Client: Dunkin’
Capstone Component 1: Integrated Marketing Portfolio In the first of the two components of your capstone, you will address your client’s request for marketing assistance by creating four artifacts to include in an integrated marketing portfolio. The portfolio should be designed to help the client take the product from concept to market and beyond and will also showcase your abilities as a marketing professional capable of operating in a global environment. You will build separate pieces of your portfolio throughout the term and refine your work with feedback from your instructor. Although you will develop each artifact sequentially during the course, it is important to note that this is an iterative process. Remember that you are creating an integrated portfolio, so each artifact should inform and be informed by the analysis contained in the others, and you may need to go back to adjust artifacts developed early in the course to reflect information in subsequent pieces.
Specifically, your portfolio should include the following artifacts:
Artifact 1: Target Market and Competitive Analysis The first artifact you create for your client should be a memo, with supporting analytical graphs and data, which identifies the global target market(s) for the client’s product using appropriate segmentation variables and considering the strategic goals of the organization. The memo should also assess which other companies are competing for the same customers, with what products, and with what rate of success. Your target market and competitive analysis memo should cover the product’s anticipated growth, revenue opportunities, and likelihood of success based on research on similar products from several major competitors and relevant consumer behavior studies. Your memo should focus on what the client can learn from what competitors have done, both in terms of product and target markets. For example, how can the client replicate competitors’ success while effectively differentiating and/or improving his or her own product? Is the market you have identified reachable and sustainable? What are the key features consumers in that market are looking for with respect to your client’s product or service? How might different commercial, political, legal, or cultural factors influence the global markets you have identified? To convince your client your advice is reasonable, you should provide a clear rationale for your suggestions based on detailed research. Remember also that your goal is to produce an integrated marketing portfolio in which each piece informs the others, so be sure to explain how financial, communications, or logistical elements might impact the selection of an appropriate target market or relevant product features.
Artifact 2: Financial Analysis and Pricing Structure In the second artifact in your portfolio, you will lay out for your client the anticipated financial ramifications of your marketing plan and determine the price the client should charge for the product. The artifact, which should be a written memo, must include a narrative of your findings, supported by financial information and appropriate graphs and tables. In explaining your financial analysis and suggested pricing structure to the client, you should adopt a three-year time horizon and be sure to include the following: • Forecasted annual sales and revenue and market share • Expected annual return on investment • An analysis of the breakeven point for each year • How your analysis is affected by the marketing environment for international target markets • An assessment of how sensitive your analysis is to changing market conditions both domestically and internationally • How you arrived at your suggested price including acceptable profit margins, channels of distribution, and competitors’ pricing for similar products You should also discuss how legal and ethical considerations such as predatory pricing and international rules and regulations affect your analysis. Are these considerations different in different global markets? How? Remember that this is an integrated portfolio, so your analysis should take into account the interrelationships between price structure and financial analysis, as well as how these affect and are affected by the choice of target market, communication approaches, and implementation strategy. Bear in mind that while your primary audience for this artifact is the company CEO, he or she may also bring along members of the financial team to review your projections, so you should be sure to use accepted finance and accounting standards and language in reporting your results. Also be sure that your recommendations align with the strategic goals of the organization. As with the other artifacts in your portfolio, you should provide a clear rationale for your projections and suggestions that is firmly grounded in research.
