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Project 4: Developing and Implementing a Marketing Plan
Step 6: Research and Analyze the Company’s US Market

Now that you have completed the environmental scan, your team needs to conduct a market analysis of the company’s customers in the United States. Outline how the team would conduct this analysis, while considering both current and potential customers. Your analysis should address how you would determine answers to the following questions:

What needs are being met by the products or services that they purchase? What are the benefits to the customers? Make sure that you differentiate between features and benefits; go beyond manifest motives and consider latent motives.
Who is involved in the purchase process? Who are influencers? Who are buyers? Who are users?
How do customers pay? Describe payment plans, financing, banking arrangements, etc.
Where are the products or services sold and delivered, and what are the distribution channels?
How often are the different types of the products or services purchased? Is there seasonality to sales?
Is there any market regulation? Is there self-regulation? Do any federal or state regulations affect the company’s US operations?
What is the size of the market (in dollars and units)? What is the growth rate of that market?

Deliverable: By the end of Week 9 present your results to the CEO in a market analysis report of five pages, excluding cover page, executive summary, the reference list, and appendices. Any tables, graphs, and figures should be included as appendices. Your report should have one-inch margins and be double spaced in 12-point Times New Roman font. The report should be organized using headings and subheadings to improve its readability.

Support your work with scholarly sources and reliable nonscholarly sources such as Reuters, Bloomberg, Yahoo! Finance, Barrons.com, Morningstar.com, Money, Forbes, Fortune, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review, as well as the UMGC Library databases such as Hoover’s and ABI/INFORM. All sources need to be cited using APA formatting, both within the text and in the reference list.

Here’s all the info you may need to do the step 6

Competencies

Your work will be evaluated using the competencies listed below.

1.3: Provide sufficient, correctly cited support that substantiates the writer’s ideas.
2.1: Identify and clearly explain the issue, question, or problem under critical consideration.
2.2: Locate and access sufficient information to investigate the issue or problem.
3.1: Identify numerical or mathematical information that is relevant in a problem or situation.
4.3: Contribute to team projects, assignments, or organizational goals as an engaged member of a team.
Step 2: Review Information on Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
As You Get Started
Jillian Best catches you in the hallway:
“Listen, before I send you the case file on our new client, I want to make sure you have a thorough understanding of the business-to-business relationships that will be at the core of the marketing plan you will be contributing to. Look for an email from me this afternoon.”
INBOX: 1 New Message
Subject: Case Primer for Marketing Plan
From: Jillian Best, CEO, MCS
To: You
As you have learned through your work with MCS clients, marketing is one of the most important functional areas in business. As you get oriented with the realities of business-to-business (B2B) marketing, I’d like you to do some more reading on two main elements: (1) business buying behavior, and (2) strategic alliances.
Business buying behavior relates to how business customers and their suppliers explore different avenues to manage relationships and enhance efficiency and effectiveness. Fostering the right relationship with businesses is crucial for any holistic marketing plan. B2B relationships are affected by supply, complexity of supply, availability of alternatives, and supply-market dynamism.
In addition, our new client may consider forming strategic alliances to expand its US operations. The twenty-first century has seen an increased use of long-term global strategic alliances among both producers and distribution companies. Organizations form these alliances in an effort to secure commercial advantage and eliminate waste from their distribution channels. They can be crucial to success.
Please review the information linked above before going any further. This is a big client and a tremendous opportunity for MCS. Let me know if any questions arise as you get oriented with your team.
Best,
Jillian

Marketing

Definitions

One of the most important functional areas in business is marketing, as it deals with customers more than any other function. Companies such as Google, Swiss Bank, Deutsche Bank, Gucci, Airbus, Apple, McDonalds, and Toyota have a passion for understanding their customers and satisfying their needs in “well-defined target markets” (Kotler & Armstrong, 2014, p. 4). Basically, marketing is a managerial and social function through which companies and consumers create and exchange value.

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines marketing as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large” (AMA, 2013, para. 1).

Kotler and Armstrong (2014) define marketing as the “process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return” (p. 5).

On the other hand, Kotler and Keller (2015) define marketing management as the science and art of selecting target markets, and the practice of acquiring, maintaining, and growing customers through the creation, delivery, and communication of superior customer value—all while maintaining profitability.

