Reference no: EM133082879 , Length: word count:1800
MRKT1001 Marketing Principles - Southern Cross University
Marketing Plan
Marketing plan for a sustainable offering
Requirements
• You need to create a marketing plan for a sustainable product (good or service) for an existing organisation. The organisation can be large, small, not for profit, local or international.
However the product (good or service) needs to be fictitious - you need to create a completely new product or service or idea for the organisation.
Marketing is pervasive in everyday life. At all stages of their life cycle (from raw material, production, consumption to end-of-life), market offerings can cause adverse environmental and social impacts (Maxwell, Sheate, & van der Vorst, 2006).
As you will learn in Topic 1, marketing is all about "creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings[1] that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large" (American Marketing Association cited in your text, Lamb et al. 2016, p. 3).
The aim of this assessment is for you to identify a problem and to contribute a solution to this problem through the use of appropriate marketing and creative problem-solving (CPS) tools.
The product offering that you choose needs to be something that a consumer (or customer) can purchase.
You will develop:
(1) a concept for a new or improved offering
(2) a marketing plan for the proposed offering to ensure it has the greatest level of success.
Remember you base your marketing plan on an existing organisation however the product needs to be fictitious and solve an environmental or social problem.
What kind of sustainable offering (product or service)?
You can create or choose a product that aims to help solve an environmental problem or a social problem such as:
a. an existing sustainable offering capable of being marketed more effectively (change in marketing, e.g. packaging, advertising, minor product modification).
For example a social enterprise such as Thank You introduces recycled plastic bottles for their Thank You water.
b. an existing non-sustainable offering capable of being redesigned for sustainability (incremental technical innovation and change in marketing).
For example when Colgate introduced their toothbrushes made from bamboo to reduce the use of plastic.
c. a new offering with a key sustainability benefit that overcomes an existing or latent ‘problem' (radical technical innovation and new marketing).
For example when Coca Cola introduced a product with stevia to address the societal problem of excess consumption of sugar.
d. solve a social problem such as loneliness for older people, low literacy rates of children in low socio-economic communities.
For example Macquarie Bank providing social financing or social enterprises such as Who Gives a Crap.
Another key requirement is, of course, that the offering provides customer value. Your new or improved sustainable offering may be a consumer good, industrial good or a service.
Executive summary
This is a synopsis of the overall marketing plan. On about one page, outline the major content areas and recommendations covered in your plan. Be sure to mention the business name and the brand name of the market offering.
1. Situation analysis
Draw on Topic 2:
Background to the business Environmental analysis (macro and micro)
Product analysis: outline of the new sustainable offering
Market and customer analysis for the new offering.
2. Objectives (draw on Topics 2 and 7) - 150 words
State the financial, marketing and other objectives you would like the sustainable market offering to achieve. They need to be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound).
Present your objectives in bullet points with a short explanation, using the following headings:
Financial objectives (e.g. sales, net profits p.a., ROI)
Marketing objectives (e.g. market share, consumer awareness, number of dealers)
Sustainability-related objectives, e.g. ecological (waste reduction), social/community (awareness of or participation in sustainability projects).
3. Target market (draw on Topic 6) - 100 words
Recommend a target market using the four bases of segmentation.
Support your recommendation for selecting this particular target market, that is, why does this target market have the biggest potential?
4. Marketing strategies - 1, 000 words
This section should outline the broad marketing strategies that will be implemented to achieve the objectives for your sustainable market offering. Cover the following:
Positioning (Topic 6)
Develop a clear positioning statement for your sustainable market offering, i.e. how will it provide differentiated value for the target market
Product/service - market offering (draw on Topic 8)
Cover the following:
Nature of the offer - what combination of good, service and experience Level - core, actual and augmented product
Type - industrial or consumer good (convenience, shopping, speciality or unsought) Unique selling proposition (USP) or sustainable competitive advantage
Detail your recommendations concerning branding, packaging, labelling
Optional additional product-related strategies for service offerings (as per Topic 8):
•
1. People (Internal marketing; customer service)
Explain how you will:
select, train, staff
manage customer expectations through service providers/staff.
2. Process (systems; procedures)
Explain what systems you will use to support the staff to deliver the service.
3. Physical evidence (Internal marketing; customer service)
Explain how you will offer tangible cues about your service:
exterior facilities (e.g. building, parking) and interior facilities (eg light, sound) space/function, e.g. store layout
signs, symbols, e.g. staff uniforms, store signage, brochures
Price (draw on Topic 9)
Explain how you will set the price for your offering. Your pricing should be consistent with your financial objectives and address each of the following steps:
1. Pricing goals - profit-oriented, sales-oriented or status-quo oriented
2. Forecast demand, costs and profits
3. Pricing strategy - penetration, skimming or status quo.
Placement / distribution (draw on Topic 10)
Explain how you will get your offering to the final consumer. Consider the following decisions in your discussion:
Channel structure - direct or indirect
Level of distribution intensity - intensive, selective or exclusive
Logistics services - the desired level of supply chain service, which maximises service yet minimises cost (e.g. value-added services, product transformation).
Promotion/ marketing communications (draw on Topic 11)
Explain how you will apply the integrated marketing communications (IMC) concept to the promotion of your offering. Your discussion should cover:
Communication goals (to perform, persuade or remind)
Message design - should be consistent, unified and customer-focused
Promotional mix (advertising, public relations, personal selling, sales promotion, direct marketing, digital marketing, other such as product placement).
5. Marketing implementation
Develop an action plan for key tasks related to implementing each strategy element (product, price, place, promotion):
What will be done? Link each activity to discussion within Section 4 on Marketing strategies.
When will it be done? (target completion date) Who will do it? (responsibility)
How much will it cost? (expenditure)
6. Budget
Develop an approximate budget for the time horizon of your plan (1, 3 or 5 years) covering the following elements:
Revenue: Forecast sales volume in units multiplied by the average price (link to 4.3 on Price) Less: Cost of production (link to 4.3 on Price)
Less: Cost of distribution (link to 4.4 on Placement)
Less: Marketing costs (link to action plan in Section 5.)
Projected profit (check that this appears in your Executive Summary).
7. Evaluation and control
Explain how marketing activities will be monitored to ensure success. Give specific directions as to who will be responsible for evaluation and how it will be carried out. In particular, explain how you
will use the following (and/or other) metrics to evaluate your marketing performance against your marketing objectives:
Financial (e.g. sales, profitability, ROI)
Marketing such as consumer attitudes (e.g. awareness, knowledge, attitude, satisfaction), consumer behaviour (number of new consumers, conversions), market share, relative to competitor (relative consumer satisfaction, perceived quality)
Sustainability, i.e. social (awareness of or participation in sustainability projects) and environmental (e.g. carbon emissions, recycling of operational inputs and product, operational waste, consumer waste).
8. References
Include at least 3 academic references with corresponding full references in your List of References.
Attachment:- Marketing Plan.rar