The Marketing Plan Outline

• You need to develop something new for your project. You can have a completely new product or service, but there are two better options. One is to modify an existing product or service (e.g., add some features) and pick a market for it. Another option is to bring something new to a market (e.g., bring a new franchise or open a new store at Mankato). You need to do some research (e.g., online) to get necessary information (e.g., numbers). Remember that all your discussions should be very specific to your new product and your selected target market.  
• There is no page requirement for each section, but your report must cover all of the following topics and your analysis should be specific and detailed. It will hurt your grade if you miss any of them.  

1. Title Page 
2. Table of Contents 
3. Executive Cover Memo 
4. Why: background information and problems 
5. What: describe the new product that can solve the problems 
6. How: next steps 
7. Describe your new product concept (Chapter 4; Figure 4.4). 
8. Forecast the sales for your new product (Chapter 9). You need to justify your numbers (e.g., references). 
9. Marketing Objectives (e.g., sales, profits, market share, product, pricing, promotion, and distribution). The objectives should be specific (numbers), measurable, realistic, and have a timetable (when to achieve). 
10. Marketing Strategies (4Ps) (Focus on the product and pricing strategies) 
11. Product  

• The product protocol (follow Figure 10.4; see Chapter 14 for some ideas) 

1. Pricing 

• A discussion of price elasticity (get a number for your product category from references and argue why it is elastic or inelastic) 
• Skimming vs. penetration vs. in-line (Justify your selection) 
• Others (e.g., various discounts) (see Chapter 11) 

1. Promotion 

• How much to spend and which media to use? 
• Promotional messages 
• Timetable 
• Effectiveness measure 

1. Distribution 
2. For products, you need to discuss what channels you use to reach your customers (e.g., direct, wholesaling, and/or retailing). You also need to indicate the types of intermediaries you use for selling your products (e.g., discount store and supermarket). 
3. For services, you need to provide your plan for location and hours of operations. You also need to describe how your service plan manage demand and capacity, e.g., differentiate offerings and prices depending on the time of the day, the day of the week, and the season of the year; adjust locations, numbers of employees, and/or hours of operations to meet demand; and so on. 
4. Financial Documents and Evaluation 
5. Cost estimation (see the cost classification table) 
6. Sales and profit 
7. Break-even analysis