Remember, marketing is not selling; selling is just a component of marketing!

The Marketing Process

Selecting a product or a service to develop is a demanding process that requires cross-functional teams to research, select, develop, and launch new products. In addition, the company needs to evaluate the attractiveness of a new business. Sometimes the company may seek external help to develop a new product, as it may lack the necessary technical expertise, market knowledge, or resources, or may simply want to spread the financial risk involved (i.e., open innovation, or innovation using strategic alliances.)

The marketing process involves five steps (Kotler & Armstrong, 2014, p. 5):

understanding the marketplace and consumer needs and wants
designing a consumer-driven marketing strategy
constructing an integrated marketing program that delivers superior value
building profitable relationships and creating consumer satisfaction
capturing value from customers to create profits and customer equity

To effectively engage in the marketing process, a business needs to understand the following elements:

consumers
how to acquire market knowledge (primary and secondary research)
how to turn that knowledge into products that are needed and wanted by a group of consumers
how to create market offerings that not only create value for the consumer but profitability for the organization
how to accomplish these tasks while being socially responsible and engaging in ethical behavior

Furthermore, there are five major customer value themes (Kotler & Armstrong, 2014, p. XVI):

creating value for the consumer in order to capture value from them in return
creating and managing strong local and global value-creating brands
capitalizing on new marketing technologies, such social media (i.e., digital marketing)
assessing and managing return on marketing investment
sustainable global marketing

References

AMA. (2013). Marketing definition. Retrieved from www.ama.org

Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G. (2014). Principles of marketing (15th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Kotler, P., & Keller, K. (2015). Marketing management (15th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Business Buying Behavior

Business suppliers and their customers are using more vertical coordination and are exploring ways to create more value from their relationships. Customer loyalty is largely driven by early supplier involvement, supply-chain management, and purchasing alliances (Kotler & Keller, 2015). For example, the Renault-Nissan Alliance led by Chairman Carlos Ghosn is able to secure preferential prices from its suppliers. Neither Renault nor Nissan would be able to get the same prices when buying alone. Although vertical coordination of this type may foster strong customer-supplier relationships, it may also involve risks (e.g., limited flexibility).

Business to business (B2B) marketers use every available marketing tool to gain and retain customers. They bundle valuable services with their product offerings, use systems selling (i.e., buying a total-solution package from a single vendor), and capitalize on online and offline communications. Furthermore, B2B marketers are increasingly borrowing marketing practices from business-to-consumer markets to create and enhance their brands (Kotler & Keller, 2015). These marketers routinely rely on long-term personal relationships with their major customers, providing useful information and establishing trust to secure big contracts (Zhang, Watson IV, Palmatier, & Dant, 2016).

While B2B companies recognize the disruptive power of technology, many have been cautious in anticipating the impact of advances such as the internet, social media, and crowdsourcing on corporate buying behavior. These companies have also been slow to adopt marketing analytical tools and big data, even though these developments could change existing company-wide business practices and models. Changes to company-wide operations require a closer alignment between the business marketers and other functional units within the company. For example, several B2B companies increasingly rely on social media to incorporate the voice of the customer (VoC) to narrow the gap between sales, marketing, and innovation (Spekman, 2015).

Much of the B2B sector is in the service business (e.g., hotels, banks, airlines, hospitals, and repair companies), just as many employees in the manufacturing sector, including accountants, lawyers, and IT professionals, are actually service providers. As B2B companies struggle to differentiate their physical products, they are increasingly striving for service differentiation by providing faster customer response, faster complaints resolution, and timely delivery (Kotler & Keller, 2015).

References

Kotler, P. & Keller, K. L. (2015). Marketing management (15th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Spekman, R. E. (2015). The Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing at 21 and my perspective on the field of B to B marketing. Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, 22(1–2), 87–94. doi:10.1080/1051712X.2015.1020245

Zhang, J. Z., Watson IV, G. F., Palmatier, R. W., & Dant, R. P. (2016). Dynamic relationship marketing. Journal of Marketing, 80(5), 53–90. doi:10.1509/jm.15.0066

Project 4: Developing and Implementing a Marketing Plan
Step 3: Understand the Components of a Marketing Plan and Research Guidelines

The team’s marketing knowledge and data acquisition skills are crucial to the success of this project. Your team will collect and analyze the information necessary to develop a marketing plan for expanding the company’s operations within the United States.

