Reference no: EM133099461
MKT 700 Marketing Capstone - Southern New Hampshire University
The final project for this course is the creation of an integrated marketing portfolio and executive summary presentation.
As the final stop in your journey toward the Master of Science in Marketing, you will complete a capstone project that integrates the knowledge and skills you have developed in previous coursework and over the duration of the term by creating an integrated marketing portfolio. The creation of your portfolio will require a considerable amount of outside research on your part. You will also reflect on how you plan to position yourself professionally by creating an executive summary presentation that serves as an introduction to your portfolio and your skills, using a visual presentation with audio.
In the business community, marketing professionals traditionally create a portfolio of accomplishments to showcase their unique abilities and talents. The portfolio enables these professionals to provide tangible evidence of their value to potential employers or customers. The portfolio and executive summary you will be creating for the capstone will have the benefit of demonstrating not only your mastery of individual components of the marketing process, but also your ability to successfully integrate those components in navigating the process as a whole.
Evaluation of Capstone
This capstone will be assessed somewhat differently than other courses you have taken online at SNHU. There are two separate components; however, they operate together to comprise the whole capstone experience and are not assessed separately. You will be evaluated on both as a unit in determining whether you have demonstrated proficiency in each outcome. Your instructor will guide you through this process, keeping a running narrative of your strengths and weaknesses in relation to the outcomes as you progress through the class. Your work is expected to meet the highest professional standards.
The project is divided into four milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules Two, Three, Five, and Seven. The final submission for Capstone Component 1 and Capstone Component 2 is due in Module Nine.
In this assignment you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:
• Analyze and interpret qualitative and quantitative data to align marketing plans to the strategic goals of an organization
• Create integrated and aligned strategies for maximizing both internal and external opportunities through the use of marketing theory and practices
• Distill information through diverse mediums to inform, negotiate, and persuade internal and external stakeholders
• Develop international marketing strategies that address the commercial, political, legal, and cultural environments in a global economy
• Ensure marketing practices are compliant within internal and external legal environments, regulatory standards, and ethical practices
• Manage a brand in cross-functional internal and external environments to ensure the creation, capture, and delivery of value
Prompt
Scenario: For both the integrated marketing portfolio and the executive summary presentation, imagine you are a marketing associate at a major marketing firm representing either one of the clients below or representing one of the companies from the Entrepreneur Top 500 list.
1. Global identity theft protection service
Global Identity Protection Service Company (GIPSC) is a new service company located in New York City that specializes in providing electronic identity theft protection services for both individuals and commercial businesses in the United States and internationally. John Turner, the president and founder of the company, has asked for assistance in attracting a broad consumer audience to his product, while staying competitive.
2. A new consumer credit card providing services on a worldwide basis
Credit Global Corporation (CGC) is a newly formed consumer credit company based in San Francisco, California. Company president and CEO Jane Smith is considering a new credit card product that offers customers more control over the management of their account. For instance, customers will be able to determine the monthly date that they will pay their account, will be able to opt to skip payments for certain months of their choice, and will be offered a choice of features such as a lower interest rate, reward points packages, or personal concierge services. Smith would like to develop a consumer credit card that is considerably different from other products in the market.
3. Flower shop serving local, national, and international customers
Jamie's Floral Delights is a startup floral design and delivery company located in Kansas City, Missouri, that serves both individual and corporate customers, domestically and abroad. Company founder Jamie Green is in the initial stages of launching her venture and has asked you to provide your marketing expertise in helping her product reach the right market at a reasonable cost, and with the goal of profitability by year two.
Your client has asked you to help identify the global target market for his or her product, develop a pricing structure and financial projection, create an integrated marketing communication plan, and suggest concrete steps for putting the activities into action. (All artifacts in your portfolio will be for the same client, selecting one from the three choices above.)
Capstone Component 1: Integrated Marketing Portfolio
In the first of the two components of your capstone, you will address your client's request for marketing assistance by creating four artifacts to include in an integrated marketing portfolio. The portfolio should be designed to help the client take the product from concept to market and beyond and will also showcase your abilities as a marketing professional capable of operating in a global environment. You will build the separate pieces of your portfolio throughout the term and refine your work with feedback from your instructor. Although you will develop each artifact sequentially during the course, it is important to note that this is an iterative process. Remember that you are creating an integrated portfolio, so each artifact should inform and be informed by the analysis contained in the others, and you may need to go back to adjust artifacts developed early in the course to reflect information in subsequent pieces.
