MARKETING PLAN OUTLINE
Grading is based on class participation and a marketing plan and presentation of the plan. The marketing plan should be a minimum of 4,000 words, excluding endnotes, double-spaced, with one inch margins and 12 point font. All statistical data should be included as an appendix and not placed within the text of the plan. A three to a five-page detailed outline, accompanied by a separate bibliography, will be due in session four.
MARKETING PLAN OUTLINE
The following outline is not exhaustive of all that can be included in the marketing plan. The goal is to write a plan that is realistic (since no company has unlimited resources), rational, strategic, coherent, and integrated. This is why the situation analysis (SWOT) is important – it will provide a guide in determining what the firm is capable of doing. The marketing plan should match this analysis.
- Company & Product
• The firm pick Columbia Sportswear Company
• The industry
• Management
• Product attributes - Country
• Overview
• Economy
• Culture
• Key demographics
• Political and economic risk factors - Goals
• What to achieve and why (be specific, give some metrics)
• Risks involved and likelihood of accomplishing goals - Overall Competitive Strategy (core of the plan)
• Situation analysis (SWOT)
• Local competitors
• International competitors
• Likely duration of first mover advantage if relevant
• Basis for competing effectively in the long run (specify an overall strategy)
• Resources and capabilities of the firm - Market Entry
• Entry mode
• Locations for operations (production, sourcing, distribution) - Segmentation/Targeting/Positioning(S/T/P should be consistent with and driven by overall competitive strategy)
• Segmentation options and final basis and analysis for segmentation
• Target group(s) selected, size, sales potential
• Positioning options and final analysis and basis for positioning - Marketing Mix(4 P’s should be integrated among themselves and consistent with S/T/P)
• Product (how adapted if at all, degree of standardization/customization, why appropriate, what needs products meet, what their advantages would be over local and global competitors’ products/services, etc.)
• Promotion (what media, other promotional efforts, budget and allocations, objectives for ads and promotions, what kind of reach expected, how promotion would be culturally appropriate or tailored, degree of standardization, etc.)
• Pricing (what pricing strategy used, how to deal with inflation or other currency issues, use of differential pricing across markets, etc.)
• Place or Distribution (what channels to be used, what channels available, expected ease or difficulty of channel access, measures used to overcome difficulties, distribution methods, etc.). - Expected Results
• If the plan were successfully implemented, detail the performance expectations, including two years of revenues, expense, market share, and profit projections. - References Cited
• You may follow the style of any standard guide — e.g., Modern Language Association (MLA), Turabian, American Psychological Association (APA), American Marketing Association (AMA). Older style guides employ footnotes to credit authors. You may find it convenient to use the system now adopted in most scholarly journals: the author’s name and the year of publication are indicated in parentheses within the body of the text.
