Course Project: Creating the Marketing Plan

Course Project: Creating the Marketing Plan
Objectives

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The Course Project gives students
the opportunity to synthesize all of the concepts in the BUSN319 Marketing
course by applying them to develop a comprehensive marketing plan for a new
business, product, or service.
Introduction

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Product innovation and marketing are
the only enduring competitive advantages that companies can use to survive and
thrive in the marketplace. In the next 7 weeks, you are going to participate in
designing and writing a marketing plan for a business, product, or service of
your choosing. Your active participation in this project, first, is essential
to building your understanding of marketing; secondly, you can use a
well-written marketing plan to show prospective employers a sample of your
work.
A marketing plan is a guide for the
marketing activities of an organization for a specified period of time,
typically about 5 years. The plan can be used internally to guide the marketing
activities or it can be used to communicate with external audiences to raise
capital. There are important questions to keep in mind as you design your plan.

Is the marketing idea valid?
What is unique or distinctive about the product or
service that separates it from substitutes and competitors?
Does a viable market exist for the product or service?
Are the financial projections sound?
Is the management team competent?
How will the investors get their money back with a
return on their investments?

In order to help you answer these
questions and many others, the course provides the following items.

“Building an Effective Marketing Plan” as
Appendix A on page 48 of your textbook (it includes an example of a marketing
plan)
“Financial Aspects of Marketing” as Appendix
B on page 368 of your textbook
A marketing plan outline located in Doc Sharing
A grading rubric for the marketing plan

Guidelines

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Your final marketing plan should be
between 4,000 and 6,000 words and must follow all APA guidelines.In Week 1, you will submit a two-page description of your
business, product, or service for instructor approval of your topic. In Week 4,
you will submit a substantial draft of your marketing plan for instructor
feedback. In Week 5, you will submit a breakeven analysis for your business,
product, or service. Your completed marketing plan is due at the end of Week 7.

Milestones

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Week 1: Topic Proposal (10 points)
You will select a topic for the Week
1 assignment, and thereafter, all related assignments (the draft in Week 4,
the breakeven analysis in Week 5, and the final marketing plan in Week 7) MUST
be on the same topic. You may not change your marketing plan topic without
approval from your instructor. Your topic should be for a business, product, or
service that you would like to start (no multilevel marketing structures,
please). Because this is an applied project and not a research paper,
please do not select a corporation such as Starbucks or Coca-Cola as your
topic. You are to apply the course concepts to this project. If you are
interested in coffee restaurants, for example, you may wish to select your own
cappuccino bar as your topic and then use information from companies like
Starbucks or Seattle’s Best Coffee for ideas and competitive research as you
work on your project. If you have questions about your topic, don’t hesitate to
post them in the Q & A Forum this week.
For Week 1, please write a two-page
description of your company, product, or service. It should be a new business,
product, or service. Discuss ownership and company structure. Describe the
business, product, or service. Write your mission statement and include your
marketing goals.
Week 4: Draft Marketing Plan (100
points)
At the end of Week 4, you will
submit a substantial draft to your instructor for grading and feedback. Read
Appendix A in the text. Be sure to download the Marketing Plan outline from Doc
Sharing. It is recommended that you start work on your draft in Week 2 after
your instructor has approved your topic. Use the Marketing Plan outline as a
guide to the required content for your marketing plan. Complete as much as you
are able in order to get a good start and an initial draft ready to submit at
the end of Week 4.
Week 5: Price Strategy/Breakeven
Analysis (50 points)
One of the most challenging
decisions faced by marketers is setting the price for their products and
services. In order to select the right price, you need to ensure that you’ll be
able to cover your costs and meet customers’ needs at a price that they are
willing to pay. You will need to perform a breakeven analysis to determine the
best price. Chapters 13 and 14 outline six steps that organizations follow to
set price. Follow these six steps (as listed on page 322 in the text) to set
prices for your product or service and perform a breakeven analysis. Submit
your price strategy/breakeven analysis via the Week 5 Dropbox for grading and
feedback. Be sure to incorporate any feedback provided by your instructor into
your final Week 7 Course Project.
Week 7: Final Marketing Plan (230
points)
Submit your completed Marketing
Plan. It should include all sections listed in the marketing plan outline,
which is in Doc Sharing. It should include headings for the various sections of
the marketing plan. APA format should be used, and a bibliography is required.
Be sure to list all references that you consult (both print media and online).
See the Syllabus section “Due Dates
for Assignments & Exams” for due date information.
Grading
Rubrics
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Week 1: Topic Proposal will be
evaluated as follows.

