Assignment 2: Marketing Plan

Due Week 5

This assignment consists of two sections: a marketing plan (Word document) and Marketing Budget (Excel document) Note: You must submit both sections as separate files for the completion of this assignment.

For the first 6 months your company is in business—to give you time to perfect your product and to learn from actual customers—you will start marketing and selling in your own community, a radius of 25 miles from where you live.

For most non-alcoholic beverages, marketing (as opposed to the actual product itself) is key to success. Cola drinks, for example, are fairly undifferentiated, as are many energy drinks, juices, bottled water, and the like. Companies producing these types of beverages differentiate themselves and attract market share through marketing and brand awareness—both of which are critical to success.

Section 1: Marketing Plan and Sales Strategy (MS Word or equivalent)

Write the 3 page marketing plan and sales strategy section of your business plan in which you do the following:

1. Define your company’s target market.
   1. Analyze the types of consumers who will be drinking your beverage in demographic terms (i.e., age, education level, income, gender, ethnic group, etc.). Outline the demographic information for your company specified on the worksheet in the course text (p. 107 | Demographic Description).
   2. Support your analysis with actual data on the size of the demographic groups in your local community (nearby zip codes).
      • Hints: At American FactFinder (http://factfinder.census.gov), you will find demographic information on potential consumers in your area. If you are selling through other businesses (such as grocery stores), indicate the number of those businesses in your local area. You will find information about such businesses in your local area at County Business Patterns (http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/). Check Chapter 2 of Successful Business Plan for more research sources.
2. Assess your company’s market competition.
   1. Use the factors listed in the course text graphic (p. 123 | Assess the Competition) to assess your company’s market competition.
   2. Defend your plan to differentiate yourself from the competition using the information detailed on the worksheet in the text (p. 131 | Market Share Distribution).

• Hints: Every business faces competition, and the non-alcoholic beverage market is an especially crowded market.
• Hints: For example, in the soft drink market, it is intimidating to try to compete against Coke and Pepsi. Newcomers in mature markets typically must pursue niche markets or even create new market categories, as Red Bull did with energy drinks.

1. Clarify your company’s message using the information provided on the worksheet in the text (p. 160 | The Five F’s). Create a marketing slogan/tagline for your product.
   • • Hints: Before you choose your marketing vehicles, you must determine the message you want to convey through those vehicles.
2. Identify the marketing vehicles you plan to use to build your company’s brand. Justify the key reasons why they will be effective.
   • Hints: If you plan to use online marketing tactics, refer to the worksheet in the text (p. 171 | Online Marketing Tactics) to aid your response. Remember that even if you’re selling through grocery stores, you need to build your brand and social media is a major part of that in regard to beverages. Some of the marketing tactics that beverage companies use include sampling in grocery stores, building a following on social media, sponsoring events, and exhibiting at trade shows attended by retailers. You will use a combination of these tactics. For example, if you decide to give out samples in grocery stores, promote your sampling on your social media networks and those of the grocery store.
   • Hints: If you are planning to distribute through resellers, describe how you plan to reach them, for example, through industry trade shows or by establishing your own sales force. For information on trade shows, visit the Trade Show News Network (http://www.tsnn.com). You can exhibit or network at these shows.
3. Format your assignment according to these formatting requirements:

1. Cite the resources you have used to complete the exercise. Note: There is no minimum requirement for the number of resources used in the exercise.
2. The paper must be typed, double-spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with 1-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
3. Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length.

Section 2: Marketing Budget (MS Excel worksheets template)

Section 2 uses the “Business Plan Financials” MS Excel template (see: Required Course Files in Week 1). Use the Business Plan Financials Guide (see: Required Course Files in Week 1) to support your development of the marketing budget.

1. Complete the “Marketing Budget” worksheet for your company.

Note: Complete the Setup tab first based on the instructions located in the Business Plan Financials Guide (document you also downloaded from PlanningShop). Only the setup tab and marketing tab should be completed for this assignment.

