Strategic Marketing Brief
The Course Project is a strategic marketing brief and summary presentation for a new product. Similar to a complete marketing plan, the brief includes topics such as the marketing mix and promotional mix. In contrast to a marketing plan, the strategic brief communicates these and other topics to a different audience. It addresses senior executives and investors rather than managers and frontline workers. As such, your brief will focus on why your marketing organization is doing what it is doing, rather than the details of what it is doing and how.
Although you will discuss tactical activities such as advertising and breakeven point, strive to communicate a high-level strategic perspective with your writing. To help gain that perspective in the context of marketing, be sure to watch the Week 2: PlayPosit, which discusses strategic leadership using marketing examples that have turned into goods, services, and ideas that are still in market today. As you watch the PlayPosit, focus on the question posed: Why does a product exist?
Begin by selecting a product and company to use as an example throughout the brief. By using one product and company, the research, organization, and presentation of your recommendations will be easier. Your product and company can be imaginary, or a business you would be interested in starting, or an existing product and company that are in market today. The product can be B2C or B2B, and the company can be any organizational structure. The product and company are not important, because they will merely serve as examples. That is to say, you’ll include the what and the how, but you’ll focus your writing about the why.
Guidelines
Use the following guidelines to plan and conduct your work.
Reference your textbook and conduct research using at least three additional authoritative sources from the DeVry LibraryLinks to an external site..
All work must be formatted in accordance with 7th Edition guidelines, and each draft must include a cover page and references page.
Drafts
Drafts are due at the end of Weeks 2, 4, 6 and 8.
Use Microsoft Word for all project draft submissions. Microsoft Word is available through the online student store, and free training is available at your convenience through the DeVry Library’s Ask A LibrarianLinks to an external site. service.
Each section should be about one page in length, so each draft should be about two pages in length.
For the final draft, resubmit all prior drafts of the project to submit all sections together in one comprehensive paper. The final draft, including all eight sections, should be no more than 10 pages in length.
Presentation
Presentation is due at the end of Week 8.
Use Microsoft PowerPoint for the presentation submission. PowerPoint is available through the online student store, and free training is available at your convenience through the DeVry Library’s Ask A LibrarianLinks to an external site. service.
The presentation should be 10 slides in length and include a cover slide, one summary slide for each of the eight paper sections, and one references slide.
Outlines
Follow the prompts in the Outlines below to write a paper and create a summary presentation that discusses the following topics for your product and company. Note that you do not need to answer the question prompts in the Outlines below verbatim. The prompts are intended to serve as a guide for the types of information you should include for each respective section.
Draft 1
Marketing Environment
Buyer Behavior
Draft 2
Insights and Segmentation
Product Strategy
Draft 3
Pricing Strategy
Distribution Strategy
Final Draft*
Promotional Strategy
Ethical Implications
*For your Final Draft, please resubmit the prior sections from Drafts 1, 2 and 3 to submit a comprehensive paper containing all eight sections.
Draft Outlines
Week Due Sections Description
Week 2: Draft 1 Marketing Environment
Analyze the dynamics of the marketing environment for your company’s product.
Summarize the marketing mix for your company’s product and explain which market orientation (or combination thereof) you will adopt in setting product strategy.
Who is the most influential actor in the microenvironment for your company’s product and why?
What is the most influential force in the macroenvironment for your company’s product and why?
Buyer Behavior
Determine the purchase decision process for the buyer of your company’s product.
What is the purchase process for your company’s product? Is it B2C or B2B? What stages of the buying process are most critical for the buyers of your product and why?
What are the strongest buying influences on the purchasers of your company’s product, and how can you use an understanding of those influences on your buyers to a strategic advantage?
Where does your company’s product fall on the diffusion of innovation curve, and what are the strategic implications of this on the marketing of your company’s product?
