You will be required to write a "Marketing in Action" paper that is a minimum of 9-full-pages, double spaced—this number DOES NOT include your Cover page and your Reference (or Works Cited) page. The

--Dr. Linda Morable, Professor--   

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The field of marketing is indeed exciting and dynamic. In fact, the various components of marketing affect almost every area of our lives and influence our decision-making in ways that many individuals cannot imagine.  In order to be successful, every firm, organization, and business operates by incorporating important marketing elements or components and by applying successful marketing strategies.

In your "Marketing in Action" Capstone Project you will have an opportunity to identify and explain some of the information that you learned in this class that will assist you in becoming a wiser, more informed consumer, business student, employee, and/or employer.   In addition, you will have an opportunity to identify and analyze the marketing efforts and strategies used by some of your favorite companies and organizations, as well as from a college or university that you might consider one day attending. This assignment is worth a huge 250 points.

General Capstone Project Guidelines

You will be required to write a "Marketing  in Action" paper that is a minimum of 9-full-pages, double spaced—this number DOES NOT include your Cover page and your Reference (or Works Cited) page, which are also sections that should be included in your paper. The 9 (or more) pages SHOULD contain information that you learned through your research about different companies, non-profit organizations, and colleges or universities. In addition, your paper should contain a Cover page that contains your name, the name of this course, and other pertinent information that you would like to include and a Reference page, which contains a list all references that you used when gathering information during your research. Again, neither the Cover page nor the Reference page should be counted as part of your nine (or more) pages of actual content.

The purpose of this paper is  two-fold: (1) to analyze the Marketing Mix of three companies that you enjoy doing business with and (2) to analyze and critique, from a marketing standpoint: (a) the website of your favorite college (other than Richland College) or university and (b) the websites of TWO your favorite non-profit organizations.

1. Your paper must be created as a “Word” document and submitted through the “Submit Assignments” link no later than the deadline date identified on the Class Schedule.

2. Please double space your paper, use a size 12 font, have one inch top, bottom, and side margins, and number each page of your paper.

3. You can receive up to 250 points for your 9-full pages paper + your cover page and your Reference or Works Cited page).

4. The specific number of points that you will receive for this Capstone Project will be based on how well you follow my guidelines and the quality and quantity of your work.

5. Again, your paper will be divided into two different parts. See the details below:

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Specific Capstone Project Guidelines

**Part 1 of the  "Marketing In Action" Paper---The Marketing Mix:

The Core Foundation of any Principles of Marketing course is the Marketing Mix, which is introduced to you early in this course.  It is on this foundation that the entire course is built, because everything in marketing evolves around the four elements of the Marketing Mix:  (1) the Product; (2) the Price; (3) the Place; (4) the Promotion. 

(A) Your task in Part 1 of your paper is to select three companies that you most admire (large, medium, or small) and analyze each company's Marketing Mix.  More specifically: 

 (B)  For each company:  (1) Visit the company's website as well as its social media site and/or (2) research the firm in the library, go to the firm itself, or anywhere you can find the pertinent information. 

(C)  Type 1 ½ - 2  pages report, per company, that describes/explains, in detail, the marketing mix for each firm.  Your descriptions/explanations for each company should provide answers to the following questions: (1) What specific types of products or services does the firm offer? (2) What pricing strategies does the company use to sell its products or services and what are some specific prices for some of their products or services?  (3) What places are the products or services distributed or sold?  (4) What are some of the various ways in which the company promotes its products or services?  

Feel free to review some of the information in this course as a point of reference to help you determine what to include in your discussion about each company's Marketing Mix.  In addition, you will find lots of information about each company or business that you select from conducting research on the Internet.  In answering these questions do not type the questions as a part of your report; start each area’s discussion off with the "P" that you are referring to. 

Example:  Company #1:  American Express:   (a) Products:  American Express offers a wide array of products in a large number of product categories.  Examples of their product categories include the following: ..........

Special Note:  In this paper, please do not use valuable space expressing your personal opinion about what the company is or is not doing or what your experiences as a consumer relative to that company are.  I simply want the facts regarding the Marketing Mix for each company.  Please share with me only what your research reveals.  Your grade will be based on the factual information that you provide in each company's report.

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**Part 2: A Marketing Analysis/Critique of (1) One of your favorite college and/or university’s website and (2) Two of your favorite non-profit organizations’ website.

Visit the website of one of your favorite colleges or universities that you might be interested in learning more about (other than Richland College) and the website of two of your favorite non-profit organizations. For each website type a 1 – 1 ½ pages per website report that answers the following questions:

(A) Summarize what you learned from reading the information at each website?

(B) From a marketing perspective, what did you like best about this website?

(C) From a marketing perspective, what suggestions do you have for improvement of the website?

(D) From a consumer perspective, would you be motivated to pursue a degree or enroll in courses at that particular college or university---based on what you learned from reading the information posted at its website? Also, what have you learned about the two non-profit organizations that would motivate you to support that each particular organization? Please explain in detail why or why not.

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Your Marketing in Action paper should be as detailed as possible.  All of your information should be written in sentences and paragraph format.  Please do not submit short statements, incomplete sentences, bullet points, etc.  In addition, do not skip extra lines when typing your paper.  However, you should begin your discussion about each individual company. each college or university, and each nonprofit organization on a separate line.

As always, the exact number of points that you earn for writing your "Marketing in Action" paper will depend on the quality and quantity of your work.  If your paper is less than nine full pages (this does not include your cover pager and the reference page) and/or if it does not contain all the information I have requested, unfortunately valuable points will be deducted.  As a friendly reminder, this entire project is worth up to 250 huge points.

Again, your "Marketing in Action" paper will be graded AFTER you have completed the Mastery Assessment for all six of the units in this course.

Most students really enjoy this project and I hope that you will as well. You can submit your paper any time before the course ends. I look forward to reading your information. 

Kind Regards,

--Dr. Morable, Professor--

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