You are the Marketing Director for Cougar Corporation and have recently been placed in charge of new product/service development.

You are the Marketing Director for Cougar Corporation and have recently been placed in charge of new product/service development.

Congratulations! You are the Marketing Director for Cougar Corporation and have recently been placed in charge of new product/service development. It is your responsibility to create a marketing plan for your selection.

PHASE 1: Introduction and Planning Select a product that interests you. This can be a existing product or one that you would like to create.

PHASE 2: Situation Analysis Introduce your product or service. Describe it in detail, including the reasons for your selection. Create a situation analysis and discuss your goals. Develop a short list of internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats. Focus on issues that you believe will be most important to your marketing planning over the next year or so.

PHASE 3: Identify Critical Information It is important to evaluate existing information (internal and secondary data) as well as new information gathered through primary research.

1. Catalog internal sources of information available to you inside the organization and what information you will receive from each source.

2. Identify secondary data sources and the specific information you need from each source.

a. List sources.

b. Date.

c. Assess the relevance of the data to the project.

3. List primary data needs to create the marketing plan. Then develop the specific instruments (focus group questions, surveys) that you will use later in the marketing plan.

PHASE 4: Define Consumer Markets For those marketing products to consumers (or through a channel that sells directly to consumers), understanding the purchase decision process of the target market is an essential element of the marketing plan.

1. Develop a demographic profile of the customer to include a. Age b. Income c. Occupation d. Education e. Lifestyle (activities, interests, opinions)

2. Describe the motivation of the target consumer. Why is the consumer buying the product?

3. What external forces will influence the target consumer as he or she considers the purchase? For example, will the consumer’s culture or subculture affect the purchase decision? How?

4. Describe the consumer’s typical consumer purchase decision process. What is the likely process a consumer will go through in making the decision to purchase the product?

PHASE 5: Identify Target Markets You should now realize that effective segmentation, target marketing, and positioning favorably impact marketing management.

1. Consider the various approaches to segmenting your market(s). What segmentation approaches do you recommend? Why do you recommend those approaches over other available approaches?

2. Evaluate your proposed segments against the criteria for effective segmentation. What does this evaluation lead you to conclude about the best way to proceed?

3. Systematically analyze each potential segment on your list: (1) assess each in terms of segment size and growth potential, segment competitive forces, and strategic fit of the segment; (2) for the short set that emerges, develop profiles of each potential target market, then identify each of your final set as primary, secondary, tertiary, or abandoned; (3) select the target marketing approach for each of your primary targets.

4. Identify the likely sources of differential advantage on which you will focus later in developing your positioning strategies.

PHASE 6: Define the Product Strategy Developing an effective marketing plan begins with an understanding of your product, its role in the company’s overall business strategy, and, more specifically, where it fits in the company’s product mix. Additionally, it is important to establish a new product development process that ensures a new product pipeline of potentially successful new products.

1. Define the product to include: a. Value proposition. b. Characteristics. c. Nature of product (consumer versus business product, and what type of product it represents).

2. Identify the product’s position in the product line (if offered with other similar products) and, more broadly, the company’s overall product mix. Address the following: a. How would this product differ from other products in the product line (if appropriate)? b. What price point would this product target and is there any conflict with existing products? c. How does the marketing message differ for this product from other products in the product line?

PHASE 7: Define the Branding Strategy Building a strong brand is critical to a product’s long-term success. At the same time, it is important to understand how a product’s position in its life cycle influences marketing mix decisions.

1. Create a package design for the product. Specifically, the design should include necessary legal statements, marketing communications, and other information considered important for the package.

2. Develop a warranty for the product. What elements are specifically covered in the warranty? Does the warranty meet, equal, or fail to meet market expectations and competitor warranties?

3. Create a branding strategy to include a. National/store branding. b. Stand-alone/family branding. c. Possible licensing considerations. d. Co-branding opportunities.

PHASE 8: Price Your Offering Your approach to pricing is an integral aspect of positioning your offering. Price sends a signal to customers about the offering’s quality and other characteristics. At the same time, effective pricing ensures margins and profits needed for continued success.

1. Review the options for pricing objectives and strategies and establish an appropriate set for your offering.

2. Review the various available pricing tactics and select a mix of tactics that you believe is most appropriate for your offering.

3. Consider the methods of establishing an exact price. Use these approaches to develop a comparative set for review. Select a final price for the offering.

4. What channel discounts and allowances will you provide on your offering?

PHASE 9: Establish Distribution Channels for Your Offering Selecting the most appropriate channels of distribution for your offering and then working out the overall best approach to establishing and operating your supply chain is a critical element of your marketing plan.

1. Define and describe the value network within which you will operate. Develop an approach to ensure that your supply chain operation is a nimble as possible.

2. Decide what type of channel configuration is optimal for you and what intermediaries should be part of the channel.

3. Select what physical distribution functions you will accomplish in-house and how these will be set up. Then select what physical distribution functions you will outsource and to whom.

4. Identify what aspects of e-channels you must address.

5. Decide: a. What level of distribution intensity you seek within each channel. b. How much control and adaptability are required over the channel and its activities. c. The priority channel functions that require investment.

6. Develop your plans for the following logistics functions: a. Order processing. b. Warehousing and materials handling. c. Inventory management. d. Transportation.

PHASE 10: Promote Your Offering The promotion plan is an integral part of any marketing plan, and often carries a significant portion of the marketing budget.

1. Review the promotion mix elements and begin to develop goals for promotion and a promotional strategy utilizing the elements of the mix that are most appropriate for your offering.

2. Link the promotional strategy to PLC stages as well as the stages your customers will go through on the AIDA model.

3. Decide how you intend to manage promotion for the offering. Decide on outsourced elements versus elements that will be handled in-house. Establish a structure and process for promotion management.

PHASE 11: Building the Promotional Elements

1. What approaches to advertising will you take? Select and justify the media types to be used and discuss how you will execute each.

2. Make a decision on whether some forms of sales promotion will be part of your promotion plan to consumers and/or channel members. If so, select the sales promotion approaches you will employ and justify each.

3. Develop your PR plan.

4. Decide how you intend to manage promotion for the offering. Decide on outsourced elements versus elements that will be handled in-house. Establish a structure and process for promotion management.

PHASE 12: Building the Interpersonal Relationship A critical component of your company’s marketing communications is the interpersonal connection to the customer. Developing an effective interpersonal communications strategy is essential and can include (1) sales force, (2) website, and (3) direct marketing.

1. Review the overall marketing communications plan and determine the role of interpersonal marketing communications in communicating with target customers.

2. If personal selling is part of the marketing communications plan, create a sales strategy to include nature of sales force (company sales force or external sales team), sales structure, hiring/recruiting policies, and compensation program.

3. Determine the level of direct marketing for the company. Specifically, define the role of direct marketing in the overall marketing communications plan. Next, identify specific objectives for the direct marketing effort. Finally, create a direct marketing campaign and follow-up plan.

8-12 pages