Follow on from your group’s Ass2 and individually develop a marketing plan for the sustainable offering OR for one of the ideas generated in your group. This will address the final CPS step of Implementation:

Study the relevant Study Guide (SG) topics (as indicated in the brief) before/while writing the assignment.

Set-out your work using the headings below.

Aim to undertake a ‘client-based’ approach – real or imagined. Make any necessary assumptions about the organisation behind the market offering (e.g. strategy, size, structure, culture) to ensure that you can proceed to planning the commercialisation step, of which your marketing plan is an important part.

Undertake appropriate desk research, e.g. using SCU Library databases, such as Proquest for article searches, and reference correctly.

Opportunity for 5% BONUS (1.75 additional points): Evaluate your final assignment using the Ass3 rubric provided. Each group member needs to submit a properly completed rubric online to the ‘Assignment’ area in the Blackboard by the Ass2 due date to be awarded the bonus.

Executive summary (Ass3 overview page)

This is a synopsis of the overall marketing plan. On about one page, outline the major content areas (using embedded links) and recommendations covered in your plan. Although this is the first thing that will be read, it is best written last.

1. Current situation (refer to Ass2 wiki; provide any critical additions and/or adjustments)

• Background to sustainable offering
• Environmental analysis
• Market and customer analysis.

2. Objectives (draw on Topics 2 and 7)

State and justify the financial, marketing and other stakeholder objectives you would like the sustainable marketing offering to achieve during the plan’s term (1, 3 or 5 years). They need to be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound). These are the outcomes required from the marketing plan. Objectives need to be consistent with an organisation’s mission (in case you have identified one). Provide:

• financial objectives (e.g. sales, net profits p.a., ROI)
• marketing objectives (e.g. market share, consumer awareness, number of dealers)
• other stakeholder objectives, e.g. ecological (waste reduction), community (awareness of or participation in sustainability projects).

3. Target market (draw on Topic 6)

Build on the market and customer description in your Ass2 situation analysis. For your target market: Describe the general characteristics (e.g. demographic, psychographic) and needs of the target market(s). Identify whether they are present users, users of competitive products, or non-users of the product category. Support your recommendation for selecting this particular segment, i.e. why does it have the biggest potential? Identify any further information needs to be filled and outline the marketing research (secondary, primary) required to do so.

4. Marketing strategies

This section outlines the broad marketing logic by which the organisational unit hopes to achieve its marketing objectives for your sustainable market offering. It includes the following components:

4.1 Positioning (Topics 1, 3, 6, 8)

• Build on your Ass2 Profile of the sustainable market offering, in which you discussed the “value provided”. Develop a clear positioning statement for your sustainable market offering, i.e. how will it create differentiated value for a key target segment and what ‘position’ will it occupy in that segment. Basically, how will it beat the competition? Recall that product position is the way that the product is defined by consumers on important attributes, or the place the product occupies in consumers’ minds relative to competing products.
• Identify any further information needs to be filled and outline the marketing research (secondary, primary) required to do so (draw on Topic 4).

4.2 Product/offering (draw on Topic 8)

• Build on (link to) the other aspects of your ‘Profile of the sustainable market offering’ from your Ass2. Be sure that you cover the following and that links between content on different pages are easy to follow:
  • Nature of the offer – what combination of good, service and experience
  • Level – core, actual and augmented product
  • Type – industrial or consumer good (convenience, shopping, speciality or unsought)
  • Unique selling proposition (USP) or sustainable competitive advantage (CSA)
  • Existing brand perceptions (if applicable).
• Detail your recommendations concerning branding, packaging, labelling, extensions (for single products) and (for multiple products) strategies for product line or product mix.
• Identify any further information needs to be filled and outline the marketing research (secondary, primary) required to do so (draw on Topic 4).

4.2 Optional additional product-related strategies for service-oriented offerings (as per Topic 8):

            4.2.1 People (Internal marketing; customer service)

Explain how you will:

• develop a customer service culture
• select, train, motivate and reward service providers/staff
• manage customer expectations through service providers/staff.

            4.2.2 Process (systems; procedures)

Explain how you will design and deliver operational systems and procedures that enable staff to consistently match customer expectations e.g. information systems, queuing systems.

            4.2.3 Physical evidence (Internal marketing; customer service)

Explain how you will offer tangible cues to the quality of your service e.g.

