Scenario

You have started your own business and need to develop a marketing plan in order to secure funding. However, you have a very limited understanding of the role of marketing in an organisation, and you also don’t fully grasp the relevance of creating an effective marketing mix. Therefore, you will need to submit a marketing plan for funding considerations to potential investors that outlines a basic marketing plan for your new business, but that also explores the core function of marketing, and compares how organisations create a marketing mix in order to fulfil business objective.

Task 1

Submit a marketing plan for your new business idea (this cannot be based on an existing company, unless it’s your own company). The marketing plan will be submitted in a report format, and will have three sections:

Section 1: The Role of Marketing Overview of your business idea and analyse the current trends that have influenced your idea. Explain the role of marketing in an organisation. Critically evaluate the function of marketing in an organisation, and how the marketing department interconnects with other departments in an organisation.

Section 2: The Marketing Mix Evaluate the marketing planning process and the importance of marketing strategy to the success of a start-up business. Create one SMART(ER) marketing objective for your business. Design your extended marketing mix and compare with your closest competitor.

Section 3: Marketing Planning Evaluate your target market by producing your STP strategy (this will include the creation of a customer profile, targeting strategy rationale and perceptual map with competitive positioning). Design a marketing implementation plan for your first advertising campaign. In the plan you need to consider your marketing objective, allocation of resources (financial, human and physical), and timeline. Design a promotional budget, using the objective-task method. Evaluate the control and evaluation techniques at your disposal, in order to monitor the effectiveness of your marketing plan.