Developing and Implementing a Marketing Plan

Course Touchpoint MBA640

Thus far, I hope youve found this course and the subject of business marketing to be both intriguing and informative  to your professional goals.

Through your course projects and reading materials, you now understand the value of analyzing consumer behavior and the difficulties of doing so in an ever-changing global and digital marketplace.

Youve also seen how regular brand auditing supports a companys ability to stay nimble, changing direction as needed by redefining

its target consumers, and youve seen how analytics can help drive strategic changes in the organization.

It is critical for business leaders to be responsive to shifting customer interests and needs by developing and implementing a strategic marketing plan.

Marketing is dynamic and ever-changing field, and your business initiatives should be equally flexible..

Remember, your marketing decisions can often have a large economic impact for your company, so take the time to review and make informed decisions based on your analytics and customer research.

Remember to reach out to your course instructor at any time during the remainder of the semester should you need assistance or to communicate any issues youre experiencing within the course.

As you approach the end of this course, I encourage you to begin thinking about your upcoming capstone course in strategic

business decision making.

You will be challenged to assume the role of a business executive identifying the value chain of your organization and proposing plans

to reallocate one or more activities to another geographical region.

You will have to think creatively in project management and business planning, while facing real-world dilemmas.

Congratulations on reaching this point in your program.

Your graduation is just around the corner.

Prepare now to finish strong!

 

Close

Transcript

Project 4 Scenario Transcript

MBA640

Jillian Best, the CEO of Maryland Creative Solutions (MCS) has a new assignment ready for you. She has selected you to be among the marketing experts on a cross-functional business development team that is tasked with expanding your new client’s operations within the United States. The CEO of your new client has explained to Jillian that he was unhappy with the company’s worldwide sales and profitability in the previous year. He believes that expanding within the highly competitive US market may be a good idea, especially with the high-quality range of company offerings. He also mentioned that with the robust economic forecasts in the United States, the company is well-positioned to obtain a larger share of their market by increasing sales to other US businesses. The CEO of your new client stressed that a solid marketing plan is needed to make an informed decision for market entry.

As a member of this team, you will have to develop and implement the marketing plan for this expansion. Your team must report back to your client in three weeks with a detailed marketing plan and steps to implement it. Prior to that deadline, you will write a value proposition, conduct an environmental scan, perform an analysis of the US market, detail the company’s marketing objectives, conduct an STP analysis, develop  a marketing strategy, complete a financial analysis, and recommended control measures and contingency plans to ensure that the forecasted sales and profitability targets are met.

Close

Competencies

Your work will be evaluated using the competencies listed below.

1.1: Organize document or presentation clearly in a manner that promotes understanding and meets the requirements of the assignment.

1.3: Provide sufficient, correctly cited support that substantiates the writer’s ideas.

1.6: Follow conventions of Standard Written English.

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.

4.4: Demonstrate diversity and inclusiveness in a team setting.

6.1: Identify the general (external) environment in which an organization operates and discuss the implications for enterprise success.

6.2: Evaluate strategic implications for domestic and international markets of an organization’s industry.

6.3: Analyze an organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses for strategic value.

6.4: Develop and recommend strategies for an organization’s sustainable competitive advantage.

10.5: Develop operating forecasts and budgets and apply managerial accounting techniques to support strategic decisions.

12.1: Assess market risk and opportunity.

12.2: Analyze marketing information.

12.3: Prepare marketing plan for a new product/service.

13.1: Identify and analyze new opportunities.

13.2: Create and implement new initiative or enterprise.

Prepare a Situation Analysis Report

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 teams study group.

That’s it for now,

Jillian

Email signature with MCS corporate logo, Jillian Best, Chief Executive Officer, and contact info

Attachments:

Company Case File

In the next step, you will complete your situation analysis by conducting an environmental scan that takes a comprehensive look at the many factors that you need to consider, exploit, or defend against in your marketing plan. This situation analysis will be incorporated into your B2B marketing plan later in this project, along with deliverables from the upcoming steps.

Course Resource

Print

Canadian Solar Inc.

COMPANY PROFILE

Headquarters

Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Established

2001

Annual revenue:

US$3.39 billion in 2017

Number of employees:

12,129

Website:

http://www.canadiansolar.com

Industry

Solar

Product line:

Manufacturer of solar modules that are used in residential, commercial, and industrial solar power generation systems

Competitors:

First Solar, JinkoSolar, SunPower

Sources

Barrons. (n.d.). Canadian Solar Inc. Retrieved from https://www.barrons.com/quote/stock/us/xnas/csiq/company-people

Nasdaq. (n.d.). Canadian Solar Inc. Common Shares (CSIQ) Quote & Summary Data. Retrieved from https://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/csiq

The Wall Street Journal. (n.d.). Quotes and Companies: CanadianSolar. Retrieved from https://quotes.wsj.com/CSIQ