Specifically, your portfolio should include the following artifacts:
Artifact 1: Target Market and Competitive Analysis
The first artifact you create for your client should be a memo, with supporting analytical graphs and data, which identifies the global target market(s) for the client's product using appropriate segmentation variables and considering the strategic goals of the organization. The memo should also assess which other
companies are competing for the same customers, with what products, and with what rate of success. Your target market and competitive analysis memo should cover the product's anticipated growth, revenue opportunities, and likelihood of success based on research on similar products from several major competitors and relevant consumer behavior studies.
Your memo should focus on what the client can learn from what competitors have done, both in terms of product and target markets. For example, how can the client replicate competitors' success while effectively differentiating and/or improving his or her own product? Is the market you have identified reachable and sustainable? What are the key features consumers in that market are looking for with respect to your client's product or service? How might different commercial, political, legal, or cultural factors influence the global markets you have identified?
To convince your client your advice is reasonable, you should provide a clear rationale for your suggestions based on detailed research. Remember also that your goal is to produce an integrated marketing portfolio in which each piece informs the others, so be sure to explain how financial, communications, or logistical elements might impact the selection of an appropriate target market or relevant product features.
Artifact 2: Financial Analysis and Pricing Structure
In the second artifact in your portfolio, you will lay out for your client the anticipated financial ramifications of your marketing plan and determine the price the client should charge for the product. The artifact, which should be a written memo, must include a narrative of your findings, supported by financial information and appropriate graphs and tables.
In explaining your financial analysis and suggested pricing structure to the client, you should adopt a three-year time horizon and be sure to include the following:
• Forecasted annual sales and revenue and market share
• Expected annual return on investment
• An analysis of the breakeven point for each year
• How your analysis is affected by the marketing environment for international target markets
• An assessment of how sensitive your analysis is to changing market conditions both domestically and internationally
• How you arrived at your suggested price including acceptable profit margins, channels of distribution, and competitors' pricing for similar products
You should also discuss how legal and ethical considerations such as predatory pricing and international rules and regulations affect your analysis. Are these considerations different in different global markets? How? Remember that this is an integrated portfolio, so your analysis should take into account the
interrelationships between price structure and financial analysis, as well as how these affect and are affected by the choice of target market, communication approaches, and implementation strategy.
Bear in mind that while your primary audience for this artifact is the company CEO, he or she may also bring along members of the financial team to review your projections, so you should be sure to use accepted finance and accounting standards and language in reporting your results. Also be sure that your recommendations align with the strategic goals of the organization. As with the other artifacts in your portfolio, you should provide a clear rationale for your projections and suggestions that is firmly grounded in research.
Artifact 3: Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) Plan
In this artifact, you will develop a plan for communicating the availability of your client's product to the target market(s) you identified, using a clear, unified message. Your plan should specify the overall promotional objectives of the communications activity or activities and provide the client with a range of viable options, including what major competitors have done and the costs of the different options. The options you present to the client should include a mix of communication approaches such as social media, sales promotion, direct marketing, digital marketing, advertising, and/or public relations designed to effectively reach the target market(s). It should also specify a timeline for conducting the activities and proposed measures of success.
In addition, you should consider how legal and ethical factors such as truth in advertising and other relevant rules and regulations come into play in your communication strategy, including how these considerations might be different in markets outside the United States.
To flesh out your concepts and provide the client with a concrete example of the type of marketing you are suggesting, you will also include a sample marketing communication (e.g., an ad or radio spot, artistic ad copy for a magazine, script, or other instructor-approved item) as part of your IMC plan. Although the IMC plan as a whole should be geared toward the client, the sample marketing communication should be designed to communicate with the target audience.
To keep your plan grounded in reality, be sure to base your suggestions on sound marketing principles, research what successful competitors have done, and provide a comprehensive consideration of costs, including the costs of hiring individuals to carry out the activities, based on current expense rates for various types of media advertising. In addition, ensure that your suggestions reflect the strategic goals of the organization. In other words, is what you are suggesting feasible? Be sure to integrate the financial, logistical, and target market knowledge generated in the other artifacts in your portfolio in creating your communication plan.
Artifact 4: Implementation, Evaluation, and Control Strategy
This artifact ties together the previous three pieces of your portfolio and turns them into a plan of action. In it, you will make detailed suggestions to the client on how to implement the various pieces of the marketing plan you have proposed, evaluate its results, ensure legal and ethical compliance, and allow for
corrections to plans and activities as needed to achieve the organization's objectives. You should also discuss how your marketing firm can assist the client in carrying out the various implementation, evaluation, and control (IEC) activities.
