MKT 3010 Marketing Plan Structure Requirement

Presented below are all major components of a basic marketing plan you may find useful.
Executive
Summary

Briefly summarize your product, your company, market situation, the aim and main
content of this marketing plan.
Things to include/consider:
A concise, clear description of the product/service/experience you are marketing
Highlighting the key characteristics that differentiate your
product/service/experience from other alternatives already existing in the
market
A value proposition
Notes:
If you are using a product that is currently on the target market in your market
plan, please use third person narrative. You can consider your group as outside
consultants employed by the company. Clearly distinct what the company has
done from what your group suggest it to do. Mere descriptions of what the
company has done will not count towards your contribution. If you suggest a
new marketing strategy for the company, specify what the companys old
strategy is and why you think it does not work.
If you are creating a new product, be specific about how exactly the product
works, whether it has any drawbacks and whether there are any other
comparable products on the market. You are allowed to use technologies that
are currently unavailable but are likely to be true (backed by scientific reports or
predictions) within the next 5 years. Since this is not science fiction, you cant
base your plan solely on technologies that are entirely imaginary and wont be
true in the near future (such as cure for AIDS). Although you are not required to
produce a prototype of the product, you need to describe (or illustrate during
your presentation) all the necessary details related to the product so that it
seems real.

Mkt
What environmental factors are particularly relevant? How are they influencing the
Environment current or future marketing efforts? What is changing?
(micro &
macro)
Things to include/consider:
& SWOT
For the microenvironment think about: competition, suppliers, intermediaries,
and publics
Please do a comprehensive analysis about your current and potential
competitors in this section. Focus on the competitive product(s), rather than the
firms that own these products. List the details of their product offerings, pricing,
services and how they are different from your product.
For the macroenvironment think about: demographic, economic, natural,
technological, political, and cultural forces. However, focus only on a select few
macroenvironmental issues that you think very specifically have a major
influence on your marketing plan
Provide concrete (re: researched) evidence of your answers. Saying trite,

obvious statements like the economy is down is obvious, boring, and

meaningless without you providing specific details that make it relevant to your
marketing plan.
The culmination of your review is a SWOT analysis.

Objectives
and Issues

Things to include/consider:
A SWOT analysis is NOT a sales pitch. It should be a concise, objective
assessment of how the strengths and weaknesses of your
business/product/service/experience correspond to the realistic opportunities
and threats out in the world. Dont try to sugarcoat reality to make your plan
seem more feasible than it really is. Be an neutral, objective analyst.
Remember our discussion about how things that seem to be threats may actually
be opportunities, depending on your marketing approach.
A strength is not a real strength if all of your competitors also have it, or can
easily mimic it. Your strengths have to be unique and difficult for competitors to
mimic or substitute.
Based on your review, what are the specific short and long-term objectives? These must
be measureable and are consistent with the specific objectives of the mkt. plan.
Things to include/consider:
You must be able to define a specific, measureable outcome and define a time
window in which to achieve your goal. If its not measureable, its meaningless. If
its not specific, its meaningless. If you do not define a time by which to achieve
your goals, its meaningless.
You may have more than one objective in both the short-term and long-term.
That is fine. Make sure each one meets the criteria mentioned above.

Marketing
Strategy
Marketing
Research

Targeted
Customers

Based on your review, you may believe that conducting additional research is essential
before selecting specific tactics in your campaign. Explain what research questions you
think need to be answered (and how you may do so) as part of your marketing plan
(note: you dont have to actually conduct this research as part of your project)
What segment(s) are you targeting? Be specific.
Things to include/consider:
Mere demographic segmentation/targeting is unlikely to be sufficient
Consider other lifestyle, psychographic, or geographic variables that are
appropriate
Think about the unique wants and needs of your segment
Use more facts and figures to support your argument whenever you can. For
example, if your potential target market is tech-savvy teens and young adults,
how large is this market? How many people belong to this category in US? What
is their spending power? What are their shopping habits? What media can reach
them effectively?
Finally, remember that the quality of your segmentation depends on your ability
to REACH them with your marketing efforts. If you precisely define your target
market, but cant demonstrate to me you know how to actually REACH them,
then you have done a poor job segmenting!

4Ps

Cover your strategy for each of the 4Ps, and remember, excellent marketing integrates
the 4Ps into a greater whole instead of individual pieces.
Things to include/consider:
Product You have described the basic product/service/experience already.
However, consider getting more in-depth in terms of a variety of offerings
(product line decisions), branding, packaging, labeling, etc.
Pricing Considering your objectives, what is a reasonable pricing strategy for
you to pursue? Should you offer different prices depending on factors like:
features offered, customer served, time of day/season, etc.? Assume you have
cost information, conduct a break-even analysis.
Place (Distribution) Describe and justify the channel(s) you will use to reach
your potential customers. You may want to consider how your distribution
channel(s) may evolve if your product/service/experience is successful over time.
Promotion Characterize the advertising mix you think will be appropriate (and
justify it). Discuss what role (if any) sales promotions will play, and think about
how social media / PR may be coordinated with your advertising mix.

Action
Programs
Controls

This is a timeline of activities to execute your marketing plan, with specific attention paid
to how other departments will need to work in tandem with marketing.
No marketing plan is perfect, things always go wrong (or go better than hoped). What
variables will you be tracking to monitor your success/failure? How will you track these
variables? How may you adapt if performance is worse than you hoped?

