Companies introduce thousands of products and services every year. Suppose you are one of those start-up companies. Use your imagination and create a new product or service and write a marketing plan

Companies introduce thousands of products and services every year. Suppose you are one of those start-up companies. Use your imagination and create a new product or service and write a marketing plan for it. This written document acts as a guidebook for you and has a lot of components (read Chapter 2 one more time before you finalize your plan). The marketing plan that you write might be used to obtain financial backing from banks and others. Keep that in mind as you write the plan.

The specific elements of the marketing plan is outlined below:

1. Executive Summary

Summary of the marketing plan (written like an abstract)

2. Product Description 

• Brief      description of product being marketed
• What does the      product do? What are the unique benefits for the consumer?
• Product      features and benefits

3. Situation Analysis

a. Company Analysis

• Company’s mission, vision,      values
• Company’s main focus      areas: product/brand portfolios and ranges, etc.

b. External Environment 

• Political      and legal environment
• Economic      environment
• Social      and cultural environment
• Technological      environment

NOTE: For this analysis, restrict your focus to factors that have an impact (direct or indirect) on your business or your product. Keep it relevant! And describe how and why the factors you select are relevant!

Market Analysis

• Market      volume 
• Market      value 
• Growth      rates 
• Market      dynamics

NOTE: You will definitely need to make some assumptions here.  Be sure to reference your data sources and show how you justify your assumptions.

Competitor Analysis

• Market      position
• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Market      shares

Customer Analysis

· Who / what they are

· Value drivers for the customers

· Customer decision process

4. Market Segmentation and Targeting

• Discuss the      criteria and rationale for how the market was segmented. 
• Discuss the      rationale for selection of target group(s).
• Provide a      detailed description of each target group (target segment).

e.g. Target Segment 1 

• Description
• Size      and value of segment
• Needs      and preferences: why they want this type of product, and what they want
• How      they use product
• Purchase      process
• Support      requirements
• How to      reach them
• (Price      sensitivity) 

5. Selected Marketing Strategy

a. Develop a SWOT analysis

• Based      on the SWOT analysis, describe the rationale for the strategy/ies you      selected
• How      does your SWOT analysis affect your marketing mix decisions (4 P's) of      product, price, place (distribution), and promotion?

b. Product

This should include consideration of the product's advantages, plus how you will leverage these. 

Product decisions should include:

• Brand      name
• Quality
• Scope      of product line
• Warranty
• Packaging

c. Price

Pricing strategy, expected volume, and decisions for the following pricing variables if / as appropriate:

• List      price
• Price      category (e.g. premium, mainstream, discount)
• Bundling

d. Place (Distribution) 

Decision variables include:

• Distribution      channels, such as direct, retail, distributors & intermediaries
• Length      and breadth of channels

e. Promotion

• Differentiation      and Positioning
• Objectives      of communication program
• Advertising,      including your selection of which media to use.
• Public      relations
• Promotional      programs
• Campaign      slogan
• Budget: show the criteria you use for      determining the budget
• Metrics:      how to measure success of promotional program (e.g. AIDA)

6. Summary and Conclusion

Summarize all of the above.

7. References