Task:
This assignment is to be completed individually. The assignment (Marketing plan) is a continuation of the first assignment (Marketing situation analysis) and students should base this assignment on the same organization, product line, service, product or brand that they worked on in the first assignment.
For the same organization/ product line/ brand or service analyzed in the first assignment, you are now required to set marketing goals and objectives, and to develop marketing strategies (the marketing strategy should cover target market, product strategy, pricing strategy, distribution strategy and integrated marketing communication strategy). Aspects related to marketing implementation, evaluation and control should also be addressed. All this should be presented in the form of a marketing plan.
This assignment draws on the work you have done in the previous assignment. The work you completed previously should be used as a basis for some of the strategic decisions that you make in this assignment; for instance, the objectives and strategies should be consistent with the organizations internal and external situation. Part of the work from the previous assignment should be incorporated in the ‘Summary of marketing situation analysis’ section of this marketing plan.
As in the previous assignment, the information required to complete the marketing plan can be accessed in a number of ways; e.g. the Internet, the USQ Library, annual reports, brochures, your own observations, general knowledge, and so on. You should not contact the organization concerned except to request publicly available information such as brochures or annual reports if there is no other means of getting such information. In addition, if certain information that you would require is not available from public sources, you are free to make realistic assumptions. The prescribed textbook (Ferrell & Hartline, 6th edn (or even the 5th edn or 7th edn) and module materials; i.e. lecture materials/slides, module lessons, readings etc. should be referred to as they contain important information and also offer useful guidelines such as marketing plan worksheets. The marketing plan worksheets can also be accessed in the course materials for Module 11. Furthermore, other sources such as books, academic and professional journals can also be used. Additionally, please take note of the many different examples of marketing plans (see ‘Sample marketing plans’ in in the Module 1 section and marketing plans in Reading 11.1). Make sure you also read the marking criteria for this assignment.
MKT3007 Assignment 2: S2 2019
2. The assignment should be completed in report format. You can address the report to either the Chief Executive or the Managing Director or the Marketing Director or the General Manager or any other suitable senior executive of the organization Please note that, unlike the first assignment, this assignment (marketing plan) should have a letter of transmittal and an executive summary. There is a reading on ‘Report Writing’ (Reading 1.1) that is on the MKT3007 course homepage on Study Desk. The reading is in ‘Course Readings – DiReCt’ and can be accessed via ‘Useful links’ (top centre of course homepage); please make use of it. The length of the report should be approximately 3000 words (+/- 10%) (this word count does not include letter of transmittal, title page, executive summary, table of contents, tables, figures, list of references, and appendices). Furthermore, the word count does not include the ‘Summary of marketing situation analysis’ section of the marketing plan (i.e. the short summary of key issues from the first assignment). The recommended length of the assignment should be taken as a guide only (i.e. as an indicator that a good marketing plan is achievable with this length). Should there be need to go over the limit, please make sure that this is not done excessively.
The report should adopt the following structure:
• Letter of transmittal
• Title page
• Executive summary
• Table of contents
• Summary of marketing situation analysis
• Marketing goals and objectives
• Target market
• Marketing strategies
• Marketing implementation and control
• References
• Appendices (if any)
In addition, please take note of both the assignment question and the marking criteria in the process of preparing your marketing plan.
Note that the ‘Summary of marketing situation analysis’ section of the marketing plan should summarize in approximately two or so pages, what you consider to be the key issues from assignment 1 (Marketing situation analysis). Therefore parts of it may consist of sections cut and pasted from assignment 1 into assignment 2, and you might also want to put some of the stuff in the appendix section of the marketing plan. You can use your discretion to determine what information you would want to incorporate into, or exclude from the marketing plan. In addition, if your assignment is based on a service, make sure you address the seven Ps (7Ps) in the ‘Marketing strategies’ section rather than the traditional 4Ps that would tend to suit products, so the structure of the report would be slightly modified.
MKT3007 Assignment 2: S2 2019
3. Also note that, for a marketing plan, it is not necessary to include an introduction and a conclusion. If however one prefers to do so, that should not be a problem.
This assignment is to be submitted electronically via the submission link on Study Desk. Please note that Turnitin submission is a requirement (see Turnitin instructions on Study Desk).
Marking Criteria: A detailed marking criteria document for Assignment 2 has been placed on Study