Specifically, your IEC strategy should consider the following:
• Specific action items for each element of your marketing plan, including how they will be executed, by whom, under what time frame, and at what cost
• How you will account for client input in negotiating a final mix of marketing activities
• Concrete steps for ensuring that the marketing portfolio complies with legal systems, regulatory standards, and ethical practices in a global context
• Specific metrics, timeframes, and processes for evaluating the effectiveness of the marketing activities
• Review processes for ensuring alignment of marketing activities to the overall goals of the organization
• Additional research on consumer behavior and market research that might be needed, either to ensure that marketing messages account for cultural variations in a global market or to refine messages once the product has been launched, and when, how, and by whom that research would be conducted
• How and when corrections will be made to marketing activities if needed, and by whom
• How other logistical factors, such as changing political scenarios in different countries, corporate social responsibility, or global trends might affect marketing decisions over the product life cycle
As support for your strategy, you should research and discuss IEC initiatives that have been successful for similar products in the past and compare and contrast how these might apply to your own marketing portfolio. You should present your suggestions with an eye to persuading the client to adopt your strategy.
Capstone Component 2: Executive Summary Presentation
For the second and final component of your capstone, you will present an executive summary of your portfolio that discusses its contents as well as how it reflects your knowledge, skills, and abilities as a marketing professional. The summary presentation will take the form of a visual presentation, such as a PowerPoint presentation with audio narration or other instructor-approved medium, that is geared toward potential employers or clients and designed to reinforce the oral presentation skills you will need for interviews and other professional presentations.
You should view this component as an introduction to your entire portfolio and should start by discussing the key goals of the marketing activities it features and how those fit within broader marketing trends. For example, you may want to showcase your knowledge of the broader marketing context by discussing how the current market situation impacted your client's product or service and how changes in market dynamics over the next several years may affect business.
In order to show potential employers or clients the full range of your marketing knowledge, you will want to discuss how the different pieces fit together and inform the project as a whole, in addition to highlighting key features and major findings of the individual artifacts. Remember that employers and potential clients often interview a number of technically qualified candidates, so you should try to draw out aspects of your portfolio that set you apart as well as illustrate your competence in the different areas. For example, you might want to showcase your knowledge of legal and ethical issues or your ability to navigate complex international environments, or provide insights into how to incorporate corporate social responsibility in marketing.
As part of your summary presentation, you should also discuss how developing the portfolio and your coursework throughout the program have helped shape your personal goals and values and prepared you to enter the marketing field. In addition, you may want to discuss how you addressed unforeseen problems, obstacles, or any unexpected surprises (either those you encountered in developing the portfolio or those you considered as contingencies in the portfolio itself), since the ability to effectively and creatively solve problems is a highly valued job skill.
Milestones
Milestone One: Target Market and Competitive Analysis Memo (Artifact 1)
In Module Two, you will submit a draft of your target market and competitive analysis memo with supporting analytical graphs and data for the client selected. Your memo will identify global target markets for the product using segmentation variables and strategic goals of the company. You will assess your company's competitors, including all factors listed for Artifact 1. Provide clear rationale for all recommendations to your client. This milestone is graded with the Milestone One Rubric.
Milestone Two: Financial Analysis and Pricing Structure Memo (Artifact 2)
In Module Three, you will review the financial aspects of your marketing plan and submit a draft of your financial analysis and pricing structure. Propose a pricing strategy based on costs, competition, target revenue, and consumer perceptions. Your pricing structure should be supported by projected financial information including forecasts for sales, revenue, ROI, and breakeven, and so forth. Explain how you arrived at your forecast/price. Include caveats that might alter your projections for your client. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Two Rubric.
Milestone Three: Integrated Marketing Communication Plan (Artifact 3)
In Module Five, you will submit a draft of an integrated marketing communication plan (IMC) to reach out to your client's prospective consumer through marketing communications. Provide a comprehensive list of communication objectives you want to achieve for your client, and recommend an appropriate mix of integrated marketing communications tools to meet those objectives. Prepare a sample communication piece such as a commercial, print advertisement, a direct mail packet, or a social media site. Ensure your suggestions reflect the strategic goals of the organization. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Three Rubric.
Milestone Four: Implementation, Evaluation, and Control (Artifact 4)
In Module Seven, you will submit a draft of your plan for implementation, evaluation, and control. Make detailed suggestions to the client on how to implement the various pieces of the marketing plan you have proposed in the previous three artifacts, evaluate results, ensure legal and ethical compliance, and allow for corrections to plans and activities as needed to achieve the organization's objectives. Discuss how your marketing firm can assist the client in carrying out the various implementation, evaluation, and control (IEC) activities.
Attachment:- Marketing Capstone.rar