Marketing Management

Reflection and Discussion Forum Week 7

Reflection and Discussion Forum Week 7Assigned Readings:Chapter 16. Marketing Strategy.Chapter 17. Marketing Plans.Initial Postings: Read and reflect on the assigned readings for the week. Then post what you thought was the most important concept(s), method(s), term(s), and/or any other thing that you felt was worthy of your understanding in each assigned textbook chapter.Your initial post should be based upon the assigned reading for the week, so the textbook should be a source listed in your reference section and cited within the body of the text. Other sources are not required but feel free to use them if they aid in your discussion.Also, provide a graduate-level response to each of the following questions:

1. Think of  a company you’d like to interview with, and list 1-2 specific factors for each of porter’s five forces.
2. Pick your favorite brand and look at the 5Cs for that company. What is the brand’s “situation analysis”? Based on that assessment and what you know of the brand, what recommendations would you make to the company regarding that brand or its business?

[Your post must be substantive and demonstrate insight gained from the course material. Postings must be in the student's own words – do not provide quotes!] [Your initial post should be at least 450+ words and in APA format (including Times New Roman with font size 12 and double spaced). Post the actual body of your paper in the discussion thread then attach a Word version of the paper for APA review] 

Group Submission – Marketing Plan

Attached Files:

•  Cumberlands version.docx Cumberlands version.docx – Alternative Formats (22.885 KB)
•  Marketing Plan.pptx Marketing Plan.pptx – Alternative Formats (55.869 KB)

MARKETING PLAN(Please see Template on Blackboard)This is a semester-long team project focused on developing a marketing plan for an innovative, INTERNATIONAL product/service. Each team will come up with one innovative product/service and develop a comprehensive marketing plan, following the template provided in Course Content. Although individual team members may take on certain management and editing task, all team members are collectively responsible for understanding and preparing materials for this assignment. Peer evaluations will be administered at the end of the course.  There will be a powerpoint presentation expected, as well as, a 20 – 25 minute video presentation (all members must participate in the video presentation and be Professionally dressed) of the your plan required.  There IS NOT a paper required for this project for this is a Marketing course and therefore, needs to have a more creative flare of presenting your work (i.e. YouTube clips, commercials, advertisements, Public Relations events, etc.). So, to sum it up, you and your group are looking at taking your new product International, and you have to create the marketing plan to support your proposal for doing so.  (Please see the sample Marketing Plan posted on Blackboard under “Course Information” as to what is expected of the project and your presentation.  Remember, this is only an example, not the guideline to follow). Step 1: Coming up with Innovating Product/ServiceIn developing your idea for your team Marketing Plan for a NEW INTERNATIONAL product/service assume you are presenting your product/service idea to the New Product Development (NPD) department of “your” existing organization.  This is not an “entrepreneurial” exercise, but rather a “marketing management” one consistent with the course title, Strategic Marketing Management and Innovation. The organization you choose may be one that you decide to create on your own or as a collective group, you may pick one of your own/currently employed by organizations (only for background history purposes), but it must be an existing, well-known, and easily researched organization (usually one can find more information on publicly traded companies).  The NPD Committee of the organization has asked you to come up with an innovative, imaginative idea that upon further review can lead to a new avenue of growth for the organization in an INTERNATIONAL setting.  You are only responsible for generating the idea, and proposing the implementation of the plan.  Although, it would be helpful for you to gain a perspective on how the NPD process would play out in any well-run organization. Keep in mind that the products/services ideas have to come from one of the following categories: 1. New-to-the World (new products/services that create an entirely new market)2. New Product/Service Line (new products/services that allow a company to enter an established market for the first time)   The really creative, “premium”, new product/service idea should ideally come from the “new-to-the-world” category, but your particular organizational situation might warrant considering other categories. *NOTE: Improvements and revisions of existing products/services, repositioning, or cost reduction alternatives should not be considered. To successfully generate viable ideas for your organization, make sure you first know and understand the organization and its position in the marketplace.  Start your research by looking at the existing services and product lines related to your idea and what other organizations currently carry. Consider the target market for each product and service line while thinking of the proposed new offerings.  There is no need to report on this now as your proposed product/service idea will reflect your understanding of the company and environment it operates in.  Note that you will also need much of this information in the team Marketing Plan you will be developing this term.  In addition to screening your proposed organization new product, ideas can come from interacting with various groups and from using creativity-generating techniques such as Attribute Listing, Forced Relationships, Morphological Analysis, Reverse Assumption Analysis, New Contexts, and Mind-Mapping.  Ideas can come from interacting with others such as customers, scientists, competitors, employees, channel members, and top management.  Customer needs and wants are the logical place to start the search.  One-on-one interviews and focus group discussions can explore product needs and reactions.  Technically oriented organizations can learn a great deal by studying customers who make the most advanced use of the organization’s products and who recognize the need for improvements before other customers do.  Employees throughout the company can be a source of ideas for improving production, products, and services. Organizations can also find good ideas by researching competitors’ products and services.  They can find out what customers like and dislike about competitors’ products.  They can buy the competitors' products and take them apart.  Company sales representatives and intermediaries are a particularly good source of ideas. These groups have firsthand exposure to customers and are often the first to learn about competitive developments.  New-product ideas can also be gleamed from inventors, patent attorneys, university and commercial labs, industrial consultants, advertising agencies, marketing research firms, and industrial publications. Step 2 – Developing Marketing Plan for new product/service – semester long team project Teams have to agree on product/service selection and confirm it with their faculty. For the rest of the semester, teams will be working on developing marketing plan for that product/service. The template of the marketing plan is posted in Course Content.  Each week your team is responsible for completing sections of the marketing plan.