Assignment: Marketing Plan

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This
assignment consists of two sections: a marketing plan (Word document) and
Marketing Budget (Excel document) Note: You must submit both sections as
separate files for the completion of this assignment.

For
the first 6 months your company is in business—to give you time to perfect your
product and to learn from actual customers—you will start marketing and selling
in your own community, a radius of 25 miles from where you live.

For
most non-alcoholic beverages, marketing (as opposed to the actual product
itself) is key to success. Cola drinks, for example, are fairly
undifferentiated, as are many energy drinks, juices, bottled water, and the
like. Companies producing these types of beverages differentiate themselves and
attract market share through marketing and brand awareness—both of which are
critical to success.

Section
1: Marketing Plan and Sales Strategy (MS Word or equivalent)

Write
the 3–5-page marketing plan and sales strategy section of your business plan in
which you do the following:

1. Define your company’s target
   market.
   1. Analyze
      the types of consumers who will be drinking your beverage in demographic terms
      (i.e., age, education level, income, gender, ethnic group, etc.). Outline the
      demographic information for your company specified on the worksheet in the
      course text (p. 107 | Demographic Description).
   1. Support
      your analysis with actual data on the size of the demographic groups in your
      local community (nearby zip codes).
      1. Hints: At American FactFinder (http://factfinder.census.gov),
         you will find demographic information on potential consumers in your area. If
         you are selling through other businesses (such as grocery stores), indicate the
         number of those businesses in your local area. You will find information about
         such businesses in your local area at County Business Patterns (http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/).
         Check Chapter 2 of Successful Business Plan for more research sources.
2. Assess your company’s market
   competition.
   1. Use
      the factors listed in the course text graphic (p. 123 | Assess the Competition)
      to assess your company’s market competition.
   1. Defend
      your plan to differentiate yourself from the competition using the information
      detailed on the worksheet in the text (p. 131 | Market Share Distribution).
3. Hints: Every business faces competition, and the non-alcoholic
   beverage market is an especially crowded market.
4. Hints: For example, in the soft drink market, it is intimidating
   to try to compete against Coke and Pepsi. Newcomers in mature markets typically
   must pursue niche markets or even create new market categories, as Red Bull did
   with energy drinks. 
5. Clarify your company’s message
   using the information provided on the worksheet in the text (p. 160 | The
   Five F’s). Create a marketing slogan/tagline for your product.
   1.  
      1. Hints:
         Before you choose your marketing
         vehicles, you must determine the message you want to convey through those
         vehicles.
6. Identify the marketing vehicles
   you plan to use to build your company’s brand. Justify the key reasons why
   they will be effective.
   1. Hints: If you plan to use online marketing tactics, refer to the
      worksheet in the text (p. 171 | Online Marketing Tactics) to aid your
      response. Remember that even if you’re selling through grocery stores, you need
      to build your brand and social media is a major part of that in regard to
      beverages. Some of the marketing tactics that beverage companies use include
      sampling in grocery stores, building a following on social media, sponsoring
      events, and exhibiting at trade shows attended by retailers. You will use a
      combination of these tactics. For example, if you decide to give out samples in
      grocery stores, promote your sampling on your social media networks and those
      of the grocery store.
   1. Hints: If you are planning to distribute through resellers,
      describe how you plan to reach them, for example, through industry trade shows
      or by establishing your own sales force. For information on trade shows, visit
      the Trade Show News Network (http://www.tsnn.com). You can exhibit or network at these shows.
7. Format your assignment
   according to these formatting requirements:

• Cite the resources you have used to complete the
  exercise. Note: There is no minimum requirement for the number of
  resources used in the exercise.
• The paper must be typed, double-spaced, using Times
  New Roman font (size 12), with 1-inch margins on all sides; references
  must follow APA format. Check with your professor for any additional
  instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the
  assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title,
  and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in
  the required page length.

Section
2: Marketing Budget (MS Excel worksheets template)

Section
2 uses the “Business Plan Financials” MS Excel template (see: Required Course
Files in Week 1). Use the Business Plan Financials Guide (see: Required Course
Files in Week 1) to support your development of the marketing budget.

1. Complete the “Marketing Budget”
   worksheet for your company.

Note: Complete the Setup tab first based on the instructions
located in the Business Plan Financials Guide (document you also downloaded
from PlanningShop). Only the setup tab and marketing tab should be completed
for this assignment.

•  
  •  

• Hints: The goal of the marketing
  budget is to help you determine how much it will cost you to reach your
  market and achieve your sales goals.
• Hints: When filling out the
  “Marketing Budget” worksheet in the Excel spreadsheet, do the following:
  • Begin in the current year
    and complete a marketing budget for the first year of your business.
    The information you enter in the marketing budget spreadsheet will flow
    through to your “Income Statement” in the “Business Plan Financials.”
  • Leave the number at zero (0)
    for any marketing vehicles you do not intend to use.
  • Remember that all marketing
    activities involve costs. If social media represents a significant
    portion of your marketing, assume you will incur costs of advertising
    and these should be reflected on your budget. Even if a social media
    site charges nothing to use it, you will need to use company resources
    to manage the site, pay someone to execute your social media marketing
    campaigns, and most likely pay for ads on that site.
  • Do not leave the “Marketing
    Budget” blank assuming you will not have any marketing costs.
  • Do not complete all the
    rows; only fill in the costs for the marketing vehicles you will
    actually use. These must match the content you describe in Question 4
    Word portion of this assignment.

 The
specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment is:

• Create a marketing plan that
  identifies a target market, market competition, a company message, and
  marketing vehicles for a company.

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