Artifact 3: Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) Plan In this artifact, you will develop a plan for communicating the availability of your client’s product to the target market(s) you identified, using a clear, unified message. Your plan should specify the overall promotional objectives of the communications activity or activities and provide the client with a range of viable options, including what major competitors have done and the costs of the different options. The options you present to the client should include a mix of communication approaches such as social media, sales promotion, direct marketing, digital marketing, advertising, and/or public relations designed to effectively reach the target market(s). It should also specify a timeline for conducting the activities and proposed measures of success. In addition, you should consider how legal and ethical factors such as truth in advertising and other relevant rules and regulations come into play in your communication strategy, including how these considerations might be different in markets outside the United States. To flesh out your concepts and provide the client with a concrete example of the type of marketing you are suggesting, you will also include a sample marketing communication (e.g., an ad or radio spot, artistic ad copy for a magazine, script, or other instructor-approved item) as part of your IMC plan. Although the IMC plan as a whole should be geared toward the client, the sample marketing communication should be designed to communicate with the target audience. To keep your plan grounded in reality, be sure to base your suggestions on sound marketing principles, research what successful competitors have done, and provide a comprehensive consideration of costs, including the costs of hiring individuals to carry out the activities, based on current expense rates for various types of media advertising. In addition, ensure that your suggestions reflect the strategic goals of the organization. In other words, is what you are suggesting feasible? Be sure to integrate the financial, logistical, and target market knowledge generated in the other artifacts in your portfolio in creating your communication plan.
Artifact 4: Implementation, Evaluation, and Control Strategy This artifact ties together the previous three pieces of your portfolio and turns them into a plan of action. In it, you will make detailed suggestions to the client on how to implement the various pieces of the marketing plan you have proposed, evaluate its results, ensure legal and ethical compliance, and allow for corrections to plans and activities as needed to achieve the organization’s objectives. You should also discuss how your marketing firm can assist the client in carrying out the various implementation, evaluation, and control (IEC) activities. Specifically, your IEC strategy should consider the following: • Specific action items for each element of your marketing plan, including how they will be executed, by whom, under what time frame, and at what cost • How you will account for client input in negotiating a final mix of marketing activities • Concrete steps for ensuring that the marketing portfolio complies with legal systems, regulatory standards, and ethical practices in a global context • Specific metrics, timeframes, and processes for evaluating the effectiveness of the marketing activities • Review processes for ensuring alignment of marketing activities to the overall goals of the organization • Additional research on consumer behavior and market research that might be needed, either to ensure that marketing messages account for cultural variations in a global market or to refine messages once the product has been launched, and when, how, and by whom that research would be conducted • How and when corrections will be made to marketing activities if needed, and by whom • How other logistical factors, such as changing political scenarios in different countries, corporate social responsibility, or global trends might affect marketing decisions over the product life cycle As support for your strategy, you should research and discuss IEC initiatives that have been successful for similar products in the past and compare and contrast how these might apply to your own marketing portfolio. You should present your suggestions with an eye to persuading the client to adopt your strategy.
Capstone Component 2: Executive Summary Presentation For the second and final component of your capstone, you will present an executive summary of your portfolio that discusses its contents as well as how it reflects your knowledge, skills, and abilities as a marketing professional. The summary presentation will take the form of a visual presentation, such as a PowerPoint presentation with audio narration or other instructor-approved medium, that is geared toward potential employers or clients and designed to reinforce the oral presentation skills you will need for interviews and other professional presentations. You should view this component as an introduction to your entire portfolio and should start by discussing the key goals of the marketing activities it features and how those fit within broader marketing trends. For example, you may want to showcase your knowledge of the broader marketing context by discussing how the current market situation impacted your client’s product or service and how changes in market dynamics over the next several years may affect business. In order to show potential employers or clients the full range of your marketing knowledge, you will want to discuss how the different pieces fit together and inform the project as a whole, in addition to highlighting key features and major findings of the individual artifacts. Remember that employers and potential clients often interview a number of technically qualified candidates, so you should try to draw out aspects of your portfolio that set you apart as well as illustrate your competence in the different areas. For example, you might want to showcase your knowledge of legal and ethical issues or your ability to navigate complex international environments, or provide insights into how to incorporate corporate social responsibility in marketing. As part of your summary presentation, you should also discuss how developing the portfolio and your coursework throughout the program have helped shape your personal goals and values and prepared you to enter the marketing field. In addition, you may want to discuss how you addressed unforeseen problems, obstacles, or any unexpected surprises (either those you encountered in developing the portfolio or those you considered as contingencies in the portfolio itself), since the ability to effectively and creatively solve problems is a highly valued job skill.