Your final marketing plan will ultimately include a situation analysis, analyses of the client’s market, strategy, and financing, and an outline describing the measures to implement the plan. Use this marketing plan template to help you create your marketing plan.

Take Note

To carry out this assignment, your marketing team needs to understand the client’s customers, how to acquire market knowledge (through primary and secondary research), and how to turn that knowledge into offerings that are needed and wanted by a group of customers. You must also be able to invent market offerings that not only create value for the customer, but also create profitability for the client in a socially responsible and ethical way.

As you will recall from the previous projects, there are two types of market research: primary and secondary research. Both types of research are necessary when creating a marketing plan.
As you conduct research for your marketing plan, use the UMGC Library’s Research Guides, specifically (1) Business and Management and (2) Marketing. Consult these two research guides and find articles that will help you complete your assignments. It is easier if you conduct a separate search for each section of your marketing plan. Also, use databases, such as Hoover’s and ABI/INFORM to research the client company and its industry.

Now that you understand the components of a marketing plan, continue to the next step, where your team will learn more details about your client and its industry.

Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is a written document that outlines the marketing program for a company or a product or service, along with the promotional budget allocation over the planning period. In other words, a marketing plan details what is needed to implement a marketing program and achieve the goals within it. When developing a marketing plan, you should be guided by the organization’s vision and mission statements.

It is important to note that a marketing plan is not the same as a business plan. While the marketing plan is part of the business plan, business plans typically also include additional information such as financial strategies, operations plans, risk management techniques, and human resources details.

Resources

Course Resource
Print
Marketing Plan Template
Marketing Plan Template
1. Executive summary
2. Situation analysis
2.1 Mission
2.2 Product or service description
2.3 Value proposition
2.4 Internal environment scan (SWOT analysis)
2.5 External environment scan (PESTEL & Porter’s five forces analyses)
2.6 Critical issues
3. Market analysis
3.1 Marketing research
3.2 Market size and growth
3.3 Market trends
3.4 Customer analysis (including needs analysis)
4. Strategic analysis
4.1 Marketing objectives (including financial objectives)
4.2 Market segments
4.3 Target market
4.4 Positioning strategy
4.5 Product and branding strategy
4.6 Pricing strategy
4.7 Distribution and supply chain strategy
4.8 Integrated marketing communications strategy
5. Financial analysis
5.1 Breakeven analysis
5.2 Sales forecast
5.3 Expense forecast
6. Implementation, controls, and contingency plan
6.1 Implementation
6.2 Controls
6.3 Contingency plans

Primary and Secondary Research

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines marketing research as follows: “the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information—information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the information required to address these issues, designs the method for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, analyzes the results, and communicates the findings and their implications.” (AMA, 2013, para. 2)

There are two types of research (Marshall & Johnston, 2011):

primary research—Data is collected specifically for a certain research question, (i.e., primary data). Data may be quantitative (statistical analysis), or qualitative (e.g., surveys, focus groups, and interviews). Primary research is important when making strategic decisions. While primary research is costly and more time consuming, it is more accurate and reliable.
secondary research—Data was collected for some other purpose than the research question at hand. Secondary research may involve an internet search, periodicals, CRM data, government sources (e.g., economic census), and market research organizations. Secondary data is cheaper to obtain and is less time consuming to use because it is readily available; however, it may be outdated or unreliable. In addition, secondary research may not be a perfect fit for the research question. In general, primary research usually starts with a scan of the available secondary information to help further refine the search.

References

AMA (2013). Marketing research definition. Retrieved from www.ama.org

Marshall, G. W., & Johnston, M. W. (2011). Essentials of marketing management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Project 4: Developing and Implementing a Marketing Plan
Step 4: Prepare a Situation Analysis Report

Required Readings

Chapters 1, 3, & 14

Lancaster, G., & Massingham, L. (2018). Essentials of marketing management (2nd ed.). Routledge

http://ezproxy.umgc.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1581263&site=eds-live&scope=site&profile=edsebook

INBOX: 1 New Message

Subject: Company Case File & Questions to Consider
From: Jillian Best, CEO, MCS
To: Team

Hi again. I wanted to provide you with the company case file and some pertinent questions for you to consider while you work on your B2B marketing plan.

