserves to be funded.
Helpful Tips
- Part A
- Section 1: Understanding the background of the company will help you complete the SWOT analysis. Use your Week 2 assignment and make sure you incorporated your instructor’s feedback and have improved your previously submitted work.
- Section 2: Propose a new idea to market the product or service line. Avoid writing about or proposing the current marketing strategy. This is your idea, so use the SWOT analysis to defend it. Use your Week 2 assignment and make sure you incorporated your instructor’s feedback and have improved your previously submitted work.
- Section 3: Use the information you researched and analyzed in the Week 4 video presentation to complete this section. Analyze some micro- and macroenvironment factors that affect the company’s overall marketing strategy globally. You need to provide enough details about the information you included in your slides to incorporate it with the rest of the paper.
- Make sure you incorporated your instructor’s feedback.
- Part B
- Section 1: Use the information you researched and analyzed in the Week 4 discussion forum, Finding and Targeting Your People. You need to beef up the information you discussed in that discussion forum to align it with your overall marketing plan. Also, review and refer to Section 7.3 of the course text, Principles of Marketing.
- Section 2: Spend considerable time completing the four P’s of your marketing plan; this is the essence of your plan. Someone should be able to understand your plan just by reading this section only.
- Section 3: Research, analyze, and discuss your internship brand at the global level or in a foreign market. Also, discuss its CSR and DEI efforts.
Upload Your Project to Folio
It is recommended that you upload your completed paper to Folio. Skills, that were reviewed in Week 4, can be tagged on your Folio page along with a description of the project’s purpose. For more information on these skills, review the Marketing Skills: Developing Career ReadinessLinks to an external site. module in Week 4. For information on how to set up and use your Folio account as well as tag skills, check out the Folio webpage in the Student Success Center.
Project Submission Instructions
- At the end of your marketing plan, add an APA-formatted appendix.
- For information on how to create a APA-formatted appendix, please review UAGC’s Writing Center’s resource Tables, Images, and AppendicesLinks to an external site..
- Save your marketing plan as a Word document.
- Upload it to Waypoint.
Directions
Click each tab to review the instructions to complete and submit your project.
Formatting Requirements
The Marketing Plan final project paper
- Must be 9 to 11 double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages or slides) and formatted according to APA StyleLinks to an external site. as outlined in the Writing Center’s APA Formatting for Microsoft Word Links to an external site.resource.
- Must include a separate title page and slide with the following:
- Title of project in bold font
- Space should be between title and the rest of the information on the title page.
- Student’s name
- Name of institution (The University of Arizona Global Campus)
- Course name and number
- Instructor’s name
- Due date
- Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic VoiceLinks to an external site. resource for additional guidance.
- Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph and subject headers for all parts, sections, and subsections. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
- For assistance on writing Introductions & ConclusionsLinks to an external site. as well as Writing a Thesis StatementLinks to an external site., refer to the Writing Center resources.
- Must use at least four scholarly or credible sources in addition to the course text.
- The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible SourcesLinks to an external site. table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
- To assist you in completing the research required for this assignment, review the Company Research in the UAGC LibraryLinks to an external site. tip sheet to assist with this assignment.
- Must document any information used from sources in APA Style as outlined in the Writing Center’s APA: Citing Within Your PaperLinks to an external site. guide.
- Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA Style as outlined in the Writing Center. See the APA: Formatting Your References ListLinks to an external site. resource in the Writing Center for specifications.