Assignment 2 – Marketing Plan & Sales Strategy

Assignment 2: Marketing Plan
Due Week 6 and worth 100 points
This assignment consists of two (2)
sections: a marketing plan and sales strategy, and a marketing budget. Note: You
must submit both sections as separate files for the completion of this assignment.
For the first six (6) months your company
is in business—to give you time to perfect your product and to learn from
actual customers—you will start marketing and selling in your own community, a
radius of twenty-five (25) miles from where you live.
For most non-alcoholic beverages, marketing
(as opposed to the actual product itself) is key to success. Cola drinks, for
example, are fairly undifferentiated, as are many energy drinks, juices,
bottled water, and the like. Companies producing these types of beverages
differentiate themselves and attract market share through marketing and brand
awareness—both of which are critical to success.
Section 1: Marketing Plan & Sales
Strategy (MS Word or equivalent)
Write the three to five (3-5) page
Marketing Plan & Sales Strategy section of your business plan, in which
you:

Define your
company’s target market.

o Analyze the types of consumers who will be drinking your beverage in
demographic terms (i.e., age, education level, income, gender, ethnic group,
etc.). Support your analysis with actual data on the size of the demographic
groups in your local community (nearby zip codes).
o Outline the demographic information for your company specified on
the worksheet in the course text (p. 107 | Demographic Description)..strayer.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/STANDARDIZED/1154-eBookSupport/Finding%20a%20Specific%20Page%20in%20an%20eBook.pdf”>Click here for help accessing a specific page number in your
eBook.
o Hints: At American FactFinder (.census.gov/”>http://census.gov),
you will find demographic information on potential consumers in your area. If
you are selling through other businesses (such as grocery stores), indicate the
number of those businesses in your local area. You will find information about
such businesses in your local area at County Business Patterns (.census.gov/econ/cbp/”>http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/).
Check Chapter 2 of Successful Business Plan for more research
sources.

Assess your company’s market competition.
o Use the factors listed in the course text graphic (p. 123 | Assess
the Competition) to assess your company’s market competition.
o Defend your strategy to successfully compete against market leaders
in your segment.
o Hints: For example, in the soft
drink market, it is intimidating to try to compete against Coke and Pepsi.
Newcomers in mature markets typically must pursue niche markets or even create
new market categories, as Red Bull did with energy drinks.
o Defend your plan to differentiate yourself from the competition
using the information detailed on the worksheet in the text (p. 131 | Market
Share Distribution).
o Hints: Every business faces
competition and the non-alcoholic beverage market is an especially crowded
market.

Clarify your
company’s message using the information provided on the worksheet in the
text (p. 160 | The Five F’s).

o Hints: Before you choose your
marketing vehicles, you must determine the message you want to convey through
those vehicles.

Identify the marketing vehicles you plan to use to build
your company’s brand. Justify the key reasons why they will be effective.
Provide examples of other non-alcoholic beverage companies that use these
tactics effectively.

o Hints: If you plan to use online
marketing tactics, refer to the worksheet in the text (p.171 | Online
Marketing Tactics) to aid your response. Remember that even if you’re
selling through grocery stores you need to build your brand and social media is
a major part of that in regard to beverages. Some of the marketing tactics that
beverage companies use include: sampling in grocery stores, building a
following on social media, sponsoring events, exhibiting at trade shows
attended by retailers, and so on. You will use a combination of these tactics.
For example, if you decide to give out samples in grocery stores, promote your
sampling on your social media networks and those of the grocery store.

o Hints: If you are planning to
distribute through resellers, describe how you plan to reach them, for example,
through industry trade shows or by establishing your own sales force. For
information on trade shows, visit the Trade Show News Network (.tsnn.com/”>http://www.tsnn.com). You can
exhibit or network at these shows.

Format your assignment according to these formatting
requirements:

Cite the resources you have used to complete the
exercise. Note: There is no minimum requirement for the
number of resources used in the exercise.
Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12),
with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or
school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional
instructions.
Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment,
the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date.
The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required
page length.

Section 2: Marketing Budget (MS Excel
worksheets template)
Section 2 uses the “Business Plan
Financials” MS Excel template (see: Course Required Files in Week 1). Use the
“Business Plan Financials Guide” (see: Course Required Files in Week 1) to
support your development of the Marketing Budget.

Complete the Marketing Budget worksheet for your company.

o Hints: The goal of the marketing
budget is to help you determine how much it will cost you to reach your market
and achieve your sales goals.
o Hints: When filling out the “Marketing
Budget” worksheet in the Excel spreadsheet:
§ Begin in the current year and complete a marketing budget for the
first year of your business. The information you enter in the marketing budget
spreadsheet will flow through to your “Income Statement” in the Business Plan
Financials.
§ Leave the number at zero (0) for any marketing vehicles you do not
intend to use.
§ Remember that all marketing activities involve costs. If social
media represents a significant portion of your marketing, assume you will have
cost of advertising and that should be reflected on your budget. Even if a
social media site charges nothing to use it, you will need to use company
resources to manage the site, pay someone to execute your social media
marketing campaigns, and will most likely pay for ads on that site.
§ Do NOT leave the “Marketing Budget” blank, assuming you will not
have any marketing costs.
The specific course learning outcomes
associated with this assignment are:

Recommend effective business strategies based on an analysis of
domestic and global operating environments, market dynamics, and internal
capabilities.
Analyze competitive positions including foreign market entry
and the resulting impact on business strategy.
Use technology and information resources to research issues in
strategic management.
Write clearly and concisely about strategic management using
proper writing mechanics.

.strayer.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/BUS/599/1156/Week6/Week%206%20Assignment%202%20Grading%20Rubric.html”>Click
here to view the grading rubric for this assignment.