International Year One – Business

INU1105/INU1505

MARKETING

Summative Assignment 1 (50%)

Handout date: 21.10.2024 9am

Submission date: 9.12.2024 9am

As a group

Produce a marketing plan for a new product.

(2500 words)

Assignment Task

To produce a group Marketing Plan (2500 words), for a new product.  Please refer to the following Marketing Plan Template Guidance when completing your plan. Your Module Leader will inform. you of the groups.

Product Categories

Your group must create a new product idea that would fit into one of the following categories:

1. Wearable Technology Devices

2. Children’s Toys

3. Oral Care

4. Mobile Device Applications

5. Food

6. Male grooming/personal care

7. Female beauty/personal care

8. Pet food/pet care

9. Baby Food and drinks

10. Chocolate confectionary

Note: Your product must sell for no more than £100. Your product must be initially intended for sale in the UK and must be priced in £ (pound sterling)

Guidance on Writing Style

The reader of a marketing plan only wants specific, essential information.  When writing the plan keep to the facts and only present key information you expect the reader to require, avoid straying into general or irrelevant material.

Note: All supporting information may be included in an appendix at the end of your plan and excluded from the word count if required e.g. detailed PESTLE/SWOT analyses.

Marketing Plan Template Guidance

1. Table of Contents

This should detail each section of the plan and page numbers.

2. Executive Summary

The executive summary is an overview of the entire plan, normally completed after the remainder of the plan has been written. It is a concise summary of where the business is heading. It is used to highlight the more important aspects of the plan to those who may not read all the detail contained in the various sections. (Should be approximately 200 words).

3. Corporate/Business Objectives

State the organisation’s overall vision, mission and corporate objectives.  Use the SMART technique when presenting your corporate objectives and present these as bullet points. This information should be extracted from your organisation’s strategic plan. 3 -4 corporate objectives are required.

4. Product/Market Background

A short overview of the market demand for your product, clarify understanding about target markets, market trends, main competitors. Refer in this section to reports such as Mintel (available from University of Newcastle’s Library)

5. Market Analysis

This provides further detailed insights into the market, target customers and the competition. It should consider the target segment(s) needs, issues raised in your marketing research. This section should include key outcomes from both your PRIMARY and SECONDARY research. The supporting information from the research should be included in the supporting documentation section.  Key points raised by conclusions from the PESTLE and SWOT analysis are used to support this section.  Note: detailed PESTLE and SWOT analysis can be placed in supporting documentation, only key points raised should be included in this section.

6. Product Proposition

This section should include: Why people will want to buy your product? Are you offering something different or the same as competitors, what is your Unique Selling Point (USP)? What differentiates your product from others with the same or very similar products or services? This needs to be brief and to the point – it is sometimes referred to as the ‘elevator pitch’ (the one-minute description that would entice someone to buy your offering).

7. Marketing Strategies

Here state how your product will compete in the market; the competitive advantage for example cost leadership, differentiation or focus strategy.  Also considered in this section is the way in which the product is to be positioned in the market.  For example, market leader, market challenger, market follower and market nicher.

8. Marketing Objectives

Use the SMART technique when presenting your marketing objectives and present these as bullet points.  Marketing objectives may be expressed in terms of volume of expected sales; value of sales; market share gains; levels of product awareness and customer satisfaction. 3-4 marketing objectives are required.

They should be precise and measurable. For example:

i. To achieve brand recognition of 25% in the 25-34 age group by end of 2021.

9. Marketing Programmes

This section should provide specific information in terms of the marketing mix (product, price, promotion and place) for the new product.  For example product packaging, product pricing strategy etc. including reasons for these proposals.  Ideally it should include detailed plans for the first year of launch.  For example the promotional plan should be included, in a month by month schedule of activity.

10. Implementation

The section sets out the way in which the marketing plan is to be controlled and evaluated – how will you measure the success or failure of your product – Marketing Metrics (measures) .

An example of how to present your implementation plan:

Minimal detail is expected here in the table, present as bullet points.

11. Supporting documentation

Marketing plans should contain relevant supporting documentation too extensive to be included in the plan itself, but necessary for reference and detail.  For example, the full PESTLE and SWOT analyses, marketing research data, and other market reports and information.  In addition, any supplementary (non-essential) tables/graphs (e.g. those from Mintel/Euromonitor).

12. References

List all the sources of information that have helped you create your marketing plan, it may be textbooks, websites, Mintel/Euromonitor reports etc

Mark Scheme

Table of Contents; Executive summary; Overall Objectives 10%

Product/Market Background; Market Analysis 20%

Marketing Strategies & Marketing Objectives 15%

Marketing Programmes & Product Proposition 30%

Implementation plan 5%

Presentation and structure 10%

Referencing/evidence of wider reading   10%