Course Project: Creating the Marketing Plan
Objectives
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
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
Your final marketing plan should be between 3200 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
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
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. |
