Assignment Title: Strategic PlanningTopics:

●      Market research and analysis

●      Environmental scanning for market opportunities

Description:

This assignment focuses on the following sections of the marketing plan:

Home Page – Company Description

Page 2 – Strategic Focus and plan

●      Mission/Vision

●      Goals

●      Core Competency and Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Page 3 – Situation Analysis

●        SWOT Analysis

o    Internal Strengths and Weaknesses

o    External Opportunities and Threats

●        Industry Analysis

●        Competitor Analysis

Page 7 – Organization

This module we will focus on three of the nine sections of our marketing plan.

To do so, we will need a few key resources.

The second important resource is a free textbook:

Marketing Plan Chapter

Be sure to save the link for this textbook in your favourites, you can refer to it anytime you need a little more information on a topic.

An important distinction to note is the resources are for a written marketing plan. You will not be writing a traditional marketing plan, you will be preparing a webpage that will deliver the information in a different way. That said, the content will still be driven from these learning topics.

Company Description

The homepage of your marketing plan page should be your company description.

Your company description should highlight the history of this company. If you are planning a business in the idea stage, discuss what product or service you will sell and what you will be known for. This is your opportunity to write a compelling profile for your new business to attract investors, funders, and customers.

Your company description should also include a logo. Whatever you choose for a logo, be sure to brand your webpage and content around it. You can change your colour scheme in the online web development platform to work on the logo. Be sure to include this logo on any other pages you may have.

Strategic Focus and Plan

The second section should address three items.

●      Mission/Vision

●      Goals

●      Core Competency and Sustainable Competitive Advantage

The first is the mission and vision statement. A very good video on the difference between mission and vision statements can be found here:

Difference between mission and vision statements

Create a mission and vision statement for your business. Refer to your free online textbook (linked above) for more information on how to write a mission or a vision statement (chapter 2). Alternatively, you can research what makes a compelling mission and vision statement and be guided into writing something creative. If you find a good article and would like to share with your classmates, be sure to post in the Assignment 3 discussion forum.

Next, you will need to create goals for your business. Set at least two realistic goals for your business, at least one should be a financial goal and one should be a non-financial goal. The goals you set should be SMART goals, so they should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. Some guidance on SMART goals can be found in this video:

Guidance on SMART goals

Finally, let the reader know what your businesses’ core competency and competitive advantage is. Consider this carefully, as this is what sets you apart from your competition. Include one paragraph on what will make you successful that other entrepreneurs can’t do in this field.

Organization

Organization is the seventh section of the marketing plan, so be sure to scroll through your sections and leave sections 3-6 blank.

The organization section typically discusses how the organization is composed, who is in charge of vital marketing activities, and how the business flows. Since the ideas we set are small, one person businesses we can focus on you.

 

Situation Analysis

SWOT Analysis

The important part of the situational analysis is the SWOT. A SWOT analysis addresses your business’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. There are a lot of resources on how to do an effective SWOT, including the Marketing Plan document and the textbook. A really good example of a SWOT can be found in this video: Example of a SWOT

Complete a chart of the SWOT analysis for your product or service.

Industry Analysis

The next part of the situational analysis is the industry analysis. The industry analysis is the section of your business plan in which you demonstrate your knowledge about the general characteristics of the type of business you’re in. Present some statistics about the size of the region you are hoping to sell in. Explain if the industry is expanding, contracting or holding steady? Why?

You should also be able to discuss the important trends that may affect your industry. For example, significant changes in the target market, in technology, or in other related industries may affect the market’s perception of your product or your profitability.

Include one-three paragraphs about your industry.

Feedback

You will need to be able to be able to work with your classmates throughout this course to develop your marketing plans. One of the ways you can do this is to provide feedback for their assignments.

If you were looking to purchase this product or service, would you purchase from this person or their competitor. Why is that? What questions would you ask before you bought? What should they focus on throughout the remainder of the course?

Connect with the group you met with in the last assignment and give verbal feedback. Use the rubric and let the student know what you would score them on. Allow them to make changes to their assignments and review their work again. Submit your final score out of 12 to the instructor for your group mates and that will be the average of the score given for the assignment.

Resources: Computer, Internet access.

Technical specifications:

Assignment Part 1

Write into your webpage your company description. Design a logo to match what you are doing and adjust your colour scheme to match.

All writing should be well written, at the level of a second year college student, and formatted properly to match your website.  Images and hyperlinks should be used appropriately and correctly. Your work should have a professional look and feel

Assignment Part 2

Write into your webpage your company mission statement, your company vision statement, your goals for the company (at least one financial and one non-financial), and the core competencies that will set your company apart.

All writing should be well written, at the level of a second year college student, and formatted properly to match your website.  Images and hyperlinks should be used appropriately and correctly. Your work should have a professional look and feel to it.

Assignment Part 3

Create a video and upload it to youtube. Embed the youtube video in the Organization section of your page. Your video should tell the viewer, who you are and about your potential business.  Why you believe it will be successful and the reasons you have decided to pursue it.

Assignment Part 4

Complete this section of your marketing plan by text on your page. Be sure to make sure it is well written, at the level of a second year college student, and is formatted properly to match your website.

The SWOT analysis should be in a chart form and the chart should be formatted so that it is easy to read. It should look balanced and clean and should fit the theme.

Images and hyperlinks should be used appropriately and correctly. Images of competitor’s products are encouraged if it makes sense and should be inserted in a professional manner.

Assignment Part 5

Connect with the group you met with in the last assignment and give verbal feedback. Use the rubric and let the student know what you would score them on. Allow them to make changes to their assignments and review their work again. Submit your final score out of 12 to the instructor for your group mates and that will be the average of the score given for the assignment.

 

Due Date: Sunday, 1159pm

Marks: 10%

 

Example

Home Page

 

Figure 1: Example of a home page with a company description.

Strategic Focus and Plan

Figure  SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 2 Example of a strategic plan with the subsections.

 

Strategic Focus and Plan

 

Figure 3 Example of a strategic focus and plan, including SWOT analysis

 

Figure 4 Example of an industry and competitor analysis

Organization

 

Figure 5 Example of an organizational management team video

Rubric:

Criteria	Excellent 3 Points	Good 2 Points	Satisfactory 1 Point	Poor 0 Points
Technical Specifications	The project meets all the requirements of the assignment. The marketing plan looks professional and the assignment followed instructions.	The project meets the basic requirements of the assignment and includes some information about the marketing plan. The instructions were adequately followed.	The project meets some of the requirements and needs improvement. The assignment needs improvement. The instructions were not followed.	The project is not complete. The assignments did not follow the instructions.
Materials / Content	The student has shown all of the elements of the marketing plan and no or limited questions would be asked by an outside reader.	The student has shown most of the elements of the marketing plan and some questions would be asked by an outside reader.	The student has shown little of the elements of the marketing plan and many questions would be asked by an outside reader.	The student has shown no elements of the marketing plan and many questions would be asked by an outside reader.
Presentation and creativity	The assignments are clear and easy to read. High quality graphics are used which attract the audience. All the information provided is relevant to the topic. Students have used excellent creative skills which makes the assignment more attractive.	The assignments are clear. Good quality graphics are used which attract the audience. No irrelevant information. The project shows creativity with the use of attracting colors.	The assignments are of good quality. Little irrelevant details. The student did not make an effort to show any creativity to make the project more attractive.	Poor presentation and no signs of creativity
Critical Thinking and decision making	The student has used critical thinking and appropriate research.	The student has shown application of research and shown some critical thinking.	The student has shown no use of research and shown little critical thinking.	Little to no use of critical thinking.