• • • Hints: The goal of the marketing budget is to help you determine how much it will cost you to reach your market and achieve your sales goals.
    • Hints: When filling out the “Marketing Budget” worksheet in the Excel spreadsheet, do the following:
      • Begin in the current year and complete a marketing budget for the first year of your business. The information you enter in the marketing budget spreadsheet will flow through to your “Income Statement” in the “Business Plan Financials.”
      • Leave the number at zero (0) for any marketing vehicles you do not intend to use.
      • Remember that all marketing activities involve costs. If social media represents a significant portion of your marketing, assume you will incur costs of advertising and these should be reflected on your budget. Even if a social media site charges nothing to use it, you will need to use company resources to manage the site, pay someone to execute your social media marketing campaigns, and most likely pay for ads on that site.
      • Do not leave the “Marketing Budget” blank assuming you will not have any marketing costs.
      • Do not complete all the rows; only fill in the costs for the marketing vehicles you will actually use. These must match the content you describe in Question 4 Word portion of this assignment.

The specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment is:

• Create a marketing plan that identifies a target market, market competition, a company message, and marketing vehicles for a company.

Name: BUS599 Week 5 Assignment 2: Marketing Plan

Description: BUS599 Week 5 Assignment 2: Marketing Plan

Go to Fortune Magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For 2019. The link is https://www.greatplacetowork.com/best-workplaces/100-best/2019 (Links to an external site.)

Research the companies and pick three that are in your area of business study.

• Financial Institutions for Finance
  Accounting/Financial Firms for Accountants
  Hotels or Retail for Marketing
  Production or Retail for Management
  Anything for Entrepreneurship

Write a summary of the three companies, using the View Company Profile under each company on the 100 Best website. Use the following questions as starters:

What do the companies do?
Why are you interested?
Where would you have to move?
What is starting salary for the entry level position you want? (use Salary.com or other salary websites)
What is the cost of living where they are located? What does an apartment in a good location rent for?
Can you live on the salary they start at?
Go to the company website and find job postings,then choose one for each company that you would qualify to apply for and add the information to your report.

Create a PowerPoint presentation to present in class

Finally, Pick one as your top pick for where you would like to work.

1. Read the above assignment.
2. Type your response using Microsoft Word only.
3. Minimum of 600 words, double-spaced, font size 12, font-style Times New Roman, 1-inch margins all around, and use MS Office Word, not Works, software. Have at least two references listed on a separate work cited page. The “number of words” do not include your header or the work cited page. To determine the number of words in a MS WORD document, look in the bottom left corner of the document, OR click Review tab, click on the icon that has ABC123 in the Proofing. Enter the number of words two spaces after the last paragraph.
4. Use the following header in the upper left-hand corner:
   Name: Your first name, your last name
   Course:
   Date Completed:

1. Your answer will be in a single file. Name the file: LastNameFirstNamePro-D.
2. Submit your assignment online ..
3. You need at least three outside peer reviewed articles for reference.
4. Use APA 6th Ed. for all citations and references.

Apply the principles of one of the three quality programs you have researched from your readings to your organization or a Saudi Arabian organization of your choice. Include the following information in a 4-5 page paper, not including the cover page and reference page:

• Background information on the organization
• Reason why you selected the quality program for that organization
• Ways in which the quality program may help enhance the organization’s performance

Your well-written paper should meet the following requirements:

• Be 4-5 pages in length, which does not include the title page, abstract, or required reference page, which are never a part of the content minimum requirements.
• Use academic writing standards and APA style guidelines.
• Support your submission with course material concepts, principles, and theories from the textbook and at least two scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles.

Conduct a search on your topic of interest in CINHAL and other databases. Choose a research study article that informs your area of interest. Write the article information as you would for a reference list using APA formatting. Post this in the discussion (the hanging indentation may not work on the discussion board, this is OK) Share a bit about the article with your classmates. Why is this article important to you? What are key points in relationship to your area of interest? Note: This can be the same artlcle that you will use for your article. We can chose anything can be Emergency room related.