Order Of Implementing a Marketing Plan

Order Of Implementing a Marketing Plan

Project 4: Developing and Implementing a Marketing Plan

Introduction

In this project, your client has tasked your team with creating a marketing plan with the goal of increasing sales to other businesses in the United States. This project has been broken down into several smaller tasks in the steps below:

Step 1: Prepare for Group Work Step 2: Review Information on Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing Step 3: Understand the Components of a Marketing Plan and Research Guidelines Step 4: Prepare a Situation Analysis Report Step 5: Conduct an Environmental Scan Step 6: Research and Analyze the Company’s US Market Step 7: Develop Marketing Objectives Step 8: Conduct a Segmenting and Targeting of the US Market and Product Positioning (STP) Step 9: Develop a Marketing Strategy Step 10: Complete Financial Analysis and Implementation, Controls, and Contingency Plan Step 11: Complete and Submit Your Marketing Plan Step 12: Complete Skills Gap Analysis Step 13: Submit Your Work

Each task will help you create one piece of a complete marketing plan. You will have three weeks, so you should complete the 13 steps of this project by the end of Week 10. If you have any questions, please ask your instructor.

During this project, please submit your individual contribution to the team effort for the instructor to see. Lack of participation on this project as defined in your team agreement may affect your grade.

Competencies

Your work will be evaluated using the competencies listed below.

· 1.1: Organize document or presentation clearly in a manner that promotes understanding and meets the requirements of the assignment.

· 1.3: Provide sufficient, correctly cited support that substantiates the writer’s ideas.

· 1.6: Follow conventions of Standard Written English.

· 2.1: Identify and clearly explain the issue, question, or problem under critical consideration.

· 2.2: Locate and access sufficient information to investigate the issue or problem.

· 3.1: Identify numerical or mathematical information that is relevant in a problem or situation.

· 4.3: Contribute to team projects, assignments, or organizational goals as an engaged member of a team.

· 4.4: Demonstrate diversity and inclusiveness in a team setting.

· 6.1: Identify the general (external) environment in which an organization operates and discuss the implications for enterprise success.

· 6.2: Evaluate strategic implications for domestic and international markets of an organization’s industry.

· 6.3: Analyze an organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses for strategic value.

· 6.4: Develop and recommend strategies for an organization’s sustainable competitive advantage.

· 10.5: Develop operating forecasts and budgets and apply managerial accounting techniques to support strategic decisions.

· 12.1: Assess market risk and opportunity.

· 12.2: Analyze marketing information.

· 12.3: Prepare marketing plan for a new product/service.

· 13.1: Identify and analyze new opportunities.

· 13.2: Create and implement new initiative or enterprise.

Step 1: Prepare for Group Work

The business-development team has convened, and you begin working with a talented group of colleagues. To efficiently and effectively address the task at hand, you first need to complete the team agreement and project work plan. This is especially important because your business-development team is a new group of specialists that has never before worked together, and the members are living and working in different geographic locations with different time zones.

Step 2: Review Information on Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing

As You Get Started

Jillian Best catches you in the hallway:

“Listen, before I send you the case file on our new client, I want to make sure you have a thorough understanding of the business-to-business relationships that will be at the core of the marketing plan you will be contributing to. Look for an email from me this afternoon.”

INBOX: 1 New Message

Subject: Case Primer for Marketing Plan From: Jillian Best, CEO, MCS To: You As you have learned through your work with MCS clients, marketing is one of the most important functional areas in business. As you get oriented with the realities of business-to-business (B2B) marketing, I’d like you to do some more reading on two main elements: (1) business buying behavior, and (2) strategic alliances.

Business buying behavior relates to how business customers and their suppliers explore different avenues to manage relationships and enhance efficiency and effectiveness. Fostering the right relationship with businesses is crucial for any holistic marketing plan. B2B relationships are affected by supply, complexity of supply, availability of alternatives, and supply-market dynamism.

In addition, our new client may consider forming strategic alliances to expand its US operations. The twenty-first century has seen an increased use of long-term global strategic alliances among both producers and distribution companies. Organizations form these alliances in an effort to secure commercial advantage and eliminate waste from their distribution channels. They can be crucial to success.

Please review the information linked above before going any further. This is a big client and a tremendous opportunity for MCS. Let me know if any questions arise as you get oriented with your team.

Best,