Marketing Proposal (5%) (Group assessment) (Approximately 500 words)
Due Date: Session 4

You and your team partners are required to submit a marketing proposal that will form the basis of the marketing plan for this subject. You and your partners are mid level marketing executives who have developed an idea and wish to develop a new product or service and need to enlist the support of senior management to allocate a budget to develop a marketing plan for this innovation. As such, the following proposal is an initial proposal for you to develop a complete marketing plan for presentation to the board of directors.

The service and/or product innovation selected could be based on modifications to a current service/product offering that will attract a new target market to the organisation or it could be a new service/product offering to your current target market or a new service/product to a new target market. The service and/or product will be perceived by the target market to be an innovation (refer to details in the marketing plan regarding innovation categories). See points below.


The proposal should include the following:

• Introduction: the nature of the product/service and why senior management should consider this proposal further.
• A brief background of the relationship between the organisation and the industry context. Who are the main competitors? Consider the macro environment and significant influences.
• Description of service and/or product innovation and justification as to why modifications to current service/product will be regarded as an innovation to the selected target market. What is the proposed competitive advantage?
• Briefly describe the target market – that is the consumer group who will be potential buyers.
• Brief description on, and justify, how the service and/or product innovation will deliver customer value to the target market. Refer to text for details on customer value, satisfaction and loyalty.
• Recommendations to senior management (as to why they should release resources for the full marketing plan).
• List of references.

• 3. Marketing Plan (30%) (Group assessment) (3000 words maximum)
Due Date: Session 12 (including peer evaluation sheet)


The assessment task will help you achieve the following learning outcomes:

? identify, analyse and critically evaluate relevant internal and external market information from a strategic orientation to focus the development of a marketing strategy;
? develop an integrated marketing strategy based on logical arguments and well reasoned justification;
? devise integrated implementation, evaluation and control procedures for a marketing plan;
? conduct rigorous secondary and primary research to provide depth and breadth in the analysis and evaluation of information for the marketing plan;
? work creatively to devise a marketing plan that delivers a competitive advantage; and
? demonstrate effective communication skills and the ability to work with others in a professional manner.

Continuing to work with the previous group members, assuming approval has been granted for you to continue develop your proposal further, you are now required to prepare a marketing plan for a service and/or product innovation to present to senior management.

An innovation is defined as ‘… any good, service, or idea that is perceived by some potential customers as new’ (Kotler et.al, 2010, p. 336).


Based on your selected service and/or product innovation prepare a marketing plan (strategic, operational and tactical) that depicts and addresses the following areas:

? Executive Summary
? Table of Contents
? Introduction
? Situation Analysis
o Industry Analysis
o Market characteristics
o Customer analysis
o Competitor analysis
o Product/service offering
o SWOT analysis
? Marketing Research and Information
? Marketing strategy
o Vision and Mission
o Marketing objectives (set time frames and periods)
o Financial objectives (set quantified targets)
o Target market(s)/segment(s)
o Positioning
o Broad overall strategy
? Marketing Mix (operational and tactical management of product, price, place, and promotion in relation to customer solution, customer costs, convenience, and communications)
o Provide sufficient detail that addresses relevant elements of the marketing mix such that managers can plan for, and implement, the marketing plan.
o Action program to achieve objectives: What will be done? How will it be measured? When will it be done? Who will do it? How much will be spent?
o Evolution of the Marketing Mix: as a function of the development of the service and/or product innovation over the product and market life cycle
? Financials
? Controls procedures
? Contingency plan
? List of references
? Appendices

Further details to assist you with developing and writing the marketing plan will be discussed in early Sessions. The assessment criteria will be provided in session one. In each session the facilitator will highlight to you key issues that you should be considering for your marketing plan. You are strongly recommended to start work on the plan from Session one and after each Session add relevant information to the plan.

» [Refer to Kotler, P., Brown, L., Adam, S., Burton, S., Deans, K. & Armstrong, G. (2010). Marketing (8th ed.). French Forest, NSW: Pearson Education. [See: Ch.3 and Appendix one for further details] or Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2012). Principles of marketing (14th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education [Ch.2 and Appendix one].
» See also: Marketing Plan Toolkit
Do:
Do:
• Present the marketing plan in report format with subheadings and paragraphs following the structure outlined above.
• Use tables, diagrams and further analysis of data to clarify, illustrate and supplement analysis and support your recommendations.
• Use page numbers, double or 1½ spacing for ease of reading and feedback.
• Use citations from original sources when they are used, using an accepted format such as APA. If sources have not been acknowledge, they will be considered as plagiarised.
• [A citation looks like this: Albaum, Strandsov and Duerr (1994) have described the sales response function…..]. The reference to the above citation is as follows:
• Albaum, G.A., Strandskov, J., Duerr, E., Dowd, L. (1994), International Marketing and Export Management, New York: Addison-Wesley
• Proof read your report thoroughly, for grammatical and spelling errors.