Assignment 2: Marketing Plan
Due Week 6 and worth 100 points
This assignment consists of two (2) sections: a marketing
plan and sales strategy, and a marketing budget. Note: You must submit both
sections as separate files for the completion of this assignment.
For the first six (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 twenty-five
(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 & Sales Strategy (MS Word or
equivalent)
Write the three to five (3-5) page Marketing Plan & Sales
Strategy section of your business plan, in which you:
1. Define your
company’s target market.
o Analyze the
types of consumers who will be drinking your beverage in demographic terms
(i.e., age, education level, income, gender, ethnic group, etc.). Support your
analysis with actual data on the size of the demographic groups in your local
community (nearby zip codes).
o Outline the
demographic information for your company specified on the worksheet in the
course text (p. 107 | Demographic Description). Click here for help accessing a
specific page number in your eBook.
o Hints: At
American FactFinder (http://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.
Assess your
company’s market competition.
o Use the
factors listed in the course text graphic (p. 123 | Assess the Competition) to
assess your company’s market competition.
o Defend your
strategy to successfully compete against market leaders in your segment.
o 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.
o Defend your
plan to differentiate yourself from the competition using the information
detailed on the worksheet in the text (p. 131 | Market Share Distribution).
o Hints: Every
business faces competition and the non-alcoholic beverage market is an
especially crowded market.
3. Clarify your
company’s message using the information provided on the worksheet in the text
(p. 160 | The Five F’s).
•
o Hints: Before
you choose your marketing vehicles, you must determine the message you want to
convey through those vehicles.
Identify the
marketing vehicles you plan to use to build your company’s brand. Justify the
key reasons why they will be effective. Provide examples of other non-alcoholic
beverage companies that use these tactics effectively.
o 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, exhibiting at trade shows
attended by retailers, and so on. 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.
o 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.
5. Format your
assignment according to these formatting requirements:
a. 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.
b. Be typed,
double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on
all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with
your professor for any additional instructions.
c. 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: Course Required Files in Week 1). Use the “Business Plan
Financials Guide” (see: Course Required Files in Week 1) to support your
development of the Marketing Budget.
6. Complete the
Marketing Budget worksheet for your company.
•
o 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.
o Hints: When
filling out the “Marketing Budget” worksheet in the Excel spreadsheet:
? 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 have cost of advertising and that 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 will most
likely pay for ads on that site.
? Do NOT leave the “Marketing Budget”
blank, assuming you will not have any marketing costs.