As part of the preparation necessary to complete your business-to-business marketing plan, you and your team will need to do in-depth research on your client’s company, including its operations, global reach, and range of offerings.

By the end of Week 8, I need you to produce a situation analysis report explaining your team’s findings on the company. Be sure to include a value proposition, essentially the promise that is made to the customer, explaining the reason a customer purchases a product or uses a service (i.e., the value that a company delivers to its customers).

Start by reading the attached case file and be sure to consider the following questions while you do additional research:

Where is the company headquartered?
What are the company’s major products and/or services?
What is the company’s annual revenue in dollars, and what is its annual production in units?
Does the company own its own facilities or does it subcontract manufacturing to others?
Who are the company’s major suppliers of raw materials or parts, and where are they located?
What is the distribution of the company’s workforce by country?
How does the company differentiate its offering in its highly competitive markets?
Does the company have exclusive marketing or distribution agreements or partnerships?
Who are the company’s major global and US customers?
What benefits does the company offer to its customers?
Who are the company’s major global and US competitors?

When developing your situation analysis, you should also understand the importance of vision and mission statements and then research the company’s own vision and mission statements.

Write a four-page document detailing the main findings of your research about your client, including its mission and vision statement. Submit your document to your team’s study group.

That’s it for now,

Value Proposition

Companies address their customers through their value proposition, which is the totality of the benefits offered to satisfy customer needs and wants. The product or service will only be successful if it delivers value and satisfies the target customer. In other words, the value proposition is more than just the core positioning of the product or service; it represents the whole set of benefits that a company promises to deliver. Accordingly, astute product or service positioning will result in a successful customer-focused value proposition (i.e., a clear reason why the target customers should buy the offering) (Kotler & Keller, 2015).

References

Kotler, P. & Keller, K. L. (2015). Marketing management (15th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Learning Topic

Vision

Responsibility for articulating an organization’s vision typically rests with the CEO and leadership team. While a mission describes the present purpose of the enterprise, vision is about a desired future. When done well, vision statements serve as a source of ongoing inspiration for all stakeholders, helping them see what is possible if everyone commits and performs optimally. In Vision, located in the Resources section below, Porterfield (2004) explains more about the purpose of an organizational vision and vision statement as well as how they should be developed and communicated.

Resources

Vision

Collins and Porras (1991) examine the challenges of creating a single vision for large multidivisional and geographically dispersed organizations. They write about how difficult it can be for a leader to craft a compelling vision and how sometimes the resulting statement ends up being more about mission than vision. In presenting their proposed framework for vision creation, Collins and Porras emphasize the importance of agreement about core values and beliefs, sharing examples that are as relevant now as they were when their article was published.

Furthermore, an analysis of powerful vision statements led Kantabutra and Avery (2010, p. 3) to propose seven important characteristics:

conciseness
clarity
future orientation
stability
challenge
abstractness
desirability or ability to inspire

Consult UMGC’s online library to find out out more about how a vision should be developed, the appropriate role of leaders in formulating them, their relative importance for organizational success, and other questions related to the development of an organization’s vision.

Namely, an organization’s vision statement should be powerful and serve as a compelling source of inspiration for stakeholders.

References

Collins, J. C., & Porras, J. I. (1991). Organizational vision and visionary organizations. California Management Review, 34(1), 30.

Kantabutra, S., & Avery, G. C. (2010). The power of vision: Statements that resonate. Journal of Business Strategy, 31(1), 37-45. doi:10.1108/02756661011012769

Porterfield, R. (2004). Vision. In M. J. Stahl (Ed.), Encyclopedia of health care management (pp. 586-586). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd. doi: 10.4135/9781412950602.n837

Learning Topic

Mission

An organization should have a clearly defined mission that guides decisions and (along with an organizational vision) future directions. While organizations’ missions are typically stable, changes in scope and sometimes even purpose do occur. Sometimes these changes are intentional, and the rationale is easy to discover. but sometimes this is not the case. A common occurrence known as mission creep can happen when an organization’s scope expands, often incrementally, in a direction that was not originally intended. You will also see changes in mission caused by market expansion or contraction, mergers and acquisitions, innovation, changing societal needs, and so on.