Category

%

Description

Documentation,
Formatting, and Editing

10%

Quality work will include a title
page, table of contents, proper citations, and a bibliography. Quality work
will be free of any spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors. Sentences
and paragraphs will be clear, concise, and factually correct. It must follow
APA guidelines.

Content

90%

Quality work will meet the
following requirements: Your topic should be for a business, product, or
service that you would like to start (no multilevel marketing structures,
please).. Because this is an applied project and not a research paper,
please do not select a corporation such as Starbucks or Coca-Cola as your
topic. You are to apply the course concepts to this project.So, if you
are interested in coffee restaurants, for example, you may wish to select
your own cappuccino bar as your topic (you can then use information from
companies like Starbucks or Seattle’s Best Coffee for ideas and competitive
research as you work on your course project in Weeks 2 through 7). Your
proposal should be approximately two pages long.

Total

100%

A quality submission will meet or
exceed all of the above requirements.

Week 4: Draft Marketing Plan will be
evaluated as follows.

Category

%

Description

Documentation
and Formatting

5%

Quality work will include a title
page, abstract, proper citations, and a bibliography. Your final marketing
plan should be between 4,000 and 6,000 words; your draft should be
substantial—almost complete—and therefore approximately 3,000 to 5,000 words
long. It must follow all APA guidelines.

Organization
and Cohesiveness

20%

Quality work will use the
marketing plan outline in Doc Sharing for its organization. The content will
be properly subdivided into sections with headings. The executive summary is
not required in your draft because the executive summary is usually the last
part of the plan that is written; it summarizes the entire plan.

Editing

5%

Quality work will be free of any
spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors. Sentences and paragraphs will
be clear, concise, and factually correct.

Content

70%

Quality work will have significant
scope and depth of research to support any statements. Relevant illustrations
or examples are encouraged. Quality work will cover all the sections included
in the marketing plan outline in Doc Sharing. The content presented must demonstrate
an understanding of the material.

Total

100%

A quality submission will meet or
exceed all of the above requirements.

Week 5: Price Strategy/Breakeven
Analysis will be evaluated as follows.

Category

%

Description

Documentation
and Formatting

5%

Quality work will include a title
page, proper citations, and a bibliography. Your final marketing plan should
be between 4,000 and 6,000 words.

Organization
and Cohesiveness

20%

Quality work will be clearly
organized to show the six steps in your pricing process and your assumptions,
fixed costs summary, variable costs summary, and calculations for three
prices (high, medium, and low).

Editing

5%

Quality work will be free of any
spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors. Sentences and paragraphs will
be clear, concise, and factually correct.

Content

70%

Quality work will demonstrate an
understanding of the breakeven analysis concept and will show correct
calculations. Completed calculations will appear in a graph or table.
Conclusions from the breakeven analysis should be summarized with your
rationale for the prices selected. The content presented must demonstrate an
understanding of the material.

Total

100%

A quality submission will meet or
exceed all of the above requirements.

Week 7: Final Marketing Plan will be
evaluated as follows.

Category

%

Description

Documentation
and Formatting

5%

Quality work will include a title
page, table of contents, abstract, proper citations, and a bibliography in
APA format.

Organization
and Cohesiveness

20%

Quality work will use the
marketing plan outline in Doc Sharing for its organization. The content will
be properly subdivided into sections with headings and subheadings; it will
include the breakeven analysis completed in Week 5 and incorporate feedback
provided from your instructor on your Week 4 draft. You may choose to use
some of the Building Your Marketing Plan exercises at the ends of the
chapters in the text to guide you to develop some sections of your plan. The
executive summary will summarize your plan and include the reasoning you
employed in your analysis, as well as any outstanding conclusions you can
reach about the marketing plan for your chosen product or service.

Editing

5%

Quality work will be free of any
spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors. Sentences and paragraphs will
be clear, concise, and factually correct.

Content

70%

Quality work will have significant
scope and depth of research to support any statements. Relevant illustration
or examples are encouraged. Quality work will cover all the sections included
in the marketing plan outline in Doc Sharing. The content presented must
demonstrate an understanding of the material.

Total

100%

A quality submission will meet or
exceed all of the above requirements.