Major Assignment (60%)

Marketing Plan
Marketing Plan Assignment
• You are required to develop a marketing plan for a company of your
choice/whom you work for or for any organisation with whom you are familiar

• The marketing plan MUST include the following key elements:

• Executive Summary
• Introduction and objectives
• Current situation analysis
• Marketing strategies
• Sales forecast
• Action plan
• Financial requirements
Marketing Planning Steps
• Situation analysis – where are we now? Macro and Micro e.g. SWOT analysis, competitive
analysis, market analysis, supply chain, PEST analysis
• Marketing objectives – where do we want to be? e.g increase our market share of products
A & C, increase our NPS score to 85%, improve ‘Brand Health’ performance YoY, reposition
our brand/product as ‘Best in Class’ in 12 months, X number of product launches
• Marketing strategy – how are we going to get there? e.g. markets to be targeted, CA to be
used, product positioning, X number of product launches/range extensions
• Action programmes – how exactly are we going to get there? e.g. a marketing mix for each
target segment, who is responsible and resources allocated
• Financial projections – is it worthwhile? E.g. revenue projections, financial breakeven etc.
with supporting marketing documentation
• Controls – are we on track/are we there yet? i.e. performance metrics/KPIs
Marketing Planning
Contents of a Marketing
Plan
1. Executive summary

2. Organisational objectives

3. Market analysis of the current situation

4. SWOT analysis – identification of market opportunities

5. Marketing objectives

6. Marketing strategies to be adopted to achieve objectives

7. Marketing budget – allocation

8. Action programmes to implement the plan

9. Organisation and implementation

10. Monitoring and control

The Assignment – The Marketing Plan
• Due Friday 23rd April
• Worth 60% of Marks available for this module.
• Look up samples online but make it your own.
• It should be 20-25 pages or approx 5000 words.
• It must be typed – 1.5 spacing, font 11.
• A title page is required – Name, student no, subject, lecturer, date of submission and
state it is a Marketing Plan and who it is for.
• It can be done for 1 year or 3 years – whatever your preference
• The Plan can be submitted via Moodle on or before 23rd April
• Give titles and sources to any charts/tables/diagrams used
• Reference correctly
Layout
• Title Page
• Executive Summary (15 marks) Last thing you include – first thing I read.
Summary of the entire document.
• Table of contents
• Introduction and objectives (background to the idea/business and overall aim
and objectives or primary and secondary objectives or list of objectives for the
Marketing Plan (essentially each section to be covered in the plan) (5 marks)
• Current situation analysis or SWOT analysis (10 marks)
• Market analysis – Description of market/industry, competitor analysis, size of
the market, any research findings (10 marks)
Layout
• Marketing Strategies – include marketing objectives. Identify your customer
personas and how they will be reached. Discuss your pricing, distribution,
marketing communication, product and service strategies here. (20 marks)
• Refer to potential sales (5 marks)
• Have an action plan – Month by month, week by week of the activities that
are going to be carried out and by whom or by product or marketing
channel (20 marks)
• What is the financial requirement for the plan? (5 marks)
• Controls (5 marks)
• Appendix (5 marks) – Sample marketing materials etc.
• 60% - Marked out of 100
Heading Marks
Executive summary 15
Introduction & Objectives 5

Current Situation (SWOT) 10

Market Analysis 10
Marketing Strategies 20

Potential Sales 5
Action Plan 20
Financial requirement 5

Controls 5
Appendix 5
Marketing Plan Assignment
• Know what you are getting your marks for
• Whatever template you use make sure that you are covering the
requirements for the marks
• Use your discretion with regard to the identification of real people
• Use pictures/visuals
• Reference correctly – including, tables, charts and photographs and
insert titles where appropriate
Marketing Plan Assignment
• The section with the most marks is the action plan and marketing
strategies. A big part of that is the marketing communications
methods you use. (20 marks each).
• The executive summary is next in order of marks (15 marks).
Marketing Plan Assignment
• The Executive summary
• Immediately after the title page
• If you put it in the wrong place you lose the 15 marks
• It is the last thing you do and the first thing I read
• It is a summary of the entire document and not a document of intent. (It is
written in the present tense)
• It refers to everything in the table of contents – states the facts.
• Keep to under two pages
Marketing Plan Assignment
• Tell the story of the idea and the brand in your
introduction/background section.

• Have an overall aim and objective – which is the creation of a

marketing plan for…
• List out the objectives that the plan reaches – usually what is in the
table of contents
• Make sure all the objectives are met in the report
Marketing Plan Assignment
• What is the current situation with regard your product/service idea?
• Can you include a SWOT analysis on it?
• Describe the market – don’t forget to list your competitors and what
you know about them.
• Have a rough idea of what the cost of the marketing will be.
Don’t forget
• You can use your articles.
• Imagine you are giving it to a funding agency looking for money what
will they want to know?
• Remember your personas, your USP, the benefits of what you are
offering and the industry characteristics.
• Plagiarism will result in the loss of the entire 60% available for this
assignment. This must be your own work.
• The document is a formal business report and should be written as
such. This means – no personal pronouns. Write in the third person
• No to ….. I think; we know; our business; my view….etc.