Another common occurrence, known as mission proliferation, can happen when different parts of the organization articulate and publish independent missions, often to help inspire and direct those working in subunits. In theory, each subunit mission statement should align with and support the organization’s mission, but this is not always the case and deviations from the organization’s mission may contribute to confusion. This outcome may be especially true in organizations that are large and complex, or in ones where decision making is decentralized.

An organization’s mission may be found in a formal published statement or explained verbally be the CEO or another senior leader. Public sector organizations sometimes have two organizational mission statements—an official version that is long and detailed, and an abbreviated version used for public dissemination. A mission can change over time, and it can be instructive to examine the process used the bring about that change. It is also useful to ask whether there is evidence an organization’s mission is having a positive impact on its performance.

Resources

Check Your Knowledge

Question 1

What purposes should an organizational mission serve?

An organization’s mission should clarify the purpose and serve as a guide for decisions and future directions.

Question 2

What is mission creep?

Mission creep is an unplanned gradual expansion of an organization’s scope, often in an unintended direction.

Question 3

One of the potential challenges associated with organizational missions is mission proliferation. Explain what this means and why it can be problematic.

Mission proliferation occurs when different parts of an organization create their own missions and mission statements. The problem arises when this is done without giving sufficient attention to how these departmental or unit missions contribute to the overall organizational mission.

Question 4

What are some of the things that a mission statement should accomplish?

provides a broadly phrased statement of the firm’s long-term goals
distinguishes the organization from others in the same industry
for the organization’s product or market, clarifies the scope of operations
defines the organization’s goals and aspirations
(ideally, it provides a focus for the organization’s actions

Source: Cavanagh, 2008, para. 1.

Question 5

What are some of the problems that can occur in the absence of an effective and organizational mission and well-written mission statement?

Managers may make decisions based upon their individual biases, priorities, and preferences.
Time and resources may be wasted through pursuing actions that do not contribute to the achievement of the organization’s goals.
The organization may not perform as well in the marketplace as competitor organizations that do have strong mission statements.

Source: Cavanagh, 2008, paras. 4, 6, 15.

Question 6

Below are mission statements for Coca-Cola and Pepsi published on their corporate websites in 2016. Apply what you have just read about effective missions and mission statements to an analysis of these two examples.

Which statement does the best job describing the company’s purpose and why? What about if you were an investor?
Would your conclusion change if you were looking at this from the perspective of a customer? What about if you were an employee?

Coca-Cola Our Mission Our Roadmap starts with our mission, which is enduring. It declares our purpose as a company and serves as the standard against which we weigh our actions and decisions. To refresh the world… To inspire moments of optimism and happiness… To create value and make a difference.

Pepsi As one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world, our mission is to provide consumers around the world with delicious, affordable, convenient and complementary foods and beverages from wholesome breakfasts to healthy and fun daytime snacks and beverages to evening treats. We are committed to investing in our people, our company and the communities where we operate to help position the company for long-term, sustainable growth.

Pepsi’s mission statement is specific about the business the company is in: food and beverages. The statement also clarifies the standards Pepsi holds itself to by including the terms delicious, affordable, convenient, wholesome, and healthy in its statement. Finally, Pepsi ends its mission statement by speaking to important corporate values.

In contrast, if you didn’t know the business Coca-Cola is in its mission statement wouldn’t help you figure it out. The phrase “refresh the world” might serve as a hint for some but if you had never heard of Coca-Cola it would be pretty difficult to figure out what the company actually does. The other parts of the firm’s mission statement are equally vague. One possible advantage of Coca-Cola’s mission statement is that it leaves scope for creativity and innovation if the company’s leadership chooses to diversify.

With these observations as background, it is fairly easy to argue that Pepsi’s mission statement does a better job of specifying the organization’s purpose. As for the investor’s perspective, much would depend upon the person’s priorities. Someone looking for a dynamic company open to expanding its scope of business might be drawn to Coca-Cola’s mission. An investor interested in a company committed to its current business might find more comfort in Pepsi’s mission statement.

Of course, a wise investor would want much more information about both companies. A potential customer would almost certainly find Pepsi’s mission statement more useful. Similarly, employees would probably be attracted to Pepsi’s mission statement because it includes a commitment to investing in its people.