Writing:
Please use professional style in writing. This is a business document that you will submit to your
employers (such as the company which hired you to do consulting) or potential investors (if you
are proposing a new invention or set up a business).You should avoid excessive personal
opinions, informal use of language, or claims that are not backed up by any research results or
statistics.
A well written business document should be concise and to the point. Do not include factors for
the sake of covering all items from our textbook. If a sentence isnt particular relevant to your
product or market, remove it. You will not gain any extra points by writing longer documents.
Formatting:
Please follow the above format to organize your materials. In your final draft, please make sure
your marketing plan is no longer than 15 pages, with 12 pt font size, double line space, 1 inch
margin on all sides. If you want to format your submission differently (for example put certain
content in tables), first convert it to standard format to make sure it does exceed the length limit.

Citations:
Please include citations in your plan whenever you are using sources material (for example, if
you are working on an existing product, obviously most of the product specifications are from

the current company). Please follow MLA citation format for your citations (I have attached
examples of this in appendix of this file).
Even if your sources are online, you should list the authors name, publication date, article title,
and journal title (if there is one) before the url of the site. Try to use more reputable sources such
as the manufactures own website, wall street journal, business week and other economic
journals or newspapers, or well-known review site such as cnet.com, and rely less on personal
review sites or random blogs.
Appendix:
The Modern Language Association (MLA) Style is widely used for identifying research
sources. In MLA style you briefly credit sources with parenthetical citations in the text of
your paper, and give the complete description of each source in your Works Cited list. The
Works Cited list, or Bibliography, is a list of all the sources used in your paper, arranged
alphabetically by author's last name, or when there is no author, by the first word of the title
(except A, An or The). [5.1-5.5]
You can read more about MLA examples below:
http://www2.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citmla.htm

Parenthetical References
The sources that you use should be cited in the text of your paper, either in a parentheses or as part of
the text itself:

During the turbulent 1960s, science fiction programs on television reflected

the public's attitudes toward the older generation (Hodges 179).
Hodges discussed how, during the turbulent 1960s, science fiction
programs on television reflected the public's attitudes toward the older
generation (179).
Put the parentheses before a period, semicolon, or comma in order to avoid disrupting the flow of the
sentence. If you are referring to the entire source in a general way, you may leave out the page numbers.

(Devine and Sherman 156-57)

(Kirk, Spock, and McCoy 1701)
(Vulcan Reflections 63-66) [Book with no author]
Longer titles should be shortened to the first word or two.
("Roddenberry Legacy") [Article or web page with no author and with no page numbers]
(US, NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory) [Document with a corporate author and no
page numbers]
Use standard abbreviations for words in long names if they exist. Place commas between units
instead of periods. MLA prefers that you incorporate lengthy names into the text (without
abbreviations) and place only the page numbers (if any) in parentheses.

MLA Citation Style

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th edition
Follow these color codes:
Author(s)

Title of Book or

Title of

Title of Periodical Volume

Place of
Publication

Website

Article

Publisher or Database

Date

Other
Information

Pages

Journal Article
[Hardcopy]
Devine, Patricia G., and Steven J. Sherman. "Intuitive Versus Rational Judgment
and the Role of Stereotyping in the Human Condition: Kirk or Spock?"
Psychological Inquiry 3.2 (1992): 153-59. Print.
[From a Website]
Hodges, F. M. "The Promised Planet: Alliances and Struggles of the
Gerontocracy in American Television Science Fiction of the 1960s."
Aging Male 6.3 (2003): 175-82. Web. 18 Feb. 2010.
[From a Database]
Roberts, Robin. "Performing Science Fiction: Television, Theater, and Gender in
Star Trek: The Experience." Extrapolation 42.4 (2001): 340-56. Literature
Resource Center. Web. 25 Feb. 2010.
Websites
Epsicokhan, Jamahl. "Confessions of a Closet Trekkie." Jammer's
Reviews. N.p., 20 Feb. 2004. Web. 15 Mar. 2010.
[Page with a corporate author]
United States. Natl. Aeronautics and Space Administration. Jet Propulsion
Laboratory. "Mission Could Seek out Spock's Home Planet." PlanetQuest:
Exoplanet Exploration. NASA, 10 May 2007. Web. 15 Mar. 2010.
[Page with no author]
"The Roddenberry Legacy of Human Potential: If Only, If Only." Star Trek Official
Site. CBS Studios, 24 Oct. 2007. Web. 15 Mar. 2010.
Blog
Zompist. "Star Wars: Hope Not So New Anymore." Zompist's E-Z Ran
Page. WordPress.com, 30 Sept. 2009. Web. 16 Mar. 2010.
[Comment posted on a blog or web page]
Rachael. "Re: Confessions of a Closet Trekkie." Reply to Jamahl Epsicokhan.
Jammer's Reviews. N.p., 5 Aug. 2009. Web. 25 Mar. 2010.

Wiki
"Cultural Influence of Star Trek." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia
Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2010.
Newspaper Article
Di Rado, Alicia. "Trekking through College: Classes Explore Modern Society
Using the World of Star Trek." Los Angeles Times 15 Mar. 1995: A3+. Print.
[Specialized article: Movie review - the review information can be replaced with
Editorial, Letter, etc.]

Dargis, Manohla. "Kids in Space." Rev. of Star Trek, dir. J. J. Abrams. New York
Times 8 May 2009, sec. C: 1+. Print.
[Material available only on the website and not in the print version]
Lyall, Sarah. "To Boldly Go Where Shakespeare Calls." New York Times. New
York Times, 27 Jan. 2008. Web. 25 Feb. 2010.

Magazine Article
Mershon, Donald H. "Star Trek on the Brain: Alien Minds, Human Minds." American
Scientist Nov.-Dec. 1998: 585. Print.