• ambient conditions, e.g. exterior facilities (building, gardens, parking), interior (light, colour, sound)
• space/function, e.g. store layout (allocation of selling space, cash register placement)
• signs, symbols, artifacts, e.g. staff uniforms, store signage, brochures and information, logos.

4.3 Price (draw on Topic 9)

• Explain how you will set the price for your offering. Your pricing should be consistent with your financial objectives and address each of the following steps:

1. Pricing goals – profit-oriented, sales-oriented or status-quo oriented
2. Forecast demand, costs and profits
3. Pricing strategy – penetration, skimming or status quo. Include an assessment of your price/product quality positioning
4. Tactics for fine-tuning the base price.

• Identify any further information needs to be filled and outline the marketing research (secondary, primary) required to do so (draw on Topic 4).

4.4 Placement (distribution) (draw on Topic 10)

• Explain how you will get your offering to the final consumer. Consider the following decisions in your discussion:
  • Channel structure – direct or indirect
  • Level of distribution intensity – intensive, selective or exclusive
  • Logistics services – the desired level of supply chain service, which maximises service yet minimises cost (e.g. value-added services, product transformation).

These decisions should reflect the factors that affect the channel choice, i.e. market factors (e.g. buyer behaviour), product factors and producer factors.

• Identify any further information needs to be filled and outline the marketing research (secondary, primary) required to do so (draw on Topic 4).

4.5 Promotion/Marketing communications (draw on Topic 11)

• Explain how you will apply the integrated marketing communications (IMC) concept to the promotion of your offering. Your discussion should cover:
  • Target audience – should match your target market
  • Communication goals (to perform, persuade or remind)
  • Message design – should be consistent, unified and customer-focused
  • Promotional mix (advertising, public relations, personal selling, sales promotion, direct and digital marketing). The allocation of your communication budget to the promotional mix should reflect the factors that affect the promotional mix (nature of the product, stage in the product life cycle, target market characteristics, type of buying decision, available funds for promotion and use of push or pull strategy.)
• Identify any further information needs to be filled and outline the marketing research (secondary, primary) required to do so (draw on Topic 4).

5. Marketing implementation (draw on Topics 2 and 7)

Develop an action plan that shows for each strategy element:

• What will be done? (marketing activity)
• When will it be done? (target completion date)
• Who will do it? (responsibility)
• How much will it cost? (expenditure)

6. Budget (draw on Topics 2 and 7)

Develop an approximate budget for the time horizon of your plan (1, 3 or 5 years) covering the following elements:

• Revenue: Forecast sales volume in units multiplied by the average price
• Less: Cost of production
• Less: Cost of distribution
• Less: Marketing costs (from action plan)
• Projected profit.

7. Evaluation and control (draw on Topics 2 and 7)

Explain how marketing activities will be monitored to ensure success. Give specific directions as to who will be responsible for evaluation and how it will be carried out. In particular, explain how you will use the following (and/or other) metrics to evaluate your marketing performance against your marketing objectives:

• Financial (e.g. sales, profitability, ROI)
• Marketing
  • Consumer attitudes (e.g. awareness of ad or brand, knowledge, perceived quality, satisfaction)
  • Consumer behaviour (number of new consumers, loyalty leads generated, conversions)
  • Market (market share, market penetration)
  • Relative to competitor (relative consumer satisfaction, perceived quality)
• Environmental (e.g. carbon emissions, recycling of operational inputs and product, operational waste, consumer waste).

8. References

Please note the referencing expectations stated in the Unit Information Guide.

Marking criteria

1. Intellectual rigour: Critical thinking and analysis of situations (80%):
2. Current situation – link to Ass2 (revised, if necessary)
3. Marketing objectives (10%)
4. Target market (10%)
5. Marketing strategies:
6. Positioning and product/service (15%)
7. Price (10%)

iii. Place/distribution (10%)

1. Promotion (10%)
2. Marketing implementation (5%)
3. Budget (5%)
4. Evaluation and control (5%).
5. Creativity: Demonstrated commitment to achieving imaginative and appropriate marketing strategies for the proposed sustainable market offering (10%).
6. Written communication (10%): Effective organisation, so that the report is easily understood, coherent, consistent and visually appealing. Visuals need to be relevant